Pedestrians highlight crowding concerns

A City of Melbourne-led transport discussion has yielded extensive feedback from Victorians, with pedestrians and public transport users reporting their top experience as feeling overcrowded.

Transport portfolio chair Councillor Nicolas Frances Gilley said an unprecedented number of responses to the Walking, City Space, Public Transport, Cycling, Motor Vehicles, Parking, Emerging Technology and Transport Pricing discussion papers were received.

More than half of respondents (54％) to the Walking paper said they had experienced ‘overcrowding on footpaths’. The other top experiences were ‘poor pedestrian etiquette’ (21％) and ‘crossing times at intersections too short/infrequent’ (20％).

The top three unprompted suggestions to combat these issues were: to widen footpaths (27％), create car free zones (24％) and improve traffic light timing (18％).

Of the eight topics tested, cycling received the greatest number of responses (366), with two out of five community members reporting their top experience as ‘unsafe and intimidating’ and suggesting protected bike lanes is the solution.

Like walking, the number one experience of public transport in Melbourne was of ‘feeling overcrowded’ (38％).

The top experiences regarding motor vehicles were ‘motor vehicles block intersections’ (38 per cent), ‘unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists’ (34 ％) and ‘traffic and congestion’ (23％).

In suggesting ways to address motor vehicle issues, almost half (47％) of contributors expressed a desire to reduce vehicle access in the CBD.

More than 1300 submissions on eight transport topics were received through the City’s Participate Melbourne website and Participate ideas forum, via mail and email from April to July 2018. A further 1500 social media comments were captured as part of the debate.

The submissions were in response to eight discussion papers, which presented evidence, best practice from other cities, options and ideas for consideration to encourage community debate and to prompt discussion to inform the City of Melbourne’s draft Transport Strategy.

The draft Transport Strategy is now being completed and will be presented to Future Melbourne Committee in the New Year. Further consultation will follow to finalise the Strategy.