Confessions of a traffic engineer: Is the need for speed killing us?

Dean Cracknell is the author of this post. He is a Freo devotee interested in creating diverse places for people. He is a guest contributor to The Fremantle Doctor blog. Dean can be followed on Twitter by checking out: @city_pragmatist

I'll cut to the chase. Placemaking champion, Fred Kent, from the Project for Public Spaces, says it far better than I could ever do:

"If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places."  

"It is not true that more traffic and road capacity are the inevitable results of growth. They are in fact the products of very deliberate choices that have been made to shape our communities to accommodate the private automobile. We have the ability to make different choices — starting with the decision to design our streets as
comfortable and safe places — for people on foot, not people in cars."

This post is about priorities and the choices we make. Our priorities say a lot about who we are as individuals and as a society. Fred Kent highlights in flashing lights the choice we have all made (whether we know or not) to design our cities around cars.

Charles Marohn, a self-confessed recovering traffic engineer (love that description), reveals the priorities of his former profession on his Strongtowns blog (click here). Charles reckons that engineers have a very unhealthy need for speed. His insights make for interesting and powerful reading and I thought that I’d share some of his confessions with Freo Doctor readers.

(I’ve italicised quotes from the article below.)

The Priorities of a Traffic Engineer

“An engineer designing a street or road prioritizes the world in this way, no matter how they are instructed:

1.         Traffic speed;

2.         Traffic volume;

3.         Safety;

4.         Cost.

The rest of the world generally would prioritize things differently, as follows:

1.         Safety;

2.         Cost;

3.         Traffic volume;

4.         Traffic speed.

In other words, the engineer first assumes that all traffic must travel at speed. Given that speed, all roads and streets are then designed to handle a projected volume. Once those parameters are set, only then does an engineer look at mitigating for safety and, finally, how to reduce the overall cost (which at that point is nearly always ridiculously expensive).

We go to enormous expense to save ourselves small increments of driving time.”

Jeez, talk about misplaced priorities. In another article (click here), Marohn explains that a 40 second reduction in his typical commute time costs his community $107,000!

I value my time, but for me safety is more of a priority. I reckon that our schools, hospitals and community services would be more than grateful to receive an increase in funding at the expense of saving a few minutes of commuting time.

Blame It On The Romans

Where does this need for speed come from?  Looks like it has something to do with the Ancient Romans:

“Some of our craft descends from Roman engineers who did all of this a couple of millennia ago. How could I be wrong with literally thousands of years of professional practice on my side? Of course the people who wrote the standards knew better than we did. That is why they wrote the standard.

When people would tell me that they did not want a wider street, I would tell them that they had to have it for safety reasons.

When they answered that a wider street would make people drive faster and that would be seem to be less safe, especially in front of their house where their kids were playing, I would confidently tell them that the wider road was more safe, especially when combined with the other safety enhancements the standards called for.

When people objected to those other "enhancements", like removing all of the trees near the road, I told them that for safety reasons we needed to improve the sight distances and ensure that the recovery zone was free of obstacles.

In retrospect I understand that this was utter insanity. Wider, faster, treeless roads not only ruin our public places, they kill people. Taking highway standards and applying them to urban and suburban streets, and even county roads, costs us thousands of lives every year. There is no earthly reason why an engineer would ever design a fourteen foot lane for a city block, yet we do it continuously. Why? The answer is utterly shameful: Because that is the standard.”

The need for speed could be killing us! Serious stuff.

What Does This All Mean for Perth?

With Charles’ confessions in mind, let’s check out some streets in Perth and ask ourselves which one a motorist is more likely to speed along.

Case study 1

Photo A

Photo B

Photo A is the obvious culprit. As a wide, treeless road, it has been designed with little other than speed in mind. Our collective priorities are clearly evident to anyone who wants to notice them.

On the other hand I wouldn’t be speeding (if I were to hypothetically do such a thing ...) along the more intimate, little street shown in Photo B. Why? For me, it’s the uncertainty. The street isn’t wide and the parked cars have the effect of making it even less open. If I’m uncertain, I wouldn't throw caution to the wind and put my foot down. It could be dangerous.

Case study 2

Photo A

Photo B

This case study compares different views of the same place - Scarborough Beach Road in Mount Hawthorn. The photos have been taken about 100 metres apart looking in different directions.

As in the first case study, Photo A is the obvious culprit for encouraging motorists to speed. Wide lanes. No trees. No people. Driving along this part of the road, it’s difficult for any motorists to do anything but speed.

Photo B presents differently. The road is not as wide. There is definitely more going on that could make a motorist feel uncertain. Speeding on this part of Scarborough Beach Road is not only less likely, but something I never witnessed on dozens of visits as a nearby resident.

Conclusion

Thinking about Scarborough Beach Road with Charles Marohn’s and Fred Kent’s words in mind, I’m convinced that they’re onto something. Speed must not be the priority when we design our roads and, if we plan for cars, then traffic is what we’ll get (and what we'll deserve).

Hugh Newell Jacobsen said it brilliantly way back in 1929 - “When you look at a city, it’s like reading the hopes, aspirations and pride of everyone who built it”. In other words, it's our collective priorities that we see before us every day.

If I was to take Hugh Newell Jacobsen for a stroll along Scarborough Beach Road, I would ask him what he would read into our hopes, aspirations and pride of our city. I’d also ask him what he thought our community valued most. People or cars?

I don’t think I’d be surprised by his answers. I think it’s time to change our priorities.

__________________

 

Before I go, I'll leave Freo Doctor Blog readers with some sobering stats:

- Australian road toll in 2012: 1,300 people. (Click here to go to the document.)

- Australia has one of the highest urban speed limits in the world. A reduction of 10 km/h in travel speed would prevent 50% of all pedestrian fatalities and 21% of all collisions. (Click here to go to the document.)

Some old school tram maps

Regular Freo Doctor blog readers will appreciate my endearing love of all things light rail. My recent post showing the Popular Science Monthly cover page from 1925 inspired me to check out Perth's old school tram network.

I found two cool maps. The first one shows Perth's tram network in 1930. It mainly focuses on inner city Perth. The second map is one of Perth's tram network from the 1950s. 

Perth's tram network in 1930 via Google search

Perth's tram network from the 1950s via

The red lines show Perth's tram network. I'm impressed. 

On my search, I came across a cool blog about old Perth. The creator has posted some kick ass old photos of Perth (including Fremantle) and is well worth checking out. I've included it on my blogroll.

Predicting the future of cities...in 1925

Earlier this month regular guest contributor to the Freo Doctor Blog, Dean Cracknell, wrote another cracker of an article about five car parking myths. Well, he's done it again. This time Dean forwarded me the cover of the August 1925 edition of Popular Science Monthly.

It's titled "May Live to See, May Solve Congestion Problems" and has an accompanying image predicting how people may live and travel around the city by 1950. 



Check out the 'aircraft landing fields' and the four levels of transport, plus the freight tubes in the bottom right hand corner. I also appreciate the transition from offices to living quarters and playgrounds.

It is interesting to think about how people in 1925 saw the future of cities. That old congestion nugget was around even way back then.

I wonder what Freo will look like in twenty five years? I'll have just painted the town red for my 60th birthday.

Five car parking myths: Why we need to get smarter about parking

Dean Cracknell is the author of this post. He is a Freo devotee interested in creating diverse places for people. He is a guest contributor to The Fremantle Doctor blog. Dean can be followed on Twitter by checking out: @city_pragmatist


Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 was a landmark moment in the civil rights movement and was based around the principles of fairness and equality.

I have also had a dream ... that one day, we can provide free pizza AND free beer to all citizens regardless of their race, gender, beliefs or religion. Not quite Martin Luther King I admit, but wouldn’t it be nice? Free pizza and free beer!

But, in the cold light of morning, I know this dream could never happen in real life. For one thing, we would probably run out of pizza and beer given there is usually huge demand for something that is given away free. And who would end up paying for it all? As the dismal economists take perverse pleasure in telling us, ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’. Someone always has to pay the price. It is also true that some people don’t actually like pizza and beer. Would it be fair to provide free stuff for some while others miss out?

As weird as it may seem, I am going to argue that there are some parallels with the dream of handing out free pizza and beer and the reality of providing free car parking in our cities. So, let’s get down to the dirty business of busting five common car parking myths.

Myth 1 – Free Parking is Really Free

Parking is never free. Think about it. The “free” car parking space where your car now stands idle has been constructed and paid for by someone, usually a developer or a local government. The major cost is the land used for car parking, but there are also the construction costs of the parking bay, plus the vehicle manoeuvring areas, signage, ongoing maintenance costs and even the often pathetic attempt made at landscaping. Guess who pays the price? We all do.

The costs of providing car parking are passed on to us by developers and are responsible for inflating house prices and the costs for everyday goods and services. Even a loaf of bread will include a small cost for providing the “free” shopping centre car parking. Sure, but can’t governments pay for parking? Yes, they do. But who funds governments? Ratepayers and taxpayers. So we all pay higher rates or taxes to provide “free” car parking or we get reduced services as money is funnelled into providing “free” car parking.

The worst thing about this situation is that people who don’t drive subsidise “free” car parking for those that do drive. The prices at the shop or house prices are the same whether you drive or not. Likewise, rates and taxes are also the same whether you drive or not. This is unfair as well as being unsustainable, given the environmental, economic and social costs associated with driving. What we actually have is a tax on non-drivers (the people who don’t like pizza or beer) to subsidise car drivers (the pizza and beer lovers). Some of us get a pretty good deal as it currently stands.

Parking guru Donald Shoup explains the situation well in his book The High Cost of Free Parking. Shoup summarises how “free” parking distorts the whole economy:

“When we shop in a store, eat in a restaurant, or see a movie, we pay for parking indirectly because its cost is included in the prices of merchandise, meals, and theater tickets. We unknowingly support our cars with almost every commercial transaction we make because a small share of the money changing hands pays for parking. Residents pay for parking through higher prices for housing. Businesses pay for parking through higher rents for their premises. Shoppers pay for parking through higher prices for everything they buy. We don’t pay for parking in our role as motorists, but in all our other roles—as consumers, investors, workers, residents, and taxpayers—we pay a high price. Even people who don’t own a car have to pay for ‘free’ parking.”

Parking is never free - the costs are just cleverly hidden.

Myth 2 – Car Parks Are Boring and Ugly

Most car parks are boring and ugly. But they don’t have to be. The main missing ingredient I reckon is a bit of love. The car park pictured below in Miami is amazing and just shows what is possible with a bit of care and attention.

This carpark in Miami is pretty cool via

Car parks generally have their own colour scheme – an uninspiring shade of prison grey concrete. Adding some colour could produce remarkable results though. How about this one?

Amazing what a splash of colour could do to some of our carparks via

The Condor Carpark in Perth has created a kickass gallery of street art.

Interesting street art humanises carparks via

This myth has some truth - car parks are generally ugly, but they can and should be places of colour and imagination.

Myth 3 – Car Parks Are Only For Cars

Artrage’s ‘Rooftop Movies’ in Northbridge was a unique experience. They hired the entire upper floor of the Roe Street Carpark in Northbridge and attracted huge audiences hungry for something different. Hundreds of deckchairs were placed in front a big screen showing cult movie favourites.

The setup also included palm trees, astroturf, a bar and lights. Some of the pics are below:

Activating the roof of a carpark...cool idea via

This carpark is buzzing! via

Communities are also reclaiming parking spaces for themselves. The photo below is from Berlin:

A reclaimed carpark being used for a bit of fun via

Car parks don’t have to be reserved exclusively for cars. We need to re-imagine the way car parks are used, particularly when they are empty. 

Myth 4 – We Need More Car Parking

We often hear the simplistic cry that “we need more car parking”. More car parking, it is assumed, will solve the perceived “parking problems”. Unfortunately, it is not that easy in real life. Providing more car parking only encourages more people to drive and reduces the incentive to walk, ride or use public transport. Pretty soon, the extra car parking capacity is full at peak times and empty at quiet times, only serving to make the area look ugly and lifeless. It is also a very expensive option given that parking is never free.

A better approach is to think smarter and better manage the car parking we already have. Parking professional Todd Litman says that:

“The real problem is not inadequate supply, it is inefficient management.
A cost-effective, integrated parking management program can often reduce parking requirements by 20-40%, while improving user convenience and helping to achieve other planning objectives, such as supporting more compact development, encouraging use of alternative modes of transportation, and increasing development affordability.”

For example, one simple idea is to provide better information to motorists on where car parking is available in real time.

Information signs help with managing parking more efficiently

Some cities are now even providing less car parking, and attracting more people as a result. Cities like San Francisco, New York, London and even Los Angeles are encouraging new parklets on land previously reserved for car parking.

An example of a San Francisco parklet via

Freo has its very own parklet at Moore Moore cafe in Henry Street:

Freo's very own parklet at Moore & Moore Cafe

Car parking is important, but better management of parking and sometimes even providing less parking may be a way to attract more people and revitalise our town centres.

Myth 5 – We Know How Much Parking Is Needed

Parking is very important to the way our cities work. Most people assume that the bureaucrats have a very good idea of how much parking is needed for each new development or land use.

Unfortunately, this is not true.

In fact, there has never been a detailed parking study conducted across metropolitan Perth. Instead we base our car parking standards on New South Wales standards from 2002, which in turn are based on parking surveys from 1994 conducted in areas where new residential subdivisions were being built. Public transport accessibility in such areas was/is often limited. These studies have little relevance to parking in Perth’s town centres in 2012.

Donald Shoup compares city planners to early astronomers, who came up with misleading but convincing models of planetary orbit. By providing precise parking requirements, city planners give the impression that they can accurately forecast parking demand before a building’s construction. But Shoup says planners and engineers relentlessly repeat the mistakes of other planners and engineers in setting parking regulations. It’s like a giant merry-go-round of dodgy assumptions.

In short, we don’t know how much parking is needed because there have never been proper studies conducted for the local context. We are just guessing.

Cities need to be designed for people first, then cars I reckon. We need to get smarter about car parking.

Three lessons for Freo from my parents' trip to France

Mum and Dad

Mum and Dad have recently returned from three months of gallivanting around France. They visited Paris, spent time hanging out in Brittany and then journeyed down to the Pyrennes before subjecting themselves to the Tour de France crowds up north. I'm chuffed to report that they had a great time, so much so that I often wondered whether or not they'd return home.

Although they enjoyed themselves, I didn't get the impression that they wholeheartedly converted to the French style of cooking. My mum's approach to food is traffic engineer-esque (very risk adverse) and, largely due to a morbid fear of accidently eating duck, she lived on crepes (breakfast and lunch) and omelettes (dinner) for the majority of her trip.

My dad is one step up from a traffic engineer in gastronomic matters. He was slightly more adventurous in his tastes, sampling local specialities and even trying a morsel of duck, to my mum's disgust. However, a little bistro somewhere in the Pyrennes turned out to be his undoing.

Only two words are necessary to paint a picture of what happened next: steak tartare.

When he placed his order in his strident Australian accent, alarm bells obviously started ringing for the waitress who nobly tried to warn him that it was a taste he was likely to be unused to. But Dad, who is one of nature's most stubborn creatures, ignored her and insisted on going ahead with the steak tartare.

I can imagine him doing his darndest to hide his initial surprise when the waitress (probably with a wry Gallic grin) presented the dish complete with one huge, wet, orangey egg yolk resting in a crater of raw mince. 

My dad was shaking so much he couldn't focus

Now if you've read my article on the Sunken Cost Fallacy (click here) you'd know that many people would have persisted with eating (or hiding) the dish they had stubbornly ordered in the face of so many warnings to save embarrassment. Not my dad. He sent it back to get cooked.

Mum and Dad have been back for a couple of weeks now, so they've had plenty of opportunities to regale my wife and me with all their stories. Most of them sound very interesting. (I'm a little tired of hearing about crepes though. Seriously, my mum has turned into that dude from Forrest Gump who liked prawns.)

Listening to their stories, I've discerned three lessons from my parents' trip to France.

Without further ado here they are:

Lesson 1: Good ambience and simple manners go a long way

One thing my parents really came to appreciate travelling around France was the ambience of the restaurants and cafes. Mum and Dad comment over and over how pleasant it was dining in the many restaurants, bistros and cafes they discovered. Listening to their stories, I picked up on that they were made to feel welcome and comfortable. The music was never too loud, the service professional and attentive, and the interior cosy and well cared for.

Another aspect of the whole welcoming thing that they also noticed was how retailers, restauranteurs and cafe operators would greet them with a friendly "bonjour" and farewell them with a hearty "au revoir" without fail.

I can't help but get the feeling that this is an important lesson for Freo's traders, restauranteurs and cafe operators. Western Australia isn't really known for its outstanding service, certainly not compared with European standards. Maybe Freo's traders can buck the trend and make this part of its point of difference?

Lesson 2: Plenty of space and patience for cyclists

Mum and Dad are avid cyclists. Over the years I've slowly learnt to live with the image of my father in his brightly coloured lycra bicycle pants. Mum has developed a 'Rain Man' like knowledge and recall of each of the riders who compete in the Tour de France.

For my parents, cycling around parts of France must have been akin to me travelling to an awesomely kick ass Parisian bistro and tucking into my fair share of french onion soup, duck confit and steak and frites - a dream come true.

Mum doing her best Cadel impersonation in Brittany near Brest.

Normally Dad's lycra pants are more colourful.

Pedalling on their bikes around France, Mum and Dad noticed a big difference between French motorists and Perth motorists. They were given ample space on the road whether or not there was a bicycle lane. They came to appreciate the patience that French motorists had for them as they pedalled along on their way.

This lesson really goes beyond Freo and can be applied on a much broader level. Next time I have a cyclist pedalling away in front of me in my car, I'll think of Mum, Dad and those patient French motorists. Maybe us Freo motorists can be at the vanguard of treating cyclists (no matter how silly looking or somewhat annoying they can be) with a fair degree of patience?

Lesson 3: Paris is really a bunch of little villages
Initially my dad planned on spending only a couple of nights in Paris. I'm thinking that he was a put off by spending too much time in a big city. What would be the point of dealing with the noise, people, traffic?

Fortunately for my dad, he has a pretty cool strategic town planner (and budding placemaker) as his first born son. Over a couple of months, a little like the way the City of Freo's website breaks you down to the point where you can't be bothered checking it out any longer, I managed to convince him that they would enjoy a week in my favourite city.

Mum and Dad really enjoyed Paris. My dad confidently declared "Paris really is just a bunch of little villages" when he described what he enjoyed about his stay. Mum and Dad both responded to the pedestrian scale of Parisian streets. Walking around Paris was a pleasure. They enjoyed the interest that comes from walking and having street-level interaction. They even liked the consistent quality of the classic six and seven storey Parisian residential buildings.

Mum and Dad liked the pedestrian scale of the Parisian streets.

I reckon there is an important lesson for Freo that lies in my dad's description of Paris. Two million people reside in central Paris. It is a city that has built up to six and seven storeys. It is also a tourist city. And yet it has retained its distinctiveness. For my parents, Paris was a city with soul.

So what about Freo? The good news is that change or development doesn't have to signify the end. What is crucial is that new development - whether it's Kings Square or the Woolstores Shopping Centre - must retain Freo's distinctiveness. I would prefer that when people come to visit or live in Fremantle, that they know they're in Fremantle and not anywhereville Perth.

Some cycling lessons from the Dutch

Life long learning in Holland.
Source: Atlantic Cities via

Along with light rail, cycling was a keen topic of discussion at the Building a Better Fremantle Forum that was held about six weeks ago. The discussion largely revolved around the issue of funding hard infrastructure such as new bike lanes, something which Council has increased its focus on in the last couple of years. (For me the highlight of the evening was when Roel Loopers suggested a bit of guerilla urbanism by going ahead and painting the green lanes on the roads.)

When I think about cycling, generally two things spring to mind. Firstly, the not so nice image of my father clad in lycra on his racing bicycle commuting into work, which, seen once, cannot be unseen. The second image is of Jan Gehl describing cycling in Copenhagen as a simple way of life. Jan made the point that cycling in Copenhagen is not just the reserve of Tour de France enthusiasts. My interest in this topic was tweaked when I came across an interesting article (click here) describing why there isn't as much conflict between cyclists and motorists in Holland. Here is a quote from the article, describing the way the Dutch are taught about road rules.

"It’s not just a matter of going to the park with a parent, getting a push, and falling down a bunch of times until you can pedal on your own. Dutch children are expected to learn and follow the rules of the road, because starting in secondary school – at age 12 – they are expected to be able to ride their bikes on their own to school, sometimes as far as nine or 10 miles.

Because this independent travel for children is valued in Dutch society, education about traffic safety is something that every Dutch child receives. There's even a bicycle road test that Dutch children are required to take at age 12 in order to prove that they are responsible cycling citizens."

The salient point that the article makes is that everyone in Holland, especially motorists, understands what it means to be a cyclist. The outcome is that there doesn't appear to be the type of confrontation and tension that exists here in Perth (or in other car dominated cities) between cyclists and motorists.

Back in the day (I've noticed that I'm harking back to the good old days more and more as I trudge onwards through my thirties) I remember having to earn a 'bicycle licence'. It was a training program run at my primary school. Mum took full advantage of my new cycling skills by promptly declaring that I'd be cycling to school from now on. We did a test run together to identify the safest route, and then it was up to me. I lived to tell the tale and before long I was making use of my newly found freedom to get up to mischief (and to do mainies).

I like the Dutch approach and it would be great if we could borrow their values system. Primary schools could teach cycling safety again. I'm thinking that one way for the Federal Government to contribute could be for it to assist with funding of teaching cycling safety. (It could help with getting more cyclists on the paths/roads by looking at the tax system and making it easier for employers to benefit from providing incentives for their employees to cycle.)

I'd love to see Council support these Dutch values as well. I reckon one way could be holding our very own 'ciclovia' in Freo (for a good article on ciclovia's click here). We could follow in the footsteps of Bogota and other cities around the world. In Bogota, each Sunday and on public holidays the main streets are blocked off for the exclusive use of walkers, runners, skaters, and cyclists. Here is a photo.

Bogota ciclovia. Source: Boulder Green Streets via

Freo could do something similar. A good starting point may be 'a month of Sundays' type trial held this coming Spring. For me, this kind of event would raise the profile of walking and cycling in Freo no end. The Mayor has often expressed his desire to start up a Freo ciclovia. He has my support.

Playing make believe: Light rail in Freo

I love light rail. Light rail was my first love back in my teenage days (it didn't mind pimples). It all started with the computer game Sim City. I had figured out the code for getting limitless amounts of money and wasn't subject to any budget realities whatsoever, so, in my role as pimply benevolent dictator, I ran up the bill putting light rail absolutely everywhere in my city.

My love affair with this humble form of public transport continued into my planning studies. From day one I was scribbling 'MS 4 Light Rail 4 Eva' in my notebook. I'd draw light rail doodles in lectures, and hang out with other light rail devotees to talk breathlessly about what Portland in America had done. One of our cooler, more hip lecturers even brought in a map of Perth's old tram network and showed us while we all 'took a knee' and huddled around him.

A couple of weeks ago I rocked up to the Building a Better Fremantle Forum. I heard a lot about light rail being one of the keys to a better Freo. Instead of leaving excited, I left a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, light rail and I aren't headed to the divorce lawyers just yet. My problem is that we've heard a lot of talk about light rail over the last few years and I'm tired of playing make believe.

Freo isn't in the game

It pains me to say this, but there is no evidence to suggest that light rail will be coming to Freo anytime soon. Last year, the State Government released its draft Public Transport Strategy for the next twenty years. Light rail for Freo is not part of the plan.

I'm afraid that when Senator Ludlum casually claimed that the State Government was 'playing around with light rail in the northern suburbs' he was being a tad disingenous. Rather, the idea is to connect three major activity centres with the Perth CBD. The plan is to use light rail to connect the Perth CBD with Edith Cowan University, the University of Western Australia/Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre and Curtin University.

Given that the state of Western Australia isn't run by a pimply teenager playing around on a computer game with a code for unlimited money, choices occasionally need to be made. And as much as I might not like it, I can see how the case for linking the above centres with the Perth CBD has merit compared to Freo's case. After all, we'll all be paying for light rail in some way and I personally want to see value for money.

Talking about the boring stuff...like buses

With light rail in vogue, I empathise with our young up and coming local politicians. Who wants to build a platform on buses? However, it's not acceptable to raise false expectations and that's what I believe has been happening here. Freo has presented its case to the State Government and been knocked back. Is it possible that certain politicians weren't included in the memo, or are they choosing to talk about what's popular instead of what's possible?

In the spirit of thinking about what's actually possible in the next decade or so, here are some ideas:

1. More train carriages on the Freo line

These days, if you're one of the people catching the train during peak periods to and from Freo, you probably spend at least half an hour each day with your face crammed in to someone's whiffy armpit. The State Government has dropped the ball when it comes to planning for catering to increasing demand and I hear new rolling stock will not be available until 2015.

I'd like to see Freoites benefit from our local politicians and the City of Fremantle being able to communicate with influence so that more carriages are put onto the Freo line and catching the train in the morning can be a little more comfortable.

2. Introducing LATTE: reinvented, expanded CAT services for Freo

Buses will always be the ugly duckling to light rail. Late in my planning studies, during my rooftop garden phase, I was introduced to Curitiba in Brazil. Curitiba couldn't afford light rail and instead revolutionised the bus system, using different buses to fulfill different functions. I'm thinking we could do something similar in Freo.

I'd like to see an expansion of the CAT service. With the support of the State Government, Freo could take this model to the next level. I'm thinking reinventing it as the Local Area Total Transit Experience or LATTE (second only to light rail and rooftop gardens, planners also love acronyms).

The buses could be smaller, run more regularly and to a greater distance from the city centre. There could be different colours for different suburbs (for ease of use) and the buses could originate in local centres (near parking) and head into Freo, possibly with a few stops along the way. If sponsored, the buses could have wifi and people could sign up to a service that alerts them when a bus was within five minutes of arriving. Best of all, five trips could score you a free coffee.

3. Get in front of the queue

Last but not least, I'd like to see the City provide the results of the 2010 survey it undertook on light rail. I recall the survey being comprehensive and I'm disappointed that there is nothing on the City's website.

I'd like to see some kind of value gleaned from all that work and information. So how about the City getting serious and preparing a 20 year plan for getting ready for light rail? We are kidding ourselves if we think that Freo is the only other locality that wants light rail. To help put us at the front of the queue it would be handy to have this kind of document.

Conclusion

I put it to Senator Ludlum and Mayor Pettitt that if they're going to continue to wax lyrical about light rail coming to Freo, they may get more satisfaction from playing a round of Sim City (I'm happy to supply the cheat codes).

I think that it's time that they divided their time into thinking about a Plan B and Plan C.

How about vending machines for bike parts in Freo?

The other day, whilst trawling through my list of urban planning related websites, I found an interesting article about a vending machine that holds bike parts like lights, patch kits and tubes for cycling commuters on 'The City Fix' website.

The 'Bike Fixtation', located in Minneapolis, is a customised self-service bicycle repair station and rest stop. 

Here is the link to the article:

http://thecityfix.com/blog/friday-fun-vending-machine-for-bike-parts/

Here is the link to the 'Bike Fixtation' website:

http://bikefixtation.com/

The concept offers a great opportunity for Freo to continue becoming a more bicycle friendly city.

Fremantle's Parking Problem

Fremantle definitely has a parking problem, and whatever the stats say, one thing in the parking debate is certain - Perth motorists perceive there to be a lack of parking in Fremantle, and that makes them reluctant to visit.

Unfortunately, many of the ‘quick fix’ solutions that I’ve heard put forward to date have been based more on false promises than good research and common sense.  The reality is, given our current urban form and our expectations, achieving an outcome that is beneficial to everyone – residents, businesses, landowners and visitors – can only be accomplished by a multifarious and creative approach.

Here are some of the 'solutions' I've heard mooted, and why I can't accept any of them as the silver bullet for Freo's parking issues:

1.   Introduce free parking and remove time restrictions: This will see demand skyrocket, but does nothing to address the issue of supply.  To me, this represents the quickest way to exacerbate the problem.


2.   Increase supply.  Sounds good - but where exactly will all these new car parks be built?  Anecdotal evidence suggests that most people don't like walking too far from their car to their destinations.  So how do we get more bays in the city centre?  Knock down a bunch of buildings, sacrifice a square or a park or some open space - and watch Fremantle begin to look like a stretch of Albany Highway, or the car park of Carousel Shopping Centre.  Sure, there are no doubt a couple of sites within the city limits that could be utilised without compromising the very essence of Freo that makes it appealing to visitors, but would these be big enough to satisfy demand?  And when we get more motorists in the city centre heading towards these ultra-convenient lots, how are our charming little streets going to handle the increased traffic?

This is a problem that demands innovation and patience.  It's also one that many cities have faced and continue to face, and it only makes sense to look to the rest of the country and the world to see how we can benefit from what they've learnt.

Here are some of the tactics which, in addition to sensibly managing supply, the evidence tells us can make a difference:

Making better use of existing parking

Ensure that all our existing parking bays are well-used - and if not, find out why and fix it. 

For instance, my dad is adamant that Fremantle is impossible to park in, while my mum maintains that she never has trouble finding a space.  Why?  In a nutshell, it's because my dad's not that familiar with the area and Fremantle's charming, winding layout can make it difficult for a newcomer to navigate.  Thankfully, there are some obvious ways Council could and should be helping people like my dad. Here are a few:

·     Providing better, innovate signage solutions to assist visiting motorists with locating car parks and navigating the city.

·     Stepping up the use of parking maps included with event promotions in media adverts, the web, etc.

·     Using electronic signage that gets updated at some of the main entrances to the city - '104 bays currently available in Queensgate, 255 in E-Shed' - that kind of thing.

Another reason our current bays are under-utilised is because many lots are located in out-of-the-way, run down areas that make you wonder whether you're going to return to find your car relieved of its sound system.  The Point Street car park, which as a resident is where Council would have me park on weekends, is in one of these areas.  Luckily our car has a tape deck that could only appeal to an antique dealer, but I'm still not happy with my wife having to walk home alone after parking the car there at night.

Fix some of the more obvious dereliction outside of the city's immediate centre and deal with anti-social behaviour, and motorists will be willing to walk just a little bit further for their park.

Expand public transport options

There is a way that visitors can be delivered to the doorstep of the city centre without the need for the West End to be razed for parking - the train.  However, one of the problems with improving public transport is in the gap between knowing and doing.  Whilst most of us know that better public transport can only be a positive thing, the ‘doing’ lies primarily in the hands of state government.

However, our local government should be lobbying the state government for change and support in this area.  As my dad said, “surely the state government knows how important Fremantle is”.  Here are a couple of things that I’ll be pushing for:

·     Free or significantly reduced costs of catching the train into Fremantle on weekends or for special events.

·     The Perth CBD allows people to have free bus trips within a certain radius. Why not in Fremantle? All buses (not just CAT buses) travelling to and from Fremantle train station within a certain radius should be free.

·     Frequency, frequency, frequency!  I appreciate that the above initiatives could take some time to come to fruition, but achieving frequent services and more carriages on trains is a non-negotiable for me.  And it means less waiting time for buses, which I don’t think is an experience many of us enjoy.

With regards to achieving improved transport options for our community, I firmly believe that ‘persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel’.

Expand cycling options

With parents who are enthusiastic cyclists, I appreciate that there is still untapped potential in the cycling options that Freo currently offers.  However, I’d like to take the time to listen to some of the bicycle shops in the city and talk with other cyclists – the casual and the serious – before going any further on this one.

Well, if you’ve gotten this far I applaud you.  My wife flatly refused to proof this post when she read the title (“I trust you” – not something she often says when offered an opportunity to fix people’s grammar).  If elected, I look forward to being able to make Fremantle more accessible to both visitors and our own community.