Blog Archives

Transport equity week 2023

31/8/2023

Transport equity is the principle that all individuals, regardless of their socio-economic status, race, disability, age, gender, or other aspects of their identity, should have equal access to safe, affordable, reliable, and efficient transportation options.

Friends of the Earth (FOE) is inviting all groups and individuals who are interested and care about accessible and equitable transport for all, to join Transport Equity Week from 17-23 September 2023 with an action to raise awareness for transportation equity issues. You can sign up for an action here and access the fantastic social media pack.

What does transport equity mean?
Transport equity, also known as transportation equity or mobility justice, addresses the disparities and barriers that certain groups face when trying to access transportation. This can be thought about in 7 broad areas.

Accessibility: Ensuring that people have access to a variety of transportation modes (e.g., public transit, walking, cycling, cars) and that these modes can get them where they need to go in a reasonable amount of time and cost. Being accessible, means being accessible for all, regardless of age, income, or physical or mental attributes.
Affordability: Ensuring that transportation options are affordable for everyone, especially lower-income communities. The recent AAA (Australian Automobile Association) transport affordability index found the typical Australian household's transport costs rose by almost 7.4 per cent in the March 2023 quarter (primarily private vehicles). Public Transport costs in Sydney and Melbourne for a 7-day pass or maximum cap is $50.
Safety: All individuals should be able to move about safely, whether they're walking, cycling, taking public transport, or driving. In Australia, our major cities ranked poorly in the annual people for bikes survey rating 1733 cities globally. Sydney ranked 735 and 125 out of 163 large cities (26% percentile).
Environmental and Health Impact: This considers the environmental impacts of transportation systems. Low-income communities and communities of colour often suffer disproportionately from transportation-related pollution. For example, having large motorways through the middle of communities.
Participation and Representation: Communities should have a say in the planning, design, and implementation of transportation systems and policies in their areas.
Reliability: People should be able to depend on transportation options to be available and to operate efficiently. See our example below of the recent Bus Taskforce Report which has a comparison of Liverpool and Chatswood.
Infrastructure Investment: Historically, motor vehicle infrastructure funding has been prioritised. In Australia, walking and cycling investment has typically been less than 1% of the transport infrastructure budget (ACT has delivered in some years up to 14%).

Addressing transport equity ensures that everyone, especially those from marginalized groups, can fully participate in society by accessing jobs, schools, health care, and other essential services. It is a critical component of a just and inclusive urban planning and transportation policy.

Case study - Chatswood and Liverpool.
Same population density, but different bus service frequency

In July 2023, the NSW Bus Industry Taskforce released its first report on the state of buses in NSW. In the report, the inequities in the provision of the bus network and bus services in Sydney was identified. “Over two thirds of Greater Sydney’s bus patronage occurs in the area defined as the Eastern Harbour City.” “Poor bus provision limits access to and from the metropolitan centres of Penrith, Campbelltown, Bradfield, Liverpool and Parramatta, and enforces a higher reliance on cars in these areas.”
The report presented a case study between Chatswood and Liverpool to emphasise the inequality. These two areas have similar population sizes and density but have markedly different bus services and frequencies. Both have rail stations (Chatswood also has a metro connection), health and education centres. However in Ashcroft a low income area comparatively has one bus service to Liverpool 4km away a nearly 50 minute walk from Ashcroft Public school.
The areas where it would benefit people the most, they have the least access locking in vehicle transportation costs.

Image source: https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/system/files/media/documents/2023/Bus-Industry-Taskforce_First-Report_July-2023.pdf

For more information about transport equity check out these reports and blogs from national organisations and key research publications:

Australian Automobile Association – Transport Affordability Index – March Quarter 3
iMove Equity in Transportation
The Fifth Estate - The chicken and the egg: How planning budgets make neighbourhood cycling a scramble
Infrastructure Australia – 2009 - Cycling Infrastructure for Australian Cities
Cycling and walking can help drive Australia’s recovery – but not with less than 2% of transport budgets
Beck et al (2022) Active transport research priorities for Australia
The Conversation, Dr. Sipe (2023) - Outer suburbs’ housing cost advantage vanishes when you add in transport – it needs to be part of the affordability debate
Australian Government (2019) - Relationship between transport use and income in Australia
Institute of Transport Engineers (2023) – Webinar – Transport Equity
Institute of Transport Logistics Studies (2022) - The growing importance of equity in planning cities: recognising the value of improved mobility for those at exclusion risk

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NSW 30km/h speed zoning standard - better but still room for improvement

13/8/2023

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Better Streets welcomes the new NSW Speed Zoning Standard however there is still room for improvement.

For the first time NSW has a policy that articulates the street design requirements of 30km/h speed zones.

30km/h speed zones are essential for making urban areas safe for people walking and riding a bicycle. Their implementation is one of the Better Streets’ Key Asks and has been the core work of 30please, a Better Streets coalition member.

The Speed zoning policy includes excellent principles, including:

“Speed zones should be set to minimise harm” and
“Speed zones should align with surrounding environments to support liveability, amenity, and successful places”.

Unfortunately, in spite of these sensible principles the policy creates a number of requirements for 30km/h speed zones that will slow their widespread implementation.

The first requirement is that generally 30km/h zones will be “avoided” on arterial routes or where there is more than limited through traffic, this means that main streets on busy roads are likely to be ineligible for safe 30km/h speed limits.

The main street in Ljubljana, Slovenia is 30km/h. Photo credit: Better Streets

The second is that 30km/h speed zones can only be used where there is only one lane of travel for vehicles in each direction. This will require potentially costly work to be done to typical local streets particularly around intersections.

30 km/h zone sign post in New Zealand. Photo: Better Streets

The third is that 30km/h streets must be “self-explaining environments” which may require significant traffic calming measures to be built, such as physical treatments at the entry of streets and speed bumps which will add cost, time and complexity to implementation. Exactly what a "self explaining environment " is a term of art, and there are numerous examples of 30km/h zones from around the world which do not require special treatments, such as the 20mph arterials of London, or New Zealand.

Whether this would be accepted by TfNSW remains to be seen.

Presently, speed zones can only be changed by the state government transport agency but we look forward to a future delegation so that Councils can reduce speed limits on local streets consistent with the policy.

Better Streets looks forward to Transport for NSW minimising the barriers to the rapid rollout of 30km/h speed zones by providing clear guidance that most local residential streets should be 30km/h and providing a toolkit of low cost, fast roll-out interventions to support easy and consistent implementation particularly for quiet residential streets that will signal (not enforce) appropriate behaviours to drivers, similar to local low speed red/brick streets used in the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries.
These could be simple entry treatments and/or signage for typical local streets, similar to some shared zones that use threshold paving or asphalt colour and signage to achieve desired behaviour. Preferably such a toolkit would be included in an update to the TfNSW Design of Roads and Streets Guide.

This new policy represents a big step toward the normalisation of 30km/h speed limits, and, while there are still challenges, it opens the door for future improvements that could streamline the process of making more safe streets and is cause for (cautious) celebration.

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Oxford Street Meeting with Transport for NSW

7/8/2023

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Oxford Street, Darlinghurst NSW is a major route from the East to Sydney City. The safe and efficient movement of people walking, riding bicycles, catching public transport and businesses should be prioritised.

Better Streets met with Transport for NSW to discuss the Oxford Street project, currently known as the Oxford Street cycleway - link for more details.
Better Streets proposed the following:

The project be called Urban Renewal Plan or Streetscape Improvement - easier and nicer to walk - localised footpath widening and buffer from traffic noise and pollution, trees and shade, outdoor dining,
The project integrate with the City of Sydney's City Access Strategy, Woollahra Urban Forestry Strategy (which would improve buy-in with Paddington Society)
Limit construction time with minimal disruption
The Street be zoned as 30km/h speed zone in order to maximise placemaking benefits for businesses - this is within Transport for NSW guidelines.
Do not support the proposed changes to the lane travel widths. Oxford Street is not an arterial bus route here, 333 is a local bus because of transition to Bondi Junction.

To provide support for the project and suggestions - fill in the survey

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