Sydney's Eastern Suburbs SQUANDERED the Light Rail (Here's How to Fix It)
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- Опубліковано 16 вер 2023
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www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/s...
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Contact Randwick Council here: www.randwick.nsw.gov.au/about-us/council-and-councillors/contact-us
Have your say on Kensington and West Kingsford Traffic Management: www.yoursay.randwick.nsw.gov.au/kensingtonlatm
Subscribe to Randwick Council's Your Say so you hear about consultation on their Active Transport Strategy: www.yoursay.randwick.nsw.gov.au/activetransportstrategy
Great video! The light rail really has been squandered by Randwick Council. It’s so disappointing, I’ve seen the state of Kensington and Kingsford. So much needs to be done to make these areas more liveable and desirable. I’ll definitely be letting Randwick Council know my thoughts.
Thanks! I think they'll really value your feedback, especially since you study at UNSW now so you tick the live/work/study in the area box
And again the imagery from the council make it clear: Architectes use those 'feel good' images with every new project. But when it is built there is no room for walking, cycling, parading because the car has important things to do. Like parking and moving. Those left in the lurch: The people living there, the people who need to be there. Cars destroy cities.
I think no cars in George st is the best thing to happen to Sydney CBD in decades..it's so peaceful now compared to the rabble it was before and it has opened up the central station end of the CBD with Chinatown and Broadway area has got more lively.
Definitely. I'm such a big fan of it
Randwick Council needs to improve its act on Active Transport.
Great video. Reason so many people drive: light rail terminates where people don’t need to go - South’s Juniors at Kingsford.
Down the road there is Maroubra Jct, Maroubra Beach and one of Sydney’s largest shopping centres = Eastgardens. As well there are tens of thousands of chicken-coup style apartments being built at Eastgardens.
Yet no light rail although there is plenty of space for it. So people drive.
Providing people with real options provides people with real alternatives.
For sure. It would be great if the light rail extended from Randwick to Coogee Beach and from Juniors Kingsford to Maroubra Beach or La Perouse. I used to live right near the Eastgardens Westfield and I remember the busses being a bit rubbish.
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism haha, yes. Often late or didn’t turn up! Wait until all the apartments are built. It’ll get worse. I’ve noticed a significant increase in traffic lately around Eastgardens yet no infrastructure! I thought building highrise makes government build infrastructure. Obviously I’m incorrect.
@@josephj6521 Yeah the extra housing supply, affordability and liveliness that higher density brings is so important but it needs to come with high capacity transport options i.e. not cars
NO WAY!
To extend this tram (yes, this is not a light rail) to Maroubra Jnct, you would have to destroy all garden beds in the middle, remove all trees, close all parking (which, consequently will kill all small and big shops and restaurants in Maroubra Jnct).
This idea with tram - is RUBBISH from the very beginning. They should have run trolleybuses. This would save millions and millions of dollars: there is no need to lay the rail, no need to replan the roads. Just hang electrical contact wires - and you're done!
@@genala792 Or you could just replace a lane of car in each direction. Trolley busses can be okay but light rail has 9x the capacity, its own right of way, and is far more energy efficient. In most areas, especially in Sydney, the vast majority of customers don't drive to businesses and park right out the front. Yes the construction is bad for businesses in the short term, but in the long term the lower levels of noise and pollution and the higher capacity of the roads are fantastic for businesses
They should force these so-called city planners to try and cross these roads on foot in a reasonable amount of time. It doesn't help having any amount of light rail if you can't walk anywhere once you get off.
I used to use it everyday to go to uni. It was so good
Great video! As someone who sometimes bikes to Kensington/Randwick through Surry Hills, I hate riding down Anzac Pde from Moore Park! And then once you reach Anzac Pde around Kensington, it's so dull and lacking in cycling paths. Really puts me off cycling!
Yeah definitely. At least the Doncaster Avenue cycleway will be opening parallel to part of Anzac Parade soon!
The eastern suburbs light rail is a massive stuff up! I hope we can fix the stroads nearby soon though, its a transit disgrace.
This is so good - keep it coming and share widely!
don't worry, we squandered ours as well. have fun crossing six lanes of traffic!
What do you mean, crossing six lanes of traffic is my favourite pastime
Hey Chris, have you got any videos in the pipeline about Oxford St or Victoria Road. Your clear explanations of the reasons for and benefits of reallocating road space away from cars - and those great visualisations - would be so helpful for people struggling to get behind change. These two road corridors are hot topics right now! Bicycle NSW would love to chat more.
Hi Sarah! My next video is actually going to be on Victoria Road, it should be out in the next couple of weeks! I've been strongly considering an Oxford Street video, too
Good seeing you at the voting booths today!
It was great seeing you too!
Great stuff keep it up
It’s great - I catch it from the Quay to Haymarket, change to the L1.
Yeah I love catching it too, it's fantastic to ride!
Can they not stick more mature trees in so that you don't have to wait 15 years for some new shade? Also if they constantly watered the trees automatically in Sydney they could grow like feck as there is loads of sunlight.
Once a tree gets to be a certain age it gets really tricky to transplant it. A tree's roots are almost as big as its canopy. But they could totally prioritise faster growing trees, especially trees that are endemic to the area that love Sydney conditions
It's almost like changing cities to be friendlier to people (and very quiet & cheap EV mass transit) than to cars helps make them more pleasant places to live
Indeed! Who'd've thunk it
Probably the worst offender for pedestrian crossings is the Kingsford stop on Anzac Parade near Meeks street. That stop only has a pedestrian crossing at one end of the platform - what ends up happening is that people who get off at the drivers end of the tram just wait for it to leave then drop down onto the tram tracks and run across the street in front of traffic. Obvious candidate for just extending the pathway south a bit and making a new crossing there.
As for the Anzac parade/Alison road intersection - the difficulty with that one is that it carries about 90% of traffic going to the south eastern suburbs. Seriously, look at a map - if there's an accident on that intersection, almost the entire south eastern suburbs is cut off from the city.
Excellent points. I think for Anzac Parade and Alison Road the way to go is bit by bit remove lanes and add new crossings and tram/bike/pedestrian priority at lights to reduce reliance on cars in the area
What the planers don't seem to want to acknowledge is until the L2 and L3 are extended further to the original terminii in Coogee and La Perouse (or at least past Maroubra shops to Heffron Park and South Sydney High School), people from Matraville, Malabar, Maroubra, Eastgardens, South Coogee, Coogee, are still going to keep heading in their cars piling onto the roads towards the city (and people from elsewhere in the city heading to beachside suburbs for work, play and visiting friends) as interchange to buses is still too inconvenient, slow and unattractive. It's actually pretty simple, and the stupidest part is there is billion$ of good land ripe for higher density housing and nice family transit-oriented development if they extended the LR, which would be cheap quick and easy (just replacing the reservations for L3 along ANZAC Pde where trams used to run, and along backstreets to Coogee where the old lines ran too). Any possible Metro extensions are minimum a decade away and will cost billion$ that you will struggle to justify, not that I don't want to see a better cross country rail/Metro line linking these areas with the rest of the network without having to go into the city).
100%, this is so important. I genuinely wonder how much land value capture would pay for extensions - maybe not so much in Coogee since the density is already decent but certainly around Maroubra. As someone who lives right near it, I would love to be able to catch the light rail to a beach (especially with this weather haha)
The loss of the 400 bus (Burwood-Mascot-Eastgardens-POW hospital - Randwick-Bondi Junction) has been a disaster for people of what was Botany Council. There is no longer a single bus ride to POW hospital. All good reasons to kick out State and Local Govt politicians and replace them with better contenders.
@@leo1933 Another good reason to kick out the big parties. We need Community Independents in both Local and State Government to stop this stupid rotten privatisation of social taxpayer-funded public transport infrastructure. Never ever voting Coalition or Labor again.
fantastic
Yesss 👏🏼👏🏼🔥🔥
My mum has the same tea towel!
I’m a big fan of roads being bridges bypassing places, makes shade under the bypass and could create the pedestrian only space below it. Then you have on ramps and off ramps. I like this model in cities but also through national parks. It allows ppl and kangaroos and koalas to walk / hop under the bypass. And the bypass can eliminate traffic lights.
Raised highways can work great outside cities but they're not great inside cities in my opinion. The on- and off-ramps take up heaps of space and the highways pollute the city beneath them. Elevated rail can certainly serve a similar purpose in city centres though!
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism picture the m1 as it approaches Brisbane. It is elevated with the quiet streets going under it. The quiet areas close to the city remain quiet and not a thoroughfare. It’s very peaceful. I certainly think that military road in Mosman could use an elevated highway bridge. So many use it to get to the northern beaches, they don’t need to be going through Mosman. Similarly I don’t think everyone that goes through Randwick needs to be in Randwick, they are using it to get somewhere further out? When I lived in little bay I had to go through there to get to the city. But if there was a tunnel or something I would pay to use that to save time and get there fast. Perhaps tunnels are optimal, I do prefer bridges as they don’t interfere with gps and are quicker to build.
Since it’s now Spring, I must get to Sydney to visit Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park to see the wildflowers. And to ride the light rail. And to catch a ferry to Luna Park.
Definitely!
This is not uncommon in tramways outside city centres though, including in Europe. There are some pretty big ass stroads along legacy tram lines in suburban Melbourne, Berlin, Prague, Warsaw, Amsterdam (shock horror I know, check out the 25 or 26), you name it they all have it to some degree. Even all the new tram systems in France (which L2/L3 heavily borrowed from) is stroady like this.
Doesn't mean we shouldn't try to improve! And a lot of these tramlines don't seem to have 2+ lanes in each direction for cars like Anzac Parade. Besides, Kensington and Randwick are only around 5km from central
The essential problem is the increasing urbanisation of Australia. For example, all the Medical Specialists live in wealthy suburbs of Sydney, because only they can afford their fees. As a result nearly all the teaching Hospitals of NSW are in Sydney. As a result, everyone wants to live in Sydney. This is the cause of the housing and traffic problems, and of the poor state of health services in rural NSW. Sydney was liveable when it’s population was about 2 million. It is currently unliveable with what, nearly 5 million people? Rural voters need to form a truly representative new political party (NOT THE “NATIONALS”) to fight in Parliament for their rural interests. People would migrate from Sydney then.
Decentralising services and jobs into rural NSW is definitely important. I think a big part of that is, as well as more investment into infrastructure like hospitals, investing in regional rail again, since NSW's hasn't improved significantly since the 1930s. That would make the regions accessible to a much larger population - I know good rail services was one of the reasons I chose to move to Bathurst. The regions also suffer from a lack of housing diversity, a lot of small towns gutted their town centre to provide parking for suburbanites, and the 3-4 bedroom freestanding houses in the suburbs being the majority of what is offered which isn't going to attract a wide range of demographics.
Ultimately, though, Sydney could still support its currently population with better infrastructure. A shift towards walkable, bikeable infrastructure and public transport could move people more efficiently, and more dense, mixed-use development could help stop sprawl and bring jobs closer to where people live
7:23 What a banging photoshop job. And a great way to illustrate what you're talking about.
Thanks! I was so excited when my friend showed me the generative fill feature on Photoshop haha
Yeah it IS good. I slowed down playback speed to 0.25 and paused it halfway through the transition. Very interesting.
Councils have limited control over the car lanes. Most of the roads are State Roads and under the control of the car centric TfNSW.
That's true but City of Sydney managed to get George Street pedestrianised. Anzac Parade isn't a state road as far as I know
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism I went through this experience in Newcastle where TfNSW did not share council’s priorities. They reclassify the roads as “transitways” which give them full control.
Monaro St Queanbeyan is similar. Rather than diverting the Highway to the north of the town into the ACT (and destroying 'amenity' of acreages) the main shopping street is also the Highway.
Love the content, annoyed by the light switch.
Thanks! You can buy me a studio if you want haha
must be lost in a big couch cushion those crossings
Why the hell are there two pedestrian bridges on the northern part of Anzac Parade, near Sydney Boys and Sydney Girls high schools, yet down at the Alison Road fork near Centennial Park, which is a destination for many many pedestrians and cyclists, there's not even a proper pedestrian/cyclist traffic light crossing, let alone a bridge? It doesn't seem too hard to put a proper pedestrian bridge on that part of the road, even if cyclists may need to use a lift to access the bridge level (not enough space for a long ramp)
Ahh yes, the ever controversial Albert Cotter Bridge. My understanding is that it was basically built for crowds leaving the SCG during the 2015 Cricket World Cup, although I don't think it really connects anything important. The more sensible southern bridge is for high school students to get to the light rail. Unfortunately the Alison Road intersection doesn't have as influential neighbours but you're right, it needs better crossing facilities for pedestrians.
Hey I have that same map of the bicycle routes. Although I think it needs an update
Nice! I just recently got a new one in the mail with a bunch of the more recent cycleways added 👀
1:35 Fun fact: The ‘s’ in Grosvenor is silent
Now I know! Thanks
Is the Council responsible for traffic management and roads? I thought that was the state?
It's a collaboration. The light rail was a state government project but it was City of Sydney council who initially pushed them to build it. They had the plans to build it down George Street and pedestrianise the street around it. Randwick Council had a chance to respond to the light rail and decided to mostly focus on lost recovering parking instead of improving pedestrian amenity, but the state government definitely had their part in it, too. Basically, local roads = council, state roads (yellow on google maps) = state, but council and state can and often do influence each other's roads and work together/against each other.
we’re in too deep. should’ve extended the branches further
For sure. Not too late to make the most of what we have, though
Agree.
What the hell is a stroad? I've googled it but that only gives American definitions. I can't see from the pictures you have and that google provides what a stroad is exactly. Can you enlighten me please?
A stroad is a portmanteau of street and road. In this context a street refers to a place for people to exist and build wealth (Chatswood Mall, George Street, etc.), and a road refers to a place for people to move through on their way to other places (Hume Highway, M1, M2). A stroad is a place that tries to do both at once and therefore fails at both. Some of the worst examples in Sydney are places like Parramatta Road, where there is a lot of congestion partially due to the complexity of the road environment, and where businesses and residences are negatively impacted by all the traffic. A guy called Chuck Marohn coined the term and has written about it in his books Strong Towns and Confessions of a Recovering Engineer. Hope that helps!
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism Thank you. But you say pretty much the same thing Uncle Google told me Im' not going to read a book just to find out what the word "Stroad" means - i doubt there's a large print version available anyway. ( I have been waiting 2 years to get my cataracts operation and have marginal eyesight in the mean time) So is it the meian strip that makes it a stroad? The volume of traffic? TBH the images associated with Google's attempt at defining it for me dont clearly distinguish a Stroad from a Street or a Road in Austrlaia. So I'm still not much the wiser.
@@afpwebworks It's basically the high volume of traffic (usually 2+ lanes in each direction, often high speeds like 60km/h as well) mixed with shops and residences and access from side streets. Stroads exist on a spectrum and can be difficult to define but ultimately it comes down to a conflict of movement vs place.
State government prorotising the inner suburbs still. Will they never change ?
One can hope. I would classify Randwick as an inner suburb thought, and you have to give credit to the City of Sydney council - they were pushing for the light rail project, including pedestrianisation, since 2007. When Randwick Council got a chance to respond to the light rail's construction, the best they could come up with was a "parking recovery plan"
Interesting proposals, but as with all environmentalists, you make the same mistake of presuming that people, nay Eastern Suburbs people, will want to ride bicycles and trams into the city, and these changes wont force them to. They'll just sit in the congestion and listen to their true crime podcasts.
There are already a decent amount of people riding bikes in the Eastern Suburbs - the Anzac Parade shared path can get busy and lots of people have started using Doncaster Avenue in anticipation of the cycleway opening, and even without separated cycleways, Oxford Street is one of the busiest roads for cycling. A bit under half of everyone in NSW (higher in Greater Sydney) is "interested but concerned" about cycling for transport, which means that they would like to cycle but are worried about safety. The patronage of the tram is also super high.
That's not how you say Grosvenor
I've been informed :(
Ah yes what a brilliant idea the council should have shrunk Anzac Parade the arterial road increasing congestion and pushing traffic into nearby suburban streets.
Randwick isn't the CBD decent people live there, they shouldn't have their streets clogged with all kinds of traffic just because you want a few trendy spots along the tram route.
That's why you put modal filters around local streets. Arterial roads with lots of lanes cause people to drive instead of taking better forms of transport, which leads to more cars on the roads in general, which leads to more cars on local roads. I'm also aware that decent people live in Randwick, I'm one of them. Decent people live in the CBD, too.
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism Modal filters are designed to redirect traffic out of local streets and onto Arterials like Anzac Parade, for modals to work you need a street to filter them onto and you need it to flow.
This just sounds like you think you can frustrate Sydneysiders into not driving, which completely ignores the culture in this city. It will just make more of the population hostile to traffic calming measures and pedestrianisation in areas that makes sense (like up in bondi junctions shopping district) and less supportive of major public transport investment. Destroying an arterial is not going to magically make people get rid of there cars, it'll just increase road rage and maniacs speeding in school zones.
Additionally the very idea Arterial roads cause more people to drive is an oversimplification of complex social economic and cultural factors. It's just as myopic as people who thinks "one more lane" can solve congestion.
@@louiscypher4186 More roads plus lack of safe and viable alternatives cause more people to drive. There is nothing complex about that. Driving is the most space inefficient, unsafe, unhealthy way ever devised of moving people in a city. Still for some trips and some people it is the best alternative. So keep some lanes for them. But absolutely first priority should be ensuring safe spaces for riders, for pedestrians, road priority for public transport. Not to do that in avoid to avoid enraging drivers for whom we have spend 60 years destroying homes, buildings, cultural life, lopped trees, narrowed footpaths and lost pedestrian crossings, normalised dozens of serious injuries on a daily basis...is a cultural change that we have to make.
and in a bizarre twist, because all the alternatives are infinitely more space efficient, this will benefit those who must drive by taking cars away. As it is said...if you design a city solely for cars it fails everyone, including drivers.
@@louiscypher4186 It's not do much frustrating people into not driving, it's removing the incentives in place that cause people to drive over choosing better forms of transport that are currently negatively impacted by too much car infrastructure e.g. pedestrians being frustrated by long traffic light cycles, missing crossings, more traffic lanes than needed.
Currently, Anzac Parade's design is incredibly biased towards cars despite it having a tram with capacity for 450 passengers, which the car lanes could never accommodate without serious congestion. To me it seems like they're already "destroying the arterial" by hampering tram use for the sake of drivers. There is not an unchangeable "culture" of driving, people mostly tend to use whatever infrastructure is easiest and most sensible for them, which is informed a lot by design.