Failed and now discarded Victorian cycling strategy
I've always been a crazy cat man who sends letters to the editor and his local parliamentary representitatives. Except that I have no cat. Anyway, a shortened version of this letter was published in The Age today.
Dear Sir/Madam (CCed my State local member, and The Age letters),
The auditor general's report into the Victorian government cycling strategy said "the Department of Transport and VicRoads had not ... addressed conflicts and delays where cyclists crossed busy roads, and where cyclists and pedestrians shared paths." ("No way to spin it, the wheels are off", The Age, Aug 18). It's not just busy crossings that cause unnecessary delays to people not in the precious car.
A trip along Southbank is usually hampered by 2 traffic light controlled crossings where up to 100 pedestrians and riders are waiting at the lights with an average waiting time of around 5 minutes between them. That's 10 minutes per return trip wasted. We wait for just an occasional car (each with just one person in them) and empty tram to pass. The cars are frequent enough to make running ("jaywalking") across the road a little unsafe, but not frequent enough that the road is anywhere near capacity and that adding more frequent red lights for the car traffic is going to harm the flow into and out of the city at all. And it will help the 100 waiting pedestrians.
In the land where cycling is taken seriously, Holland, they want cyclists to have to wait no more than 15 seconds. And they're experimenting with microwave sensors to extend the green cycle to let cyclists cross safely. Here, the Southbank story is repeated across the city. Outside Swinburne University, a pedestrian light regularly sees several dozens of students wait several minutes at lunchtime to cross while a small handful of cars (each with just one person in them) cross just frequently enough to make a quick dash across the road down from the lights, impossible. The vehicle sensor loops at Camberwell Junction have, for years, been tuned to not even be sensitive enough to detect cyclists, so you can wait at 11pm for 2 cycles of the lights to completely bypass turning green on the road you're travelling on, while no cars cross the other legs of the junction at all before you give up and cross illegally (completely safely, because there's no traffic at all at that time of night and you can see for miles).
Given that you can't continue to keep encouraging people to get in their cars because it's been conclusively proven over the last 40 years that you can't build your way out of car congestion, perhaps it time to promote other forms of travel?
Dear Sir/Madam (CCed my State local member, and The Age letters),
The auditor general's report into the Victorian government cycling strategy said "the Department of Transport and VicRoads had not ... addressed conflicts and delays where cyclists crossed busy roads, and where cyclists and pedestrians shared paths." ("No way to spin it, the wheels are off", The Age, Aug 18). It's not just busy crossings that cause unnecessary delays to people not in the precious car.
A trip along Southbank is usually hampered by 2 traffic light controlled crossings where up to 100 pedestrians and riders are waiting at the lights with an average waiting time of around 5 minutes between them. That's 10 minutes per return trip wasted. We wait for just an occasional car (each with just one person in them) and empty tram to pass. The cars are frequent enough to make running ("jaywalking") across the road a little unsafe, but not frequent enough that the road is anywhere near capacity and that adding more frequent red lights for the car traffic is going to harm the flow into and out of the city at all. And it will help the 100 waiting pedestrians.
In the land where cycling is taken seriously, Holland, they want cyclists to have to wait no more than 15 seconds. And they're experimenting with microwave sensors to extend the green cycle to let cyclists cross safely. Here, the Southbank story is repeated across the city. Outside Swinburne University, a pedestrian light regularly sees several dozens of students wait several minutes at lunchtime to cross while a small handful of cars (each with just one person in them) cross just frequently enough to make a quick dash across the road down from the lights, impossible. The vehicle sensor loops at Camberwell Junction have, for years, been tuned to not even be sensitive enough to detect cyclists, so you can wait at 11pm for 2 cycles of the lights to completely bypass turning green on the road you're travelling on, while no cars cross the other legs of the junction at all before you give up and cross illegally (completely safely, because there's no traffic at all at that time of night and you can see for miles).
Given that you can't continue to keep encouraging people to get in their cars because it's been conclusively proven over the last 40 years that you can't build your way out of car congestion, perhaps it time to promote other forms of travel?