Imagine wandering down your local high street on a Summer's evening and being able to find diverse market stalls, alfresco eats, as well as live music.
From the programme, it sounds like they mean shutting down most of the CBD to non-essential travel on a regular periodic basis. Like once a week or once a month or something. So deliveries and such would probably still happen, and obviously so would emergency vehicles, but the average person wouldn’t be allowed to drive in.
in a world where many many people struggle with mobility, there needs to be some form of semi-direct access
The thing is, a car-dependent world makes this worse for people, not better. It makes it hard to get places if you can’t drive, whether that’s because of a disability, an inability to afford the high prices, or because you’ve been excluded from driving, or, as a close family friend is currently going through, simply because of age and the physical & mental effects of aging.
Aside from the periodic changes, one of the best things we could do would be to permanently turn our CBDs into pedestrianised zones. Places where drivers are entirely allowed to go if they want, but where they have to expect to be driving very slowly because pedestrians get complete right of way. Here in Brisbane we already have this in a few places, like along Albert St between Adelaide St and Burnett Ln. As well as Burnett Ln itself. Extending that to almost the entire CBD (minus one or two key roads used by public transport—such as Brisbane’s Adelaide St) would be a massive boon for safety and comfort, without impeding the ability for people who still choose to drive to be able to.
Also, be better, ABC
Strong agree. A text transcription would be great, and personally I’d love it if they allowed you to play back audio at 2x speed because their presenters all speak so slowly.
The thing is, a car-dependent world makes this worse for people, not better.
As someone who also can’t drive, I totally agree. But the only existing infrastructure I can use right now to get somewhat direct access to a location is a taxi. Even if I had a few thousand dollars to casually drop on a mobility scooter… stairs. Fucking stairs everywhere. And reception desks/bars made for 1.8m tall standing humans. And furniture packed so tight that you can’t get past it, or just the casual rental bikes scattered in the middle of a footpath that has no curb cuts. Everywhere.
Shutting down the roads before providing viable substitutes and/or appropriate facilities is short-sighted and a terrible idea. And for me and many others, a terrifying prospect.
one of the best things we could do would be to permanently turn our CBDs into pedestrianised zones. Places where drivers are entirely allowed to go if they want, but where they have to expect to be driving very slowly because pedestrians get complete right of way.
We’re getting more of these in Sydney CBD, and thankfully the council is getting more proactive in providing more public seating, but I can’t go there much or for long enough to visit maybe 1 or 2 businesses. From an atmosphere / community standpoint, I really love them. From a medical standpoint, I associate them with a high likelihood of pain and injury, and so I avoid them. I can’t even imagine how expensive it would be to try to get a taxi going through multiple streets encountering those few pedestrians who think “fuck your taxi fare, cars must obey me, you should be walking too, so i will block your path intentionally”, even though I would much rather be walking like everyone else. I’ve already copped abuse getting out of a taxi that was dropping me off because it was ‘illegally stopping’.
We need ways of allowing people to do much more than just stand and walk in a public space before many people can realistically use those public spaces. Increasing the amount of those before making them accessible will hurt a lot of people, I’m just one of them.
In Japan is common for a main street in a shopping district to be closed for vehicular traffic on Weekends.
However it’s pretty much only the main street that gets closed.
Japanese law also puts more responsibility for the driver of the bigger vehicle to avoid an accident as well. So streets where vehicular traffic are allowed are somewhat chill as well.
From the programme, it sounds like they mean shutting down most of the CBD to non-essential travel on a regular periodic basis. Like once a week or once a month or something. So deliveries and such would probably still happen, and obviously so would emergency vehicles, but the average person wouldn’t be allowed to drive in.
The thing is, a car-dependent world makes this worse for people, not better. It makes it hard to get places if you can’t drive, whether that’s because of a disability, an inability to afford the high prices, or because you’ve been excluded from driving, or, as a close family friend is currently going through, simply because of age and the physical & mental effects of aging.
Aside from the periodic changes, one of the best things we could do would be to permanently turn our CBDs into pedestrianised zones. Places where drivers are entirely allowed to go if they want, but where they have to expect to be driving very slowly because pedestrians get complete right of way. Here in Brisbane we already have this in a few places, like along Albert St between Adelaide St and Burnett Ln. As well as Burnett Ln itself. Extending that to almost the entire CBD (minus one or two key roads used by public transport—such as Brisbane’s Adelaide St) would be a massive boon for safety and comfort, without impeding the ability for people who still choose to drive to be able to.
Strong agree. A text transcription would be great, and personally I’d love it if they allowed you to play back audio at 2x speed because their presenters all speak so slowly.
As someone who also can’t drive, I totally agree. But the only existing infrastructure I can use right now to get somewhat direct access to a location is a taxi. Even if I had a few thousand dollars to casually drop on a mobility scooter… stairs. Fucking stairs everywhere. And reception desks/bars made for 1.8m tall standing humans. And furniture packed so tight that you can’t get past it, or just the casual rental bikes scattered in the middle of a footpath that has no curb cuts. Everywhere.
Shutting down the roads before providing viable substitutes and/or appropriate facilities is short-sighted and a terrible idea. And for me and many others, a terrifying prospect.
We’re getting more of these in Sydney CBD, and thankfully the council is getting more proactive in providing more public seating, but I can’t go there much or for long enough to visit maybe 1 or 2 businesses. From an atmosphere / community standpoint, I really love them. From a medical standpoint, I associate them with a high likelihood of pain and injury, and so I avoid them. I can’t even imagine how expensive it would be to try to get a taxi going through multiple streets encountering those few pedestrians who think “fuck your taxi fare, cars must obey me, you should be walking too, so i will block your path intentionally”, even though I would much rather be walking like everyone else. I’ve already copped abuse getting out of a taxi that was dropping me off because it was ‘illegally stopping’.
We need ways of allowing people to do much more than just stand and walk in a public space before many people can realistically use those public spaces. Increasing the amount of those before making them accessible will hurt a lot of people, I’m just one of them.
Once a week? Fuck no.
In Japan is common for a main street in a shopping district to be closed for vehicular traffic on Weekends.
However it’s pretty much only the main street that gets closed.
Japanese law also puts more responsibility for the driver of the bigger vehicle to avoid an accident as well. So streets where vehicular traffic are allowed are somewhat chill as well.
When I was in Germany, given years and years ago, most towns bigger than a village had a pedestrian only shopping area. Full time no cars.