Streets Alive Yarra calls on local, state and federal governments to provide sustained long-term investment in walking, cycling, public transport and place making; and to update laws and regulations to deliver better outcomes for health, transport and land use.
Local Government
Funding
- Allocate an annual budget of $10m for walking, cycling and place making.
- Expand the developer contributions plan to provide recurring funding.
Policies and plans
- Develop, adopt and implement an Integrated Transport Plan.
- Review all 21 Local Area Place Making (LAPM) areas within each 4-year term of Council.
- Enable active transport within 20-minute neighbourhoods by establishing 30 km/h superblocks.
- Re-locate metered car-parking from shopping streets to the first 5-10 bays on each side street to free up space for wider footpaths, protected bicycle lanes, protected intersections and level access tram stops.
- Invest in mobility counters that can measure people walking, cycling, using public transport or driving in Yarra, to guide the re-allocation of budgets and street space.
- Alter Council’s organisational structure so that:
- Local Area Place Making is managed by the Planning & Placemaking team, not the traffic engineering team; and
- decisions regarding the allocation of public space to various types of on-street parking (unrestricted, time restricted, permit restricted) are made by the Planning & Placemaking team, not the Finance & Compliance team.
Laws and regulations
- Eliminate parking minimums or change them to parking maximums.
- Change the eligibility of on-street parking permits so that if a property has a crossover, they are not eligible for the first, lowest cost permit.
- Increase the price for on-street parking permits to $1 per day.
- Offer a new type of ‘user pays’ parking permit available to any resident, similar to that from the City of Moreland, at a price of $3,400 per year.
- Use demand responsive parking charges for parking meters.
- Update the “Standard Concrete Vehicle Crossing” drawing YSD601 to match best practice from the Netherlands.
- Increase the target for car sharing vehicles to 2,000 by 2030 and permit them to be located on residential streets.
Learn more in our Manifesto for Reform.
State Government
- Allocate 50% of the state transport budget to walking, cycling, and public transport.
- Allocate 5% of the state health budget to active transport and place making.
- Develop and implement an Integrated Transport Plan for greater Melbourne.
- Construct the Melbourne Rail Plan 2018-2050 and the VicRoads Principal Bicycle Network.
- Revitalise arterial shopping streets with wider footpaths, protected bicycle lanes, protected intersections and level access tram stops.
- Speed up trams by using smart traffic lights to clear intersections as trams approach.
- Manage congestion with demand responsive driving charges.
- Support 30 km/h for local, non-arterial streets.
Guidance on the above actions is offered by the ‘Transporting Melbourne‘ report from the Committee for Melbourne:
Federal Government
- Allocate 50% of the federal transport budget to walking, cycling, and public transport.
- Allocate 5% of the federal health budget to active transport and place making.
- Manage congestion on federal highways with demand responsive driving charges.
- Support 30 km/h for local, non-arterial streets.
- Link federal road funding to state governments with requirements to upgrade all roads in their jurisdiction to a 5-star safety rating, defined by AusRAP.
- Stop funding free car parking at suburban train stations – instead fund walking, cycling and buses.
Guidance for the above actions is offered by the Gear Change report from the UK Government Department for Transport:
