Campaigning for pedestrian safety on City Road at Chippendale
May 8th, 2006Media Release
Greens Cr Chris Harris has requested that council staff to prepare a report on how the City of Sydney can provide better pedestrian access between Chippendale and Victoria Park. The issue of a pedestrian bridge spanning the North Western section of Chippendale and Victoria Park has long been an aspiration of residents who live in this rapidly expanding part of the City of Sydney.
Cr Harris : “City Road is a high volume traffic funnel that links large volumes of traffic to the east, south and Broadway at Chippendale. Traffic moves at high speed in this section of City Road and motorists pay little regard to those on foot. The problem is made worse by the constant left turn “slipway” from City Road into Cleveland St heading east - motorists gather speed after they turn right from Broadway and they can be quite impatient when pedestrians are crossing the road here - it is dangerous.”
The lack of open space in Chippendale was highlighted during consultation with the community over the CUB site which will be developed to house up to 2500 people. Victoria Park was considered to be a very important regional piece of open space in an area which has the lowest allocation of open space per person in the entire City of Sydney.
“It is critical that people who live in areas of high density have an opportunity to sit, walk and exercise outdoors. Victoria Park is important open space for Chippendale residents and it is separated from them by a continuous wall of traffic on City Road. Well designed pedestrian access to this beautiful park along with its swimming facilities will bring this open space right into the Chippendale community.”
Cr Harris’ notice of motion requires that the report be listed on the agenda of the Planning Development and Transport Committee so that residents will be able to make comments on the report directly to councilors.
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This is the motion that I put to council:
1. Moved by Councillor Harris, seconded by Councillor Firth -
That staff report on the possible design & construction of a pedestrian bridge spanning City Road on the north eastern side of the City Road and Cleveland Street intersection to Victoria Park. The report be placed on a future agenda of the Planning, Development and Transport Committee so that residents from Chippendale will be able to participate in the discussion of the report
The report should address issues that include but are not confined to:
(a) Any past history on a project of this nature
(b) The process for the City to initiate and complete such a project
(c) Identifying other agencies that might be participants in such a project.
It appears the Lord Mayor agreed with the view of council officers that:
Unlike Sydney University the Lord Mayor considers that ‘cost’ and ‘visual intrusion’ is more important than the safety of the community.
The following motion was put forward by the Lord Mayor’s team as a substitute.
That the motion be amended by the deletion of the entire motion and the substitution of the following new motion -
That Council:
(A) note the desirability of improving access to Victoria Park for Chippendale and Redfern residents;
(B) note the Resolution of Council of 12 December 2005 that a signalised pedestrian crossing over City Road to Victoria Park at Myrtle Street is being sought through the Voluntary Planning Agreement for the Carlton and United Breweries site;
(C) note that there are significant costs, difficulties and constraints in providing a pedestrian bridge including space for wheelchair ramps and impacts to VictoriaPark;
(D) write to the Roads and Traffic Authority to seek a signalised pedestrian crossing from the north-eastern corner of the intersection of Cleveland Street and City Road to Victoria Park, as a valuable pedestrian access improvement prior to a new signalised crossing to Victoria Park at Myrtle Street.
The amendment was carried on the following show of hands -
Ayes (6) The Lord Mayor, Councillors Black, Hoff, Kemmis, Mallard and McInerney.
Noes (4) Councillors Firth, Harris, Lee and Pooley.
I did not support this amendment because it does not supply a solution to the problem. I believe that even if Fosters Ltd, who own the CUB site, agree to pay for a signalised crossing at Myrtle Street there is no guarantee that the RTA will agree to it because the RTA will be more concerned with the impact of a crossing on high volume traffic.
Only a pedestrian bridge will provide safe passage for pedestrians - especially children - and will allow traffic to flow unimpeded on this very busy road.
