Sydney to ditch cars by 2056: report.

Planners envisage that by the middle of this century most Sydneysiders will be able to reach their place of work within 30 minutes using public transport or ‘‘active’’ options, such as walking or riding.

Sights such as this will be substantually lessened by
mid-this century if Sydney's plans come to fruition.

The NSW Government has released its Future Transport Strategy 2056 report, which suggests investment will increasingly be focused on ‘‘three cities’’ built around Western Sydney Airport, Greater Parramatta and the existing CBD.

‘‘Customers will be able to travel to one of these cities or to their nearest centre within 30 minutes of where they live by public or active transport,’’ the report states.

‘‘This will give people better access to access jobs, eduction and essential services.’’

The report suggests getting people out of their cars and using sustainable transport will reduce congestion and emissions and improve air quality and wellbeing.

‘‘Well-planned centres and cities will enable a shift from private cars to public transport and active transport modes, such as walking and cycling,’’ the strategy says.

‘‘In Sydney, the key to this will be the delivery of three 30-minute cities, supported by reliable ‘turn up and go’ mass transit services.’’

Active transport for short trips will be encouraged by providing safe and accessible footpaths with seating and shade.

There’ll also be better pedestrian crossings, lower traffic speeds, separated cycling paths and secure bicycle storage.

The report notes that by 2056 NSW will have more than 12 million residents.

Sydney will be a global city similar in size to London or New York.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian released the transport strategy yesterday alongside the State Infrastructure Strategy and the Greater Sydney Region Plan.

‘‘Now for the first time we have a co-ordinated vision for our state for the next 10, 20, 30 and 40 years,’’ Ms Berejiklian said.

‘‘It’s a plan that makes sure communities can expect to have jobs in their local area, shorter travel times and a better environment, which ensures lots of open and green spaces.’’

Transport Minister Andrew Constance said: ‘‘We want to improve public transport and roads so, that by 2056, 70 per cent of people live within 30 minutes of where they work or study.’’

Story from today’s Shepparton News - “Sydney to ditch cars by 2056: report.”

Car is top choice in Shepparton

Less than one per cent of Shepparton takes public transport to work.

Shepparton is one of three Victorian electorates with the lowest proportion of people using public transport.

The region ranks in the higher end for proportion of car users.

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics census 2016 data, just 0.6 per cent of Shepparton take public transport to work, compared to almost 77 per cent driving.

Traffic congestion is less of an issue in Shepparton than in metro areas with smaller commute times, while the variety of public transport options on offer is also fewer, according to stakeholders.

Urban designer Bruce Echberg, who has completed key projects in Shepparton, said the figures come as no surprise.

He said such a high reliance on cars meant significant amounts of land was taken up by roads and parking.

The reliance serves to spread the city out and compromise environmental outcomes, he said.

The ‘‘acres of car parks’’ in Shepparton, described by Mr Echberg as wasted land, could instead be redeveloped into housing.

Instead of boosting local public transport, he renewed calls to improve cycling infrastructure.

‘‘You have to give up some of the road space for safe bike infrastructure and probably discourage parking more,’’ he said.

‘‘Getting people off roads and on bikes is the solution.’’

Committee for Greater Shepparton chief Sam Birrell said the close proximity from home and work meant using a car remained the easy option for Sheppartonians.

But he said the main game was not to boost local public transport, but to improve rail connectivity to the city.

‘‘What I hear from the community isn’t (demand for) better public transport around Shepparton.’’

‘‘It’s better public transport from Shepparton to Melbourne.’’

Mr Birrell said the easy work commute constituted a major benefit of regional life

‘‘There’s certainly a lot of people out there in Shepparton, driving to work, driving around the countryside, listening to reports of the gridlock in Melbourne, and would be grateful not to be caught up in that.’’

State Member for Shepparton Suzanna Sheed said the figures served to reinforce the region’s reliance on the motor vehicle and the need for well-maintained local roads.

Ms Sheed supports a review of local public transport boundaries in Shepparton to ensure provision of service to outer areas was up to date.

Almost 5 per cent of Sheppartonians worked from home last year, according to the statistics.

Mr Birrell said with a proportion of people across Shepparton now connected to the NBN, he would have thought opportunities to work from home would have opened up.

In localised analysis of the 2011 Census data for Greater Shepparton by .id economics, about 77 per cent of people were found to take a car to work, while less than 1 per cent took public transport.

This compared with 71.6 per cent and 2.1 per cent respectively in regional Victoria.

Story in today’s Shepparton News by Thomas Moir - “Car is top choice.”

(Those who understand, argue that a successful public transport system must pass "where you are" at least every seven minutes and as that is unlikely in Shepparton then the advice of Bruce Echberg must be taken and particular effort made to make the city proper and it surrounding urban areas cycling friendly, in every sense. 

Beyond that, a special effort must also be made to show people that cycling to work or social events in this flat, weather friendly part of Australia, is both cheap and quick, and beyond that, the use of a bicycle instead of a car, plays a major role in helping Australia meet its international commitments of carbon dioxide emissions - Robert McLean)

Shepparton has spent the past year or so debating possible directions for the central business district’s future.

A reliance on cars has been assumed as a reality the city needs to stomach during most of these discussions, rather than a behaviour that may not be a mode of transport most compatible with future goals of the city.

Sure, like most regional cities, it is likely Shepparton will remain heavily dependent on cars for a while yet, in the absence of a comprehensive public transport network and adequate cycling infrastructure.

And while travelling across Greater Shepparton exclusively by bicycle may seem a way off yet, steps to boosting the viability of commuting from the city’s outskirts to places of business, education or leisure, should be thoroughly encouraged.

Shepparton’s climate, topography and size suggest it is ideal to better use bicycles as a legitimate mode of transport and cycling as a valuable activity for commuting.

But it may also prove an intuitive solution to several of the city’s other concerns.

It could provide an answer to a previously well documented lack of physical activity, take pressure off Shepparton’s roads and off the council’s parking network.

As such, Bruce Echberg’s suggestion for a key north/south cycling arterial is not just a aimed at those who already ride a bike, but something that could actively encourage others to do the same, for much broader benefits.

As recently identified, there’s still a way to go before a regular bicycle commute is taken seriously by most Sheppartonians.

A lack of safety, accessibility and infrastructure for everyday cycling transport were this year flagged as key barriers.

This is before factoring in the environmental positives, the reduced public health costs associated with cycling and reduced costs associated with running cars.

Exactly how realistic this specific idea will be remains to be seen.

Behavioural shifts will also likely be needed for the city to fully benefit from such ideas.

Nevertheless, such an arterial is a suggestion we would like to see taken seriously, alongside serious discussion about improving the viability of cycling across the city.

This editorial is from today’s Shepparton News - “Change our transport idea.”

Transport disadvantage

Shepparton’s reliance on driving may be hurting the city.

A Greater Shepparton City Council survey has found significant demand for more walking and cycling options, and more regular local and regional public transport.

Shepparton is a car-bound city.

‘‘Transport disadvantage’’ was identified as a concern in the city.

Councillors will tonight vote to note the contents of the Movement and Place Strategy Consultation Report and endorse the MAPS Vision and Direction Paper as the basis for the draft strategy.

About half of the 45 respondents to the Council’s MAPS survey identified walking as a primary mode of transport, while just 11 per cent identified cycling and only seven per cent identified using public transport.

Read Thomas Moir’s story on the Shepparton News - “Transport disadvantage.”

Dutch public trains now powered entirely by wind

Netherlands public transport trains to be
running entirely on wind power in 2017.

As of the beginning of 2017, all public transport trains in the Netherlands are being powered entirely by renewable energy sources, namely wind power.

Dutch railway company NS has announced all of its fleet of electric trains now run on 100 per cent renewable wind power.

In 2015, Dutch railway companies, of which NS is the largest, collaborated with energy company, Eneco, to reduce emissions.

Read the ClimateAction story - “Dutch public trains now powered entirely by wind.”

Don’t give up on the mall - letter from Bill Brown

Shepparton’s Bill Brown is sensitive to the causes of climate change and is conscious that there is no silver bullet solution.

The answer, he sees, is multi-faceted and among those things be believes need to be preserved as we attempt to mitigate climate change, are the public spaces in towns and cities, such as Shepparton’s Maude St Mall.

Present discussion appears to favour stepping away from the pedestrian aspect of the mall and again making it a thoroughfare for motor vehicles, albeit slow.

Bill is opposed to that idea and would rather see public transport enhanced in a way that ensured the future of what is now a pedestrian mall.

Read the letter in today’s Shepparton News from Bill Brown - “Don’t give up on the mall.”

Claiming back the pedestrians' rightful territory

(Here in Shepparton – my hometown in Victoria, Australia – traders want the city’s Maude St pedestrian mall re-opened to slow moving, privately owned vehicles, seemingly oblivious to the international emergence of shoppers on foot, a research illustrated preference, and along with that, coming is a shift to driverless, public transport. Lloyd Alter’s story about what is happening in America’s New York City illustrates that Sheppartonians need to think deeply before putting vehicles, particularly privately owned cars and motorcycles, back in the city’s mall – Robert McLean.)  

The spacious footpaths New York City
once had (bottom) and the almost
non-existent pedestrian refuges
people are now forced to share (top).
 

Riding a Citibike in New York City can be scary, especially in rush hour. I was in the city recently for a conference and dealing with the trucks and big black cars was hard enough, but the hardest part was riding down Seventh Ave and dealing with people walking in the street. It was clear that they were there because the sidewalks are just too crowded to cope.

Winnie Hu of the New York Times covered the subject recently, in New York's sidewalks are so packed, that pedestrians are taking to the streets.

The problem is particularly acute in Manhattan. Around Penn Station and the Port Authority Bus Terminal, two of the city’s main transit hubs, commuters clutching coffee cups and briefcases squeeze by one another during the morning and evening rushes. Throngs of shoppers and visitors sometimes bring swaths of Lower Manhattan to a standstill, prompting some local residents to cite clogged sidewalks as their biggest problem in a recent community survey.

Read the Treehugger story by Lloyd Alter - "It's time to take back the streets and to make our sidewalks grand again.”

Public transport does more than move people: it saves money, energy, space, and lives

Public transport does more than just move people about - it brings huge economic savings to the nation in that it avoids massive public expense on an energy-rich and space consuming dinosaur-like road infrastructure that benefits, primarily, private enterprise.

Of course, public transport is immeasurably safer than the anarchical-like behaviour common on our nation's roads and so not only does public transport save energy, space, and money, it also saves lives!

Read what the president of the Public Transport Users Association, Tony Morton, had to say in today’s Melbourne Age - “Our fragile transport systems will continue to break.”

Public transport an 'essential service' - Mehreen Faruqi

Mehreen Faruqi - public
transport is essential.

It should go without saying that public transport is an essential service for our community. Efficient, reliable and affordable public transport is fundamental to our quality of life, and the sustainable movement of people and freight is at the core of the relationship between society, environment and the economy.

Historically, government authorities have operated most mass public transport in Australian states and territories as a single provider, and as a bare minimum the government of the day is accountable to the public at elections.

Read Mehreen Faruqi’s opinion piece on The Guardian - “Public transport, private owners – the unexamined trajectory of privatisation.”

(Climate change will force us to re-think how we move about, how we personally move from place to place and how we physically move our goods.

The bright light roaring towards humanity is not simply the sun; it is more than that, for it is the ill-informed change to the privatization of our public transport system, a system that has always been about servicing the needs of the public, rather than the rude concept of making profit at the expense of the public.

The idea of privatizing what is public (a notion that presently has favour with governments of any stripe who measure their success via the economic paradigm) contradicts the urgency of the Paris agreement that calls on the world community to hold global warming at as little as 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a task that will be difficult, if not impossible, and particularly the latter if governments embrace the privatization of public services, and the pursuit of unbridled profit – Robert McLean.)

 

 

Shoulders droop as Victorian decision makers, again, misunderstand the future

by Robert McLean

C

ontradictory values abound and the emphasis on one ahead of the other makes my shoulders droop.

Two pages in today’s Melbourne Age don’t directly discuss the contradiction, but adjoining stories certainly highlight our confused thinking and illustrate that Victoria’s decision makers have little or no understanding what we should be doing to prepare ourselves for a decidedly different future.

One story is about the creation of just over 120km of highway from Ballarat to Stawell at the stated cost of $662.3 million and which an accompanying picture shows is carving its way through rural Victoria, forever scaring the countryside.

Worsening the physical damage is the fact that the builders, VicRoads will cut down nearly 1000 large old-growth trees, four times more than it originally predicted.

And so while Victorians are prepared to pay nearly $700 million on providing a facility that regardless of how you “cut and dice” the project, it is about public money being spent on a project that is inherently about servicing private enterprise.

The adjoining story tells readers that a State Government plan to give Melburnians a 12-month trial on all night public transport will cost $30 million more than the originally estimated $50 million.

That is for public transport and appears a piddling amount compared to the massive sums being spent on what is effectively a bonus for private enterprise.

Sustainability, however you interpret and apply this frequently misused term, doesn’t appear to get a look in.

More than a decade of listening and reading illustrates that the building of a major roadway clearly contradicts what it is we need to do to prepare Victoria for what will be a energy-poor future, certainly in terms of machines powered by fossil fuels.

Many would argue, and unquestionably with intellectual authority, commitment and force, that we will need the roads for the coming electric cars and they would point, for example to such vehicles as the Tesla.

The enthusiasm for such vehicles if misplaced for they are still “individual”, resource intensive and although powered by renewable energy, they do nought about resolving the present “space” difficulties faced by towns and cities throughout the world.

Beyond that these electric cars and still about individualism and status, the two human traits, encouraged by the present market-driven economy, and which are playing a key role in the worsening of global warming.

Read the story discussing the highway duplication – “Nine hundred giant native trees felled in VicRoads planning blunder” and the adjoining story about public transport costs – “$30m cost blowout in 24-hour weekend public transport trial to begin in January”.