|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
BNE: Infrastructure planning
From the Brisbane Institute web site:
http://www.brisinst.org.au/resources...transport.html while much is being done in and around Brisbane to improve accessibility via the car and public transport, John Nightingale asks what has happened to plans to provide better infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists. Amongst the many infrastructure projects that are being rushed into existence in South East Queensland are a number that converge on that small area between the Brisbane River at Dutton Park Cemetery and the South East Freeway. These include the North South Bypass Tunnel, the Green Bridge, the Boggo Road Busway, Stages 1 and 2, and the Boggo Road Urban Village. The goal of all these projects is the improvement of urban amenity and the development of transport oriented centres to reduce congestion strains on the current road system, as well as greenhouse gas emissions. The Tunnel is supposed to reduce congestion on surface roads between Wooloongabba and Bowen Hills. The Green Bridge should reduce the burden of university bound traffic on the Riverside Expressway, Coronation Drive and Sir Fred Schonell Drive. The Boggo Road Busway should improve access to the Green Bridge, reducing pressure on Cornwall Street and Annerley Road, and raise patronage on routes to the university with reduced travel times, thereby increasing alternative traffic usage. Stage 1 of the Boggo Road Busway will allow bus access from the South East Busway at O'Keefe Street to Annerley Road, with stations at PA Hospital and Park Road Railway Station. Stage 2 will remove buses from Annerley Road, allowing bus-only routes to connect to the Green Bridge. Boggo Road Urban Village will provide jobs and upmarket flats for hundreds of new workers and residents, convenient to bus and train services. But what is being done for those who do not need either bus or train to complete their journeys to and from the University, PA Hospital, the Urban Village and destinations north, east, west and south of this area? The Green Bridge has dedicated pedestrian and cycle paths, one on each side of the busway, designed to attract pedestrians and cyclists and reduce pressure on motorised traffic on arterial and local roads both on the Dutton Park side of the river and in St Lucia. But the great divide created by Queensland Rail's land and rail lines ensures that without the creation of dedicated routes pedestrians and cyclists will have to go right around this divide, via the Annerley Road bridge over the railway to the south, or via a messy route through industrial and residential streets to the north of the railway as it goes from Park Road Station to Buranda Station. The cyclist approaching this precinct from the east will have to make some choices as O'Keefe Street runs from under the Freeway to Ipswich Road. North or south? Which hills? Which busy or narrow streets? The pedestrian wishing to get from west of the railway easement to Buranda shopping centre or PA Hospital will similarly have to take a long walk around, one way or the other. The Urban Village, with all its new workers and residents, will find itself cut off from the bulk of services offered by Buranda and Stones Corner, and will be confined to Annerley Road as access to nearby shopping. Now, long after the Busway plan has been made, tenders let and work begun, a small team from Queensland Transport has been assembled to deal with pedestrian and cycle access. Strange, indeed, that two busway stations, one linked to Park Road Railway Station, have been planned without much thought to how patrons might make their way from these stations to anywhere but their most immediate environment. Only now that those plans are virtually set in concrete is some consideration being given. And how is this consideration being given: a committee of remote senior public servants has been formed to act for stakeholders. There are representatives of Queensland Transport, the Department of Main Roads, Queensland Health and PA Hospital, Education Queensland (supposedly representing the interests of the Dutton Park State School community), Queensland Rail, the Department of Public Works, a couple of consultants and the Brisbane City Council. The one non-bureaucrat (or their consultants) to be invited was the Manager of the Queensland peak body which represents the State's (non-sporting) cyclists, Bicycle Queensland, to articulate the needs of local cyclists. No one represented pedestrians or the local community; no one represented local business people from Buranda or Annerley Road shops and offices, no university students or staff. In other words, the planning was being done from the top down by 'stakeholders' whose interest in the project was bureaucratic rather than from their involvement in the local community of would-be users. The bureaucratic structures within which this planning takes place is not designed for genuine integration of transport modes, nor is it designed to fulfil the goals for promotion of active transport in Queensland and Brisbane - the utterly impossible goal in the Council's 2005 Transport Plan of 15 per cent of all trips to be walking and 8 per cent by cycle by 2016 being one. Busway planners are required to focus only on the buses, and to some extent on getting people to the busway stations. Treasury guidelines prevent release of any funds allocated for Busways for 'non-Busway' related planning, construction or facilities, even where proposed in conjunction with a Busway. They are not to be allowed to plan footpaths or cycleways alongside the busway, as was originally planned, but never built, for the South East Busway. Further evidence of the reality behind the rhetoric of active transport can be seen in the treatment that bicycle facilities and infrastructure has been given even in the past year: 1. The almost two year 'temporary' diversion on the Bicentenial Bikeway caused by work on Brisbane's sewers; 2. The inordinate delay in completing the missing link of the Western Freeway bikeway; 3. The almost non-existent access to the CBD from the northside, save the wide swing past the Victoria Park golf course and the ICB and in through the Roma Street Parklands (whereupon one again meets heavy traffic); and 4. The long wait for a safe route from the city through the Normanby Fiveways. This is not to forget the lost opportunity of the never-to-be-built South East Busway cycleway, a vastly superior conception by comparison with the inconveniently hilly and indirect South East Freeway Bikeway, patched together over the past 15 years. When it comes to provision of facilities for cyclists and pedestrians for secure storage of bicycles and shower/changing after a hot walk, run or ride, neither private landlords, building managers nor city council ordinances give much support. While buildings have to provide car parks, thus intensifying the inflow of commuter and shopper traffic to the CBD and other important employment nodes close by (such as the Universities and hospitals), there is little compulsion or inspection to enforce what little cycle parking is imposed by regulations (which is the reason the facilities in the new Queens Plaza in Queen St Mall are carefully hidden and thus not used, and the use of the showers demanded by Council regulation restricted to those 'lucky' enough to have a security pass). Despite all the wonderful Ministerial and Lord Mayoral words over the past decade, no matter which Minister or Lord Mayor, regardless of party, is in power, nothing has really changed since Wilbur Smith's Riverside Expressway was built in the 1960s. The only major project by the Brisbane City Council is Trans Apex, throwing billions of good money after bad, yet again. The car remains dominant, and any public transport has to compete for custom with bikes and walking. But it is public transport that gets the lion's share of the money not allocated to cars. All we can conclude is that the plans and goals of government and councils are simply empty rhetoric - meaningless gestures toward politically correct goals, no more significant than the lovely photographs of families cycling in advertisements for master planned housing developments or the carefree shopper depicted in an advertisement for Queens Plaza. -- Karen Gallagher "Reverse the polarity and invert the particle flux!" "You mean put the batteries in the other way?" "...yes." -Star Trek (any of them) |
Ads |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
BNE: Infrastructure planning
Duracell Bunny wrote:
[Lots of good stuff snipped...] Despite all the wonderful Ministerial and Lord Mayoral words over the past decade, no matter which Minister or Lord Mayor, regardless of party, is in power, nothing has really changed since Wilbur Smith's Riverside Expressway was built in the 1960s. The only major project by the Brisbane City Council is Trans Apex, throwing billions of good money after bad, yet again. The car remains dominant, and any public transport has to compete for custom with bikes and walking. But it is public transport that gets the lion's share of the money not allocated to cars. Please allow a lurker to jump in on this point. The next step in the good money after bad TransApex horror show is the Hale Street Link. This is where it must stop. The huge backlash against this bridge has finally convinced the Labor "opposition" (who have a Council majority) to take notice and undertake to stop the bridge if a majority "no" submission is received to the Impact Assessment Statement (IAS). Submissions are due by Friday 13 Otober. A proforma and more information is available at http://www.stopthehalestreetbridge.org If anyone is interested, I can provide more information on the real effects the bridge is forecast to have. Oddly enough, the traffic forecasts in the IAS show the exact opposite of Campbell Newman's statements promoting the bridge. What Brisbane needs far more than a toll bridge for cars is more cycle and pedestrian river crossings. Several could be built at far less cost than the HSL. (A decent public transport system would help too.) If you live in Brisbane, get that submission in! Encourage everyone you know do so too! My apologies for butting in. Nice meeting you all. Dave |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
BNE: Infrastructure planning
Dave wrote: Duracell Bunny wrote: [Lots of good stuff snipped...] Despite all the wonderful Ministerial and Lord Mayoral words over the past decade, no matter which Minister or Lord Mayor, regardless of party, is in power, nothing has really changed since Wilbur Smith's Riverside Expressway was built in the 1960s. The only major project by the Brisbane City Council is Trans Apex, throwing billions of good money after bad, yet again. The car remains dominant, and any public transport has to compete for custom with bikes and walking. But it is public transport that gets the lion's share of the money not allocated to cars. Please allow a lurker to jump in on this point. The next step in the good money after bad TransApex horror show is the Hale Street Link. This is where it must stop. The huge backlash against this bridge has finally convinced the Labor "opposition" (who have a Council majority) to take notice and undertake to stop the bridge if a majority "no" submission is received to the Impact Assessment Statement (IAS). Submissions are due by Friday 13 Otober. A proforma and more information is available at http://www.stopthehalestreetbridge.org If anyone is interested, I can provide more information on the real effects the bridge is forecast to have. Oddly enough, the traffic forecasts in the IAS show the exact opposite of Campbell Newman's statements promoting the bridge. What Brisbane needs far more than a toll bridge for cars is more cycle and pedestrian river crossings. Several could be built at far less cost than the HSL. (A decent public transport system would help too.) If you live in Brisbane, get that submission in! Encourage everyone you know do so too! My apologies for butting in. Nice meeting you all. Dave Good call Dave. That's the same conclusion as reached by the CBD-BUG, which is preparing a submission. One of the weirdest things about the Hale St Link is it will undermine the Eleanor Schonell (Green) Bridge and give drivers an easier way to get to UQ, so they won't use the bus over the ESB. Another aspect of the HSL project is a complete lack of linkage to the northside, which has woeful links into the CBD. Get those subs in!! Donga |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Online relief maps - other route planning resources? | [email protected] | UK | 33 | December 24th 06 06:05 PM |
Bicycle is king of the road as gas costs rise | cfsmtb | Australia | 14 | May 9th 06 12:35 AM |
Planning A California Mission Trip | Richard B | Rides | 10 | February 3rd 06 05:26 PM |
Planning ride along part of Lewis & Clark and Transamerica routes | Jack Murphy | Rides | 0 | March 30th 05 06:08 AM |
Best Software for Planning Rides | Roger Zoul | General | 23 | April 24th 04 03:16 AM |