Sydney marathon opens the streets for people
Firstly a huge thank the Better Streets fundraiser runners and volunteers for helping raise over $11,000 for Better Streets.
Now let’s marvel at the fact that the Sydney Marathon shows us that Sydney can survive half a day closing one to the main north south corridors to the city to cars, and still move 41,000 people running in a marathon and thousands of volunteers.
It is possible to shut down Sydney Harbour Bride, Oxford Street and Anzac parade for half a day without the world turning into chaos, with the help of a few Behaviour changes tools. Here’s what tools they tapped into:
Environmental - Close the surrounding road network to vehicles, with the help of many buses and police to divert people.
Financial - Make the motorway tunnels free so people could get across the city
Communication - Warn people to avoid unnecessary travel
Service provision - Allow people to walk, ride a bike or catch public transport
And to help move all the people in the marathon they provided:
Financial incentives - free public transport (for runners and volunteers)
Service provision - more frequent public transport services to and from the city
Anzac parade, Moore Park Road
Tunnel toll free for 11 hours
Road closures
