Perspectives Differ

Posted on August 27, 2018 by WATAG

Your perspective on a good outcome depends on who you are or who you represent.

Outcome perspective

WATAG believes that Community amenity shouldn’t be overwhelmingly influenced by Traffic Engineers – as is often the case these days. They tend to call on Austroads Guides or other car-centric resources to support their rather technocratic views rather than look for creative solutions to meet the needs of everyone in the community.

Check out the Global Designing Cities Initiative “Change Streets, Change The World” and be refreshed.

We CAN do better. It just needs a change of mindset.

 

Posted in Active transport, Children, Cycling, Disability, Hazards, Health, Motor cars, trucks, Public transport, Safety, Walking | Leave a comment

Too old to cycle?

Posted on August 27, 2018 by WATAG

Watch the video before you decide you are to old!

Active Transport – Keeps you fitter longer, and makes a long life not just possible, but totally enjoyable too.

The community health benefits are almost incalculable  – though people have done it and there is a very substantial economic argument to keep people fitter for longer.
Read this article by Gary Rotstein  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published by SMH Dec 2016 if you’d like confirmation of this.

Posted in Active transport, Cycling, Health | 2 Comments

Just Dreaming?

Posted on August 27, 2018 by WATAG

Or could Box Hill hope to emulate Utrecht one day?

Sit back and count the cars. Don’t try to count the pedestrians and bikes. You’ll go nuts!

Utrecht is the fourth largest city in the Netherlands with a population of about 350,000.

Our city leaders should read Building the Cycling City and take on the challenge.

Posted in Active transport, Cycling, Motor cars, trucks, Walking | Tagged | 1 Comment

Evolution of a Path

Posted on August 17, 2018 by WATAG

Who is getting their fair share of the space available?

justiciaurbana

First Path

In the beginning was the path. It was undifferentiated, shared by people and animals alike, and eventually wheeled vehicles pulled by humans and animals. While dating the First Path is impossible — the very first First Path must have been a path that was reused once, and slightly better than the unimproved space around it — it operated both in early settlements and on routes connecting nearby settlements.

Today’s version of that is the sidewalk or footpath. It is now used for people walking, sometimes for people moving goods, and occasionally for people on scooters and bicycles. It should not be used for storing cars, though it is. New uses will include low speed delivery robots, as shown in the photo from Starship.

When we see a raised crosswalk, we know the First Path is given the pre-eminance its venerable status warrants. When we see shared spaces, we know those harken back to the early undifferentiated path-spaces of earlier centuries. When we see pedestrian-only zones, we see a First Path that has grown up.

What about the Second, Third and Fourth Paths?

Read ON THE FOUR PATHS by David Levinson, Transportist.

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Box Hill’s Future – a Pictorial View

Posted on August 6, 2018 by WATAG

Where is Box Hill Headed?

Development MapYou will be interested (and probably quite amazed) at the number of developments in Box Hill currently in the planning stage or under construction. A population increase for Box Hill of up to around 10,000 people in the next few years, is now almost guaranteed – making it the biggest metropolitan activity centre after the City of Melbourne.

Click here (or the map) for a larger view and a chart showing all the individual developments. And this is already two months out-of-date!

Where is the planning to ensure that these new residents (together of course with all the existing “locals”)  will have an urban centre which is built to enable them to move around freely and enjoy their urban environment?

And this problem will only be added to by the increased business visits to the area as a result of the increased resident population, PLUS the totally unknown, but potentially VERY SUBSTANTIAL effect of the increased traffic heading to and from Box Hill when the planned North East Link is built.

Talk or write to your local Whitehorse Councillors if you are concerned. If they hear nothing, they’ll assume everything is OK, and perhaps do nothing!

Check on the background to Box Hill’s Development – click here.

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