A word of caution when getting excited about active transport plans: the measure of their commitment to active transport is found in the budget, not the strategy. Lake Macquarie's active transport plan has been targeting a 10% mode share for cycling for 30 years without moving it by a single percentage point, because they never actually allocate the funding to build the stuff in the plan.
i think the randwick area has the most potential of a cycling revolution, given its proximity to major cycling destinations/junctions like the university, the city, moore park, centennial park, light rail, etc and the fact that there's generally less car traffic. I think if the plan actually goes ahead, and substantial investment is made, it could really, really work. 😃😃
100%! I've lived in Randwick on and off for three years or so and have found basically the only limit to cycling being my main form of transport how unsafe some of the roads are, the CBD and Redfern station are both super close by bike
Two videos a week apart?!?! We are truly blessed. Also the Cycleway along Wentworth avenue that abruptly stops at Pagewood needs to be extended to Westfield Eastgardens then onto Maroubra Beach. What I love about this channel is that you can make a video about a single local governments active transport plan and make it worth watching, keep up the good work. 👍👍👍
The next one will likely take a bit more than a week to make but hopefully not 3 months this time! I think the Wentworth Avenue cycleway has a lot to do with the road switching from City of Sydney to Bayside council near where the cycleway ends unfortunately, and I'm not sure how pro cycling infrastructure Bayside is
Yea Bayside aren't that that great at building bike infrastructure, and the few they have/ are building are on the Rockdale side and not the Botany side. that council amalgamation makes no sense. @@ChrisTopher_Urbanism
@@thomthebomb9497 Agreed. Rockdale has some great recreational paths like the Ramsgate Beach one that I used to use when I had an internship around there but Botany has basically nothing
Good on you for moving to Bathurst, if indeed you did, Chris. Whilst Bathurst is a very walkable city, except to get to the hospital, as you might be finding this weekend, when the races are on, it's a nightmare. Glad I moved near to Bathurst, well 50km out, but somewhere smaller :)
It didn't seem so bad in Feb during the Bathurst 500, but that is a smaller race - I'm out of town this weekend, perhaps luckily if there's a big race going on haha
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism it's the 8 hour this weekend, I usually avoid Bathurst on race weekends. Wait till Oct for the big one :) Maybe I'll see you around, I'll make sure to say hi if I do see you.
I really like quiet ways. Rather than using green surfaces though I think we should copy the Netherlands and add brown aggregate to quiet ways to differentiate them from bike lanes. That way when cars and cyclists see a brown surface they know it's 30, but that they're still allowed to access it. It should be much cheaper to maintain than a green surface too as the green surfacing tends to wear off.
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism Huh. I clearly haven’t ridden enough in Australia. Perhaps we should do brown / red for all our paths then? I found the pavers and bike paths in Amsterdam pretty grippy, but then I only rode in the dry.
Great video. Have you got any plans to release some content about your time spent in Bathurst? It’s where I grew up and it’ll be very fascinating to get a modern urbanists take on it considering it’s what I have always considered to be a car infested town that is quite hostile to cycling
Thanks! I haven't written any scripts yet but I've got a few ideas. I'm thinking of doing one about the great housing diversity (lots of terraces and above-shop apartments compared to similar towns) and about how greenfield suburban development is sending regional councils broke. I've joined a cycling advocacy group so I'll get a sense of what they're working on before making a cycling specific video I think!
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism funny you mention about councils going broke. They had to unfortunately cancel the NYE fireworks in Bathurst last year which I read was due to budget issues. I’m pretty they hadn’t missed a year since I was a kid. I’d love to see some increased density around regional cities like that.
Yeah definitely. It's a big problem all across at least NSW (Queanbeyan Palerang can't afford to build a shared path along the river, for example) and Bathurst Council also told me they couldn't afford to build a footpath on my street despite it being right near the train station and 60kmh
I should definitely make videos about some active transport plans in Western Sydney - I am less familiar with them, as the closest to Western Sydney I've lived is Epping, so it would take some extra research, but it would be well worth it
I am all for reducing car use. However, I recently went into an area to visit a business which I needed my car in order to purchase large goods. Due to bike lanes, there was no parking available anywhere near this venue. I sat and counted bikes for a while, in 1 hour - 1 bike rode past using a bike lane. I couldn't tell you how many cars drove round and round looking for parks. There are absolutely many benefits to reducing car reliance and promoting alternative transport, but not everyone utilising an area resides within it. Not everyone has the same physical capabilities. There needs to be a bit of give and take here. Promote car parks so people can actually use the public transport systems once they arrive.
On the contrary, creating more bike lanes means more people will use them, which means fewer people will be using cars, resulting in more spaces to park your car more easily. Creating MORE car parks will mean MORE people will drive their cars, and when those carparks are full, due to induced demand, what happens? Build more carparks?
No, car parking takes up a massive amount of space around cities already. The last thing you want to do is make driving easier/faster/more comfortable. I notice you have gone to great pains to avoid saying the location you are talking about so anyone can actually go and have a look at it for themselves, perhaps then we can have a more open discussion. Suffice to say that you can't blame people for not using bike lanes when most of the bike lanes only go for a few hundred meters and then dump you onto congested roads with >50kmh speed limits; how many cars would be on the roads if most roads just ended and had little to know viable connection?
Too much car parking spreads things out and reduces walkability while baking in car dependency. If parking is needed it should be up to the market to provide it (except for accessible parking of course). Parking can go in a garage, bike lanes can only go on the street, so it makes sense to move parking elsewhere rather than having it on important public space
It'll likely be paid for with council rates and state government grants and will be great bang for their buck since it'll mean people won't be putting potholes in the road, injuring each other and getting obese as much since there'll be less driving. It's also very easy to be productive while cycling and walking, often easier than while driving since both modes of transport are very space efficient
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism All good except it’s being done by force of government. Neither you, I or any interest group should be able to use the power of government to determine social outcomes; that’s fascism. Privatise all roads and transport. Let the green, safety and health conscious market fund our own urban visions :)
@@justinmalinowski Car dependency, the current (not neutral) status quo, is also created by governments to determine social outcomes (such as wealth inequality in favour of oil lobbyists). Governments currently allocate large amounts of space to car movement and storage, effectively excluding those who are not wealthy, able-bodied or keen on driving from lots of public space. If we want to talk about fascism, this fits the bill more than democratically implemented cycleways, as car dependency violently enforces homogeneity in public space (not even taking surveillance into account, e.g. licences, speed cameras, etc., none of which are necessary for other forms of transport). Allocating public space more diversely to give people greater choice in how they get around, especially when this is wanted by the majority of the population (as is the case in Randwick LGA), is incredibly democratic and antifascist. Privatisation can potentially work for railways and highways and is definitely the way to go with parking (by removing it all from public streets and putting it in private garages) but I struggle to see how one can privatise the public spaces between houses.
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism All excellent points. I come at the general issue from the principle of individual freedom. Democracy is said to be tyranny-by-majority if used, with government “force”, to impinge upon the freedom of a minority/individual. That freedom includes the right of an individual NOT to pay for things they don’t want. By this logic, forcing an individual to pay for car based infrastructure is wrong and in my opinion immoral. By the same token forcing individuals to pay for active-transport infrastructure is immoral. Keep in mind that “force” in the context of not paying taxes or council rates is eventually police with guns knocking on your door and dragging you away (violence). That’s the fascism. Imagine the logistic, scientific and community driven innovation and creativity that would be unleashed if the roads between the houses were freed from the oppression of politics, politicians and corruption/cronyism! #reclaimthestreets Allow entrepreneurs and creatives to start the revolution.
@@justinmalinowski If we could legally just rock up with paint and recycled materials and build the cycleway ourselves as a self-funded horizontally organised collective I'd be 100% down for that - and that kind of thing can work wonders for setting a template for new bike and pedestrian friendly infrastructure being built permanently when a road is repaved, such as Strong Towns groups that have used chalk and planters to install pop-up kerb buildouts. Currently, though, those kinds of things have to work at least somewhat within the system to change things for the better. This might be pedantic but fascism tends to have a strong nationalist bent to it. What you're describing is the state, which is not inherently fascist (although that statement may not be without controversy). as far as tyranny by majority, the local level is also where face to face meetings occur and we can begin to approach consensus democracy instead of the tyranny by majority type that Australia is lucky to mitigate with our great preferential voting system. If you're keen to start an entrepreneur- and creative-led approach to this I would love to organise some tactical urbanism! Once the consultation results tell us which cycleway and/or pedestrian area is most popular, it could be great to organise a working bee to implement some guerilla solutions, which may be possible to do with council approval since they mention innovative methods as a key part of the strategy!
Check out the active transport strategy and have your say here! www.yoursay.randwick.nsw.gov.au/activetransportstrategy
A word of caution when getting excited about active transport plans: the measure of their commitment to active transport is found in the budget, not the strategy.
Lake Macquarie's active transport plan has been targeting a 10% mode share for cycling for 30 years without moving it by a single percentage point, because they never actually allocate the funding to build the stuff in the plan.
i think the randwick area has the most potential of a cycling revolution, given its proximity to major cycling destinations/junctions like the university, the city, moore park, centennial park, light rail, etc and the fact that there's generally less car traffic. I think if the plan actually goes ahead, and substantial investment is made, it could really, really work. 😃😃
100%! I've lived in Randwick on and off for three years or so and have found basically the only limit to cycling being my main form of transport how unsafe some of the roads are, the CBD and Redfern station are both super close by bike
Chris, don't you dare ever just invite me for the clout ever again 😭🤬
Don't worry, next time I'll invite you for your transport expertise and winning personality
I love the jokes you and Sharath make about the wait times for pedestrians at traffic lights. Please never stop.
Two videos a week apart?!?! We are truly blessed. Also the Cycleway along Wentworth avenue that abruptly stops at Pagewood needs to be extended to Westfield Eastgardens then onto Maroubra Beach. What I love about this channel is that you can make a video about a single local governments active transport plan and make it worth watching, keep up the good work. 👍👍👍
The next one will likely take a bit more than a week to make but hopefully not 3 months this time! I think the Wentworth Avenue cycleway has a lot to do with the road switching from City of Sydney to Bayside council near where the cycleway ends unfortunately, and I'm not sure how pro cycling infrastructure Bayside is
Yea Bayside aren't that that great at building bike infrastructure, and the few they have/ are building are on the Rockdale side and not the Botany side. that council amalgamation makes no sense. @@ChrisTopher_Urbanism
@@thomthebomb9497 Agreed. Rockdale has some great recreational paths like the Ramsgate Beach one that I used to use when I had an internship around there but Botany has basically nothing
"You invited me for the clout" xD
Randwick is afflicted with an excess of car, plane, leafblower & helicopter noise. Anything that will lead to quieter streets is most welcome.
Good on you for moving to Bathurst, if indeed you did, Chris. Whilst Bathurst is a very walkable city, except to get to the hospital, as you might be finding this weekend, when the races are on, it's a nightmare. Glad I moved near to Bathurst, well 50km out, but somewhere smaller :)
It didn't seem so bad in Feb during the Bathurst 500, but that is a smaller race - I'm out of town this weekend, perhaps luckily if there's a big race going on haha
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism it's the 8 hour this weekend, I usually avoid Bathurst on race weekends. Wait till Oct for the big one :) Maybe I'll see you around, I'll make sure to say hi if I do see you.
I really like quiet ways. Rather than using green surfaces though I think we should copy the Netherlands and add brown aggregate to quiet ways to differentiate them from bike lanes. That way when cars and cyclists see a brown surface they know it's 30, but that they're still allowed to access it. It should be much cheaper to maintain than a green surface too as the green surfacing tends to wear off.
100% agree with this - the green surface can also be slippery, another reason thay the red/brown would be better
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism Huh. I didn't realise they could be slippery. Is that a problem for bikes too? Or just for cars?
@@shraka Just bikes with less grippy tyres such as road bikes, only when it rains though
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism Huh. I clearly haven’t ridden enough in Australia. Perhaps we should do brown / red for all our paths then? I found the pavers and bike paths in Amsterdam pretty grippy, but then I only rode in the dry.
Great video, are you planning on making a video about the City of Sydney's biking plans?
Thanks! Not currently, but I might do one focusing on the Oxford Street cycleway when it opens and discussing the plan as a whole in that context
Great video!! love to hear about a new urbanist project any day of the week!
Great video. Have you got any plans to release some content about your time spent in Bathurst? It’s where I grew up and it’ll be very fascinating to get a modern urbanists take on it considering it’s what I have always considered to be a car infested town that is quite hostile to cycling
Thanks! I haven't written any scripts yet but I've got a few ideas. I'm thinking of doing one about the great housing diversity (lots of terraces and above-shop apartments compared to similar towns) and about how greenfield suburban development is sending regional councils broke. I've joined a cycling advocacy group so I'll get a sense of what they're working on before making a cycling specific video I think!
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism funny you mention about councils going broke. They had to unfortunately cancel the NYE fireworks in Bathurst last year which I read was due to budget issues. I’m pretty they hadn’t missed a year since I was a kid. I’d love to see some increased density around regional cities like that.
Yeah definitely. It's a big problem all across at least NSW (Queanbeyan Palerang can't afford to build a shared path along the river, for example) and Bathurst Council also told me they couldn't afford to build a footpath on my street despite it being right near the train station and 60kmh
I'm keen to see some.videos on western Sydney plans? What's the plan for penrith? Cambelltown? Blacktown?
I should definitely make videos about some active transport plans in Western Sydney - I am less familiar with them, as the closest to Western Sydney I've lived is Epping, so it would take some extra research, but it would be well worth it
I like to see you guys go and stir up the Campbelltown Shire Council, from what I can see, they don't even have a cycling strategy.....ever!!
That's terrible - if you live there you should definitely email them about it
Nice
I am all for reducing car use. However, I recently went into an area to visit a business which I needed my car in order to purchase large goods. Due to bike lanes, there was no parking available anywhere near this venue. I sat and counted bikes for a while, in 1 hour - 1 bike rode past using a bike lane. I couldn't tell you how many cars drove round and round looking for parks. There are absolutely many benefits to reducing car reliance and promoting alternative transport, but not everyone utilising an area resides within it. Not everyone has the same physical capabilities. There needs to be a bit of give and take here. Promote car parks so people can actually use the public transport systems once they arrive.
On the contrary, creating more bike lanes means more people will use them, which means fewer people will be using cars, resulting in more spaces to park your car more easily. Creating MORE car parks will mean MORE people will drive their cars, and when those carparks are full, due to induced demand, what happens? Build more carparks?
No, car parking takes up a massive amount of space around cities already. The last thing you want to do is make driving easier/faster/more comfortable. I notice you have gone to great pains to avoid saying the location you are talking about so anyone can actually go and have a look at it for themselves, perhaps then we can have a more open discussion. Suffice to say that you can't blame people for not using bike lanes when most of the bike lanes only go for a few hundred meters and then dump you onto congested roads with >50kmh speed limits; how many cars would be on the roads if most roads just ended and had little to know viable connection?
Too much car parking spreads things out and reduces walkability while baking in car dependency. If parking is needed it should be up to the market to provide it (except for accessible parking of course). Parking can go in a garage, bike lanes can only go on the street, so it makes sense to move parking elsewhere rather than having it on important public space
Haha you two are awesome
You should ask why the store had no dedicated loading zone.
Sounds great… as long as it’s not paid for with tax dollars and as long as it doesn’t interfere with productive individuals.
It'll likely be paid for with council rates and state government grants and will be great bang for their buck since it'll mean people won't be putting potholes in the road, injuring each other and getting obese as much since there'll be less driving. It's also very easy to be productive while cycling and walking, often easier than while driving since both modes of transport are very space efficient
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism All good except it’s being done by force of government. Neither you, I or any interest group should be able to use the power of government to determine social outcomes; that’s fascism. Privatise all roads and transport. Let the green, safety and health conscious market fund our own urban visions :)
@@justinmalinowski Car dependency, the current (not neutral) status quo, is also created by governments to determine social outcomes (such as wealth inequality in favour of oil lobbyists). Governments currently allocate large amounts of space to car movement and storage, effectively excluding those who are not wealthy, able-bodied or keen on driving from lots of public space. If we want to talk about fascism, this fits the bill more than democratically implemented cycleways, as car dependency violently enforces homogeneity in public space (not even taking surveillance into account, e.g. licences, speed cameras, etc., none of which are necessary for other forms of transport). Allocating public space more diversely to give people greater choice in how they get around, especially when this is wanted by the majority of the population (as is the case in Randwick LGA), is incredibly democratic and antifascist.
Privatisation can potentially work for railways and highways and is definitely the way to go with parking (by removing it all from public streets and putting it in private garages) but I struggle to see how one can privatise the public spaces between houses.
@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism All excellent points.
I come at the general issue from the principle of individual freedom.
Democracy is said to be tyranny-by-majority if used, with government “force”, to impinge upon the freedom of a minority/individual. That freedom includes the right of an individual NOT to pay for things they don’t want. By this logic, forcing an individual to pay for car based infrastructure is wrong and in my opinion immoral. By the same token forcing individuals to pay for active-transport infrastructure is immoral. Keep in mind that “force” in the context of not paying taxes or council rates is eventually police with guns knocking on your door and dragging you away (violence). That’s the fascism.
Imagine the logistic, scientific and community driven innovation and creativity that would be unleashed if the roads between the houses were freed from the oppression of politics, politicians and corruption/cronyism! #reclaimthestreets Allow entrepreneurs and creatives to start the revolution.
@@justinmalinowski If we could legally just rock up with paint and recycled materials and build the cycleway ourselves as a self-funded horizontally organised collective I'd be 100% down for that - and that kind of thing can work wonders for setting a template for new bike and pedestrian friendly infrastructure being built permanently when a road is repaved, such as Strong Towns groups that have used chalk and planters to install pop-up kerb buildouts. Currently, though, those kinds of things have to work at least somewhat within the system to change things for the better.
This might be pedantic but fascism tends to have a strong nationalist bent to it. What you're describing is the state, which is not inherently fascist (although that statement may not be without controversy).
as far as tyranny by majority, the local level is also where face to face meetings occur and we can begin to approach consensus democracy instead of the tyranny by majority type that Australia is lucky to mitigate with our great preferential voting system.
If you're keen to start an entrepreneur- and creative-led approach to this I would love to organise some tactical urbanism! Once the consultation results tell us which cycleway and/or pedestrian area is most popular, it could be great to organise a working bee to implement some guerilla solutions, which may be possible to do with council approval since they mention innovative methods as a key part of the strategy!