ESTABLISHMENT OF A PARKING TASKFORCE
Labor Councillor Geoff Stevenson moved last night at Randwick Council to create a Parking Taskforce to specifically look at the issues arising from the additional 14000 vehicles now competing for parking in Randwick City since the 2002 census. Councillor Stevenson said “ the recent Economic and Demographic profile review released this week by Council has highlighted the bad news that 14000 new vehicles have been added to the streets of Randwick City over the last decade, which most residents are acutely aware of, so it’s now time for Council target this problem and look for solutions”.
Councillor Stevenson believes the taskforce should be headed by the Mayor and include resident, community, business, and government representatives as well as the police and traffic experts who should collectively look at why there has been an additional car for each 10 residents over the last decade added to the streets.
In many parts of the city particularly Coogee, Randwick, Clovelly, Kensington and Kingsford, residents come home at night to find they can’t park anywhere near their home and it’s not getting any easier. Car ownership, a first world problem, is the curse of inner city residents all over Sydney but for Randwick City it is a relatively new problem. Light rail, cycleways, car share schemes and public transport are possible solutions but the attraction of a personal motor vehicle that can be left on the street until you need to use it is a luxury that many residents enjoy to the frustration of others trying to find a park.
Geoff Stevenson said “it’s time we look at how many cars we have and find ways to reduce the absolute numbers. We all love our cars but we can’t all expect to have one if urban consolidation is to continue in the Eastern suburbs at the rates currently proposed by the State Government ”.
See the number of Cars per household at
ReplyDeletewww.profile.id.com.au/randwick/car-ownership
Note that at least 32.1% of households now have two or more cars in our area. Definitely an argument here that households need to share cars more or use car share schemes if everyone is to get a parking spot in older areas of Randwick where there is limited or no off-street parking available.
There are ways Council can encourage this
Anyone who would like a copy of the new Economic and Demographic Profile please email me at geoff.stevenson@randwick.nsw.gov.au
ReplyDeleteIn London the Mayor Boris Johnson has recently committed 1 billion pounds toward cycling. In New York Mayor Bloomberg has rolled out 50 miles of bike lane a year for 5 years or more.
ReplyDeleteCould the Taskforce and the Council please learn from overseas experience. New York City is offering free guides to other cities on its street changes (which encourage and take seriously walking and cycling.)
More examples in these videos - https://vimeo.com/album/2327752
Here's more on the big changes in the US. Here's what the NYC Commissioner for Transportation is saying ...
ReplyDelete"Many streets in the US have been in suspended animation for 50 years. The haven't changed because our streets were seen just as ways to get cars from point A to point B. A lot of times the streets of a city are its most valuable resources...And yet the design guidelines are 50 years old, and they're really written for a more rural America."
Click to watch NACTO president and NYC DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan discuss NACTO's forthcoming Street Design Guide for cities: http://www.ubmfuturecities.com/video.asp?section_id=429&doc_id=525624