Lee Waters, renowned for his pivotal role as former Deputy Climate Change and Transport Minister in the Welsh Government is visiting Australia and will be hosted by Better Streets in Sydney and Melbourne.
Lee will share his journey of implementing 30 km/h (20 mph) as the default urban speed limit across Wales. His experiences and challenges in driving transformative change towards achieving the Paris climate targets promise to offer invaluable lessons in policy and leadership. This is a unique opportunity for advocates and community members alike to delve into the intersection of policy and effective governance. Sydney Lee Walers will be joined by Rob Stokes, former NSW Minister for Cities, Planning and Public spaces , Transport and Infrastructure, alongside Lord Mayor of the City of Sydney, Clover Moore AO. Following a keynote address from Lee, he will be joined onstage by Rob Stokes and the Lord Mayor Clover Moore for a fireside chat. Together, they will explore the complexities of reducing urban speeds and discuss how community engagement can build crucial social acceptance for such initiatives. This event is being held in collaboration with Committee for Sydney, AITPM, City of Sydney, WalkSydney and the Henry Halloran Research Trust. Date and time: Thursday, August 15 · 6 - 7:30pm AEST Location: Sydney Town Hall - 483 George Street Sydney, NSW 2000 Get directions Registration link: register here Melbourne Following a keynote address from Lee, he will be joined by moderator Julian O'Shea and guests Lauren Pearson, Ben Rossiter and Sophie Wade for a chat and then Q&A. Together, they will explore the complexities of reducing urban speeds and discuss how Yarra's pioneering 30 km/h zone can grow across Melbourne. Date and time: Wed 28th Aug 2024, 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm AEST Location: The Provincial Hotel 299 Brunswick St, Fitzroy VIC 3065, Australia Get directions Registration link: register here
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Better Streets was recently invited by The Greens’ Cate Faehrmann and Kobi Shetty to NSW Parliament House for a discussion about shared streets in NSW. Alongside our colleagues from Walk Sydney, Bicycle NSW, 30Please and Inner West BUG, we explored how The Greens could shape their policies to ensure more inclusive, safer and environmentally-friendly streets and communities.
We welcomed this opportunity to collaborate with The Greens on developing sensible policies for sustainable transport and healthy streets. We are open to working with any party interested in fostering a more inclusive and sustainable transport future for communities around Australia. In our workshop, we proposed three key infrastructure recommendations and three enablers to ensure the best outcomes for our communities, which are outlined in further detail below. Infrastructure: 1. Introduce a 30km/h default Urban Speed Limit 2. Allocate 20% of the transport budget to Active Transport 3. Focus on schools to enable 75% of children to walk, cycle or use public transport. Enablers: 4. Undertake a deep reform of transport across state and local governments 5. Establish a Carbon Budget for all sectors, including transport 6. Embed a fully integrated approach to transport and land use planning. Recommendation 1. Introduce a 30km/h default Urban Speed Limit At 30km/h drivers have a wider field of vision and a greater chance of noticing potential hazards and stopping in time. At this speed most people, including children and the elderly, will survive a collision. Reduced speeds also make streets quieter, reduce noise pollution and encourage more people to walk and cycle. More detail about our position is at Slow vehicles down - Better Streets. Recommendation 2. Allocate 20% of the transport budget to Active Transport To achieve a substantial mode shift and reduce carbon emissions from transport, investment must be redirected to active and public transport. Countries like Ireland and Sweden allocate 18-20% of their transport budgets to active transport. Adopting this approach in NSW, in conjunction with our other recommendations, would transform our streets - much like Paris has done in recent years. Recommendation 3. Focus on schools to enable 75% of children to walk, cycle, or use public transport Focusing on schools is crucial for creating a safe and encouraging environment for children. Improving infrastructure around schools to enable children to walk independently, improves their health and wellbeing and significantly reduces traffic congestion and pollution around schools. See our position at Better Streets at school - Better Streets Recommendation 4. Undertake a deep reform of transport We believe the time has come for a deep review of Transport for NSW (TfNSW) and local governments to address the systemic issues hindering optimal outcomes. Key actions that we recommend include:
b) carbon reduction c) better streets outcomes (30kmh, cycleways, crossings) d) reduction in pedestrian and bicycle-rider fatalities.
Recommendation 5. Establish a Carbon Budget for all sectors, including transport NSW should implement a carbon budget for all sectors to meet legislated carbon reduction targets for 2030, 2035 and 2050. This would entail setting five-year carbon budgets that progressively decrease for each sector, including transport. In Wales, the Well-being of Future Generations Act (2015) created a legal obligation for all public bodies to ensure they don’t compromise future generations, while the Net Zero Wales Carbon Budget requires agencies to ensure that every decision keeps the agency within its allocated carbon budget. A Roads Review panel found most road projects needed to be halted because of their anticipated embodied carbon and operational emissions. It did not accept rising traffic forecasts as justification for increased road capacity, highlighting the need to focus on sustainable transport solutions instead. We strongly recommend that NSW adopt a similar approach. Recommendation 6. Embed a fully integrated approach to transport and land use planning If we are serious about reducing emissions and conclude, as the Welsh Government did, that road building needs to be halted, then we need to re-think our planning for urban areas. Better Streets argues that state and local governments should immediately reject all new developments that perpetuate car dependency for current and future generations. Instead, we should support compact, efficient urban forms. This involves prioritising infill over greenfield development. The NSW Government’s commitment to Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs) is a first step, by increasing density around major public transport. However this also needs to be accompanied by a serious commitment to reduced traffic speeds, improved streetscapes and parklands, and better infrastructure provision for those communities. If we cease building new roads, we can redirect funds to more sustainable initiatives, such as public and active transport, streetscape improvements and affordable housing. The Victorian Government subsidises greenfield areas by $170 000 per home which could instead fund affordable housing in infill areas. Infrastructure Victoria shows that compact development uses less land, encourages shorter driving distances, increases the use of active and public transport, and results in lower overall emissions. We are delighted to see that the Yarra City Council has approved an extension of the area to which its 30km/h speed limit applies, to cover all the streets within the boundaries of the Melbourne suburbs of Fitzroy and Collingwood (apart from the Johnston Street arterial) [1]. Fitzroy and Collingwood are relatively densely populated inner city suburbs (with 19,610 residents), just 3 kilometres from Melbourne’s Central Business District. Around 28% of households across the two suburbs do not own a car (compared with 8.5% for Greater Melbourne) [2] indicating a very high reliance on walking and cycling in the area. Streets Alive Yarra, a local safe streets advocacy group (and Better Streets coalition member) has led the campaign for a street-friendly reduction in the speed limit. Founder and president Jeremy Lawrence said: “the reduced speed limit is the lowest cost measure for maximum possible safety access...benefitting people of all ages and abilities; kids, seniors, parents with prams.“ [4] The improved safety outcomes of the the City of Yarra trial reflects the overwhelming evidence from health and safety authority research, and the experience of cities around the world, including Toronto (Canada), Bogota (Columbia) and London (UK) [5]. Lower vehicle speeds on residential streets are not just about fewer crashes. Lower speeds support the use of the street for people of all ages and abilities to walk, to ride, to socialise, to gather at local businesses. For Better Streets, the 30km/h limit is a vital step to getting kids active, boosting local business, and providing transport choices. If you want people-friendly speed limits in your local streets:
[1] The Melbourne Age, 9 May 2024. Speed limit cut to 30km/h on almost every street in two suburbs.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/collingwood-and-fitzroy-streets-drop-to-30km-h-from-today-20240509-p5in8u.html [2] Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021. Community profile for Fitzroy, Collingwood, Greater Melbourne. [3] The Melbourne Age, 15 November 2023. Melbourne council votes to drop speed limit to 30km/h to protect cyclists, pedestrians https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/melbourne-council-votes-to-drop-speed-limit-to-30km-h-to-protect-cyclists-pedestrians-20231115-p5ek1k.html [4] Streets Alive Yarra, 9 May 2024. Yarra City Council Green Lights New 30km/h Speed Limit Trial https://streets-alive-yarra.org/journal/expanded-30-km-h-zone/ [5] Better Streets, Recommendation 2 https://www.betterstreets.org.au/slow-vehicles-downs.html 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:
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 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. ![]() 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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