Are your parklands safe?

Posted on September 8, 2018 by WATAG

Parkland along the Koonung Creek is endangered.

If North East Link goes ahead, the proposed Eastern Freeway widening may have a disastrous impact on the parkland and shared paths beside the Koonung Creek between Bulleen Rd and Springvale Rd. It is likely that additional sections of the creek will be barrelled.

Whitehorse Council has called a Community Forum on Tuesday 11th September 2018 to get community input so they can try and develop an appropriate response to the planned works.

Whitehoerse NEL Forum

If you use the Koonung Creek parkland or Shared path between Bulleen Rd and Springvale Rd you should be concerned. WATAG suggests that you attend the Forum to hear some more information, and express your concerns.

The Whitehorse Council link is at: http://www.whitehorse.vic.gov.au/NE-Link-Forum.html

The forum, to be chaired by Whitehorse Mayor, Councillor Andrew Davenport, will be an opportunity to learn more about the project and how it may impact the City of Whitehorse. See below about booking details.

Attendees will hear from:

  • Robert Clark MP, Member for Box Hill
  • Samantha Dunn, MLC, Member for Eastern Metropolitan Region
  • Dr John Stone, Senior Lecturer in Transport Planning, University of Melbourne
  • Michelle Giovas, Warringal Conservation Society and Friends of Banyule
  • Chris Trueman, Whitehorse Active Transport Action Group

The preferred alignment of the Victorian Government’s North East Link includes the widening of the Eastern Freeway between Bulleen Road and Springvale Road. The design of the widening works is still being developed, so the exact impacts on the Whitehorse community aren’t know at this stage but is likely to impact on the parklands along the Koonung Creek.

The forum is an opportunity for community members to hear a variety of views on the North East Link project and to ask questions of the speakers.  Your views will help Council advocate to the Victorian Government to get the best out of this project for our community.  This is timely in the lead up to the Victorian Government election in November 2018.

Forum details

Tuesday 11 September 2018
6.30pm – 8.30pm
Whitehorse Centre
Rear 379 Whitehorse Road Nunawading
Bookings essential

Posted in Active transport, Children, Cycling, Health, Walking | Tagged , | 2 Comments

An idea for Box Hill?

Posted on September 7, 2018 by WATAG

Streets only allow ‘ultra-low emission’ vehicles, walkers and bikes.

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Only pedestrians. cyclists and e-bikes, electric cars, the newest hybrids and hydrogen vehicles  will be allowed in the new zones during rush hour.

Islington Council in London has banned petrol, diesel and older hybrid from nine London streets in Hackney in a “pioneering” scheme.

Only electric cars, the newest hybrids, hydrogen vehicles and bikes or e-bikes will be allowed during the morning and evening rush hours in London’s first “ultra-low emissions zones”.

Other drivers face fines of £130.

The zones will operate from 07:00 – 10:00 and 16:00 – 19:00 Monday to Friday. They will be policed using automatic number plate recognition.

WATAG believes that those planning for Box Hill’s potentially “traffic-clogged” future, need to closely examine what other cities are already doing to try an alleviate their problems now.

Big “outside the square ” thinking is needed for Box Hill to ensure its future is not the same as in Hackney.

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Join Biketober Whitehorse!

Posted on August 31, 2018 by WATAG

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Get on a bike this October…

Rediscover the joys and benefits of cycling!
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Biketober Whitehorse is a fun and friendly cycling campaign to get more people riding in Whitehorse!  It doesn’t matter if you ride every day or haven’t been on a bike in years, you can ride for fun or transportation any time, anywhere in October to take part.

There are prizes for riding and encouraging others, including our annual global prize draw for a trip to New Zealand or the Grand Canyon! Not confident about getting the Grand Canyon prize ? Well…you WIN anyway because riding more is so good for you!

Biketober Whitehorse is free to join and is open to everyone who lives, works or studies in the City of Whitehorse.

Find out more and Register Here

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Building a Cycling City

Posted on August 31, 2018 by WATAG

Urban Vitality – Its needed here too.

9781610918794 In car-clogged urban areas across the world, the humble bicycle is enjoying a second life as a legitimate form of transportation. City officials are rediscovering it as a multi-pronged (or -spoked) solution to acute, 21st-century problems, including affordability, obesity, congestion, climate change, inequity, and social isolation. As the world’s foremost cycling nation, the Netherlands is the only country where the number of bikes exceeds the number of people, primarily because the Dutch have built a cycling culture accessible to everyone, regardless of age, ability, or economic means.
Chris and Melissa Bruntlett share the incredible success of the Netherlands through engaging interviews with local experts and stories of their own delightful experiences riding in five Dutch cities. Building the Cycling City examines the triumphs and challenges of the Dutch while also presenting stories of North American cities already implementing lessons from across the Atlantic. Discover how Dutch cities inspired Atlanta to look at its transit-bike connection in a new way and showed Seattle how to teach its residents to realize the freedom of biking, along with other encouraging examples.
Tellingly, the Dutch have two words for people who ride bikes: wielrenner (“wheel runner”) and fietser (“cyclist”), the latter making up the vast majority of people pedaling on their streets, and representing a far more accessible, casual, and inclusive style of urban cycling—walking with wheels. Outside of their borders, a significant cultural shift is needed to seamlessly integrate the bicycle into everyday life and create a whole world of fietsers. The Dutch blueprint focuses on how people in a particular place want to move.

The relatable success stories will leave readers inspired and ready to adopt and implement approaches to make their own cities better places to live, work, play, and—of course—cycle.

Listen to Melissa and Chris in a podcast and be inspired.
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Project transparency and accountability

Posted on August 29, 2018 by WATAG

New benchmark set by Infrastructure Australia

This applies to the NEL

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and the new Rail announcement:

Infrastructure Australian says in guidelines published 24th July 2018 (https://goo.gl/ryN9P7):

“Ultimately, we want to ensure that community needs are properly understood, all options considered and communities consulted before projects are committed…”

“We want to see Australia’s governments do more to engage with communities, both in communicating long-term infrastructure plans, problem identification and by incorporating community input in a meaningful way into the project development processes.”

“Part of this involves being more transparent around project decision-making by publicly releasing the analysis and processes that form the basis of funding decisions…”

WATAG totally agrees with the above Infrastructure Australia quotes.

As far as NELA is concerned, the horse has left the stable as far as showing how it fits with the Victorian Transport Integration Act and provides for Active Transport in an equitable way. But the situation can be somewhat retrieved if NELA listens to the CTDG – Walking & Cycling and incorporates Active Transport ideas into the Reference Design.

And there is still plenty of scope for more transparency and release of analysis to show the full effect of the NEL on areas in Whitehorse City south of the Eastern Freeway and east of Bulleen Rd. A full study into the potential effect on central Box Hill and roads leading to it should be mandatory.

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