Sydney Council Elections 2012

So it's time for another council election. Sadly Newtown still hasn't been unified so I'm going to have to sit this one out again - the upside being I'll still be Mayor of Newtown come Monday September 10th.

The two elections that impact Newtown residents are those for City of Sydney and Marrickville councils. The election that is getting all the press recently is the City of Sydney one, with a strong media driven anti-Cover push; however Marrickville council has also had its time in the media sun as well during the recent Israeli BDS controversy. In this article I'm just talking about the CoS election; I'll talk about Marrickville in another post - if I get enough information to form an opinion !

Vote Clover

Straight to the point: I'll be voting for Clover Moore's team in the 2012 Sydney Council elections (I live on the Sydney side of the split). There are a variety of reasons for this - first and foremost of course is that I believe she will do the best job of all the candidates who have put their hand up. However I also feel from a position of principle it's important to support Clover in the face of the vicious attacks she has been subjected to from the bogan-tariat and their masters; part of a broader push against effective women leaders this country has been sadly experiencing over the last couple of years. A victory - with a large margin - for Clover and her team would be a real triumph for the forces of decency over that ugliness.

Clover Moore has been the most effective politician in the state over the last decade. Uniquely she has been able to state a plan; consult and then implement it. Importantly the to-do list is not empty and her vision for Sydney and what is left to change is still far more compelling than that of her opponents.

Thankfully in this case there is no conflict between principle and the best candidate - unfortunately for the sake of democracy none of the alternative candidates have really made a good case as to why they'd be better for the Sydney. Some of them have seen value in aligning themselves with the anti-Clover push, which I don't think will necessarily endear them with the electorate; at the end of the day, most Daily Telegraph readers won't be voting in the Sydney council elections - which is just as well for all of us.

In the next post I will go over some of the alternative candidates. For now - your thoughts ?

PS - Just for the record - I  have no connection - formal or informal - with any of the candidates in the election.

Cycling to and from Newtown II - The City and North

The latest in a series of cycling posts, this post focuses on how to get from Newtown to the City and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The accepted route from Newtown to the city starts on the Wilson Street contra-flow. However very quickly opinion divides (and there are no signs; unlike the Marrickville side) on how best to get to the city. Going to the southern half of the CBD is best done following Wilson Street to the very end, through Little Eveleigh, around Redfern Station, down George Street, through Prince Alfred Park (when it's open) and then take your chances on Chalmers Street.


View Larger Map

To get to the Northern half of the CBD, or the bridge (which is the Mayor's commute) turn left off Wilson St at Shepherd St and follow it all the way past Sydney Uni Engineering, across Cleveland Street, 2nd right at Daniels, left at Buckland; then either straight down to Broadway and take the footpath up to the Jones St lights, or take a right at Blackfriars, take your chances across Abercrombie to the far lane, then cross Broadway and first right up Thomas Street to join Jones Street.

Follow Jones street almsot to the end, then right turn at Fig St. At the intersection with Harris St, either follow it down Murray St and up to Pyrmont Bridge, or turn left at Harris and take it down to Pyrmont Bridge Road. Turn right and you'll eventually join all the commuters coming off Anzac Bridge, and follow the soon to be completed Union Street cyclepath to Pyrmont Bridge.

According to their press release, the Central Park project on the old Carlton Brewery will contain a cycle way connecting Barbour Street to Jones St and the UTS precinct. While this is great news, it's still not clear to be how this will best connect to Wilson St. From the Sydney Uni / Sydney Council cycle map, it seems the best option will be still to take Shepherd Street, veer right at Boundary Street, cross Cleveland at the lights into Beaumont Street, then follow Myrtle Street across Abercrombie into Meagher Street, before turning left at Balfour.


If you're interested in cycling around the region, I recommend signing up for Sydney Cyclist, in particular the Inner West group. The state govenrnment is also taking feedback on cycling in Sydney until May 28th; I encourage you to have your say.

Cycling to and from Newtown I - Going West

In the previous post; I made some general observations about the state of cycle paths in Sydney and some of the issues with the current approach to planning and building cycleways. In the next few posts I'm going to focus on current and planned cycleways in and around Newtown, starting with the route from Newtown to Stanmore and further west.


View Larger Map

The route from Newtown to Stanmore is at least fairly well marked; known as L2 in the Marrickville council labelling scheme; this path flows up Mary Street, through the park then down Albermarle Street before turning at Baltic Street, past the Scientology School then down to the Liberty Road roundabout.

Sign on the return leg at the entry to the park

The Albermarle Street leg of this route is particularly problematic; a theoretically two way road not wide enough for even a car and bike to pass; it's also crossed with stop signs every second block; with limited visibility at intersections this is not conducive to smooth or safe cycling.


The alternative Bedford Street route is more spacious and has fewer stops; however it is more trafficked; and getting to it involves negotiating King Street at the dangerous Newtown Bridge. The solution for me is to make Albermarle Street one way with contra-flows and remove parking from one side of the road. To avoid it turning into a car rat-run; the one way system should change direction half way (say at Chelmsford Street) i.e. one way west from Australia Street to Chelmsford Street then one way West from Bedford Street.

Going further west (with an ultimate destination of Homebush for example) is another story. The marked 'L2' cycle path peters out after the railway line hugging laneway parallel to Douglas St - and for good reason, as the options are not much chop. Some guides recommend a complicated set of zig-zags all the way back to Parramatta Road; twice. This would also appear to be what the OpenStreetMap path is recommending; although it's noteworthy that L5 apparently just disappears somewhere in the vicinity of the Cockatoo Hotel.


View Larger Map

More seasoned riders (such as the Mayor) bite the bullet and take their chances on the narrow and busy Trafalgar Street and Railway Parade rather than the 10 minute detour, but it's not for everyone. The Sydney University guide, reproducing the Bike It map, suggests a split between that way going east; and a slight detour via Brighton Street cycling west.

This gap in the network really needs to be addressed if the government are serious in their commuting targets; if you agree please take the time to comment on the 'Missing Links' link below !

The next post will address cycling north towards the city; in the mean time here are a few more links for you:

• Massbug link to cycling routes; including the OpenStreetMap project.
• bikely link for Newtown routes.
• NSW Bike Plan update
• Feedback on missing links to NSW Government (bloody hell - removed a day after posting)
  
• Sydney University cycling page
• Australian Cyclist magazine
• Sydney Cyclist forums
  

Cycling and Newtown - Part I

Newtown has a well earned reputation as the heart of Sydney cycling. Cyclists abound on and around King St, and the 'cyclists highway' of Wilson Street was the site of Sydney's first (I think) contra-flow cycle lane. According the NSW government's statistics web page; Newtown ranks second in NSW (really first, as O'Connor is in the A.C.T - strange that the website claims it as part of NSW) for the number of commuting cyclists.

The City of Sydney Council and Marrickville Council (joint custodians of Newtown) both have excellent cycling strategies online (Sydney and Marrickville). One key difference though is that Marrickville council have recently cut their cycling budget - despite the best intentions of the Greens - whereas Sydney Council are spending millions on implementing theirs.

The above dichotomy reveals are more general problem with cycle paths in Sydney. Given the state government's complete lack of interest in cycling, it's left in the hands of local councils. As a result, cycle paths (where they exists) typically stop at council boundaries (or anywhere else where the money happns to run out). The classic example of this in Newtown is the way the Stanmore - Newtown cycleway peters out at the corner of King Street and Mary Street, with an unfriendly one way street between it and the aforementioned Wilson Street cycle highway.

Amazingly there is a detailed plan to fix this intersection and unify these paths (on page 101 of Marrickville's cycle strategy) although no details on timing or funding (nor even whether the RTA would agree to losing one lane of one of the few East - West routes in inner-Sydney).


Sydney Council has recently announced plans for a Cycle Hub at Taylor Square. The planned hub will include showers and a bike repair centre. There are doubts about whether this is the right location for the hub; on the positive side it's on the intersection of three major cycle routes; on the other hand it's not clear it's close enough to offices to be really useful for commuters.


Newtown's Hub would seem like an obvious site for a similar facility (we can't let Surry Hills get one up on us) - perhaps associated with the community centre in my old office (a.k.a the Town Hall) - situated as it is at the intersection of several bike routes. It could act as a de facto bike parking facility for Newtown Station, given that Railcorp will not commit to decent bike facilities. What do you think ?

In Part 2 I'll discuss in more detail some of the local routes in and around Newtown and planned upgrades; in the meantime here are some (hopefully) useful links - let me know if I've missed any !

• Bike Sydney
  BIKESydney was formed in 2000 to help look after the Sydney City Council Area (Australia) and is affiliated with Bicycle NSW.
• Massbug
  Local bicycle group covering Marrickville and former South Sydney Council areas. The group meets on the first Wednesday of the month at the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre at 7:30pm.
  
• Bicycle NSW
  Peak cycling body providing advice, insurance, ride events bike shop discounts and Australian Cyclist magazine to members
  
• RTA Cycleways
  The RTA has produced Cycleway maps for Newcastle, Central Coast, Illawarra and Sydney regions.
• Sydney Community College
  Offers short affordable cycling courses to improve your skills and confidence in riding a bike.

Moving the Inner West

Flights to Surry Hills on the hour

It seems like all our local transport modes are in various stages of revision at once. There's a new train timetable kicking into place next month; the State Transit Authority has just launched a consultation phase for new bus timetables for the South and West, and Sydney Council has just released its draft Pedestrian Cycling and Traffic Calming Plan (catchy name that one) for Darlinghurst, Camperdown, Erskineville and the bits of Newtown they control. Not to mention (which I won't this time, I promise) all the hullabaloo regarding light rail and metro in the wider Inner West.

Inner Westies have just a couple of weeks to get their act together if they want some say in all of this. It's too late for the trains, which after a false start a couple of years ago will start operating to the new timetable on October 11th. The relevant changes are summarised here - there doesn't seem to be much changing on the Inner West line at first glance.

State Transit have gone to quite an effort to consult their planned bus route and timetable changes; apart from this informative website, glossy brochures - complete with detailed maps - have been distributed to all households in the region. Changes to the busses in the area have been summarised in 8 categories:

• Sydney CBD focused bus services;
• Balmain, Birchgrove and Glebe bus services;
• The Metrobus network;
• Strathfield bus services;
• Homebush Bay bus services;
• Mortlake, Breakfast Point, Concord, Cabarita,Abbotsford and Chiswick bus services;
• Rockdale, Kogarah and Miranda bus services; and
• Cross Regional bus services;

and I'd really recommend bus users to take the time to read the details and submit feedback; either online or the old fashioned way on the brochures. I've already had feedback via twitter that the new proposal doesn't address the 428 frequency and related over-crowding - if you agree, let them know - it's a rare chance. Feedback closes October 9th.

There's also a new Metro Bus route (M30) that will take you directly from Enmore to Mosman and back should the need somehow strike you. Maybe there'll suddenly be a proliferation of pearls on King Street (or tatts on Military Road).

from the council website

Finally, the Sydney Council have reduced their draft Pedestrian Cycling and Traffic Calming Plan for comment. The mayor attended the original consulting session for this (on a rainy night in Camperdown in March) - I have to say it was very professionally organised and facilitated and it's great to see that notice has been taken of the feedback. I made fun of the name earlier; but the council did explain that the name has been changed from the original 'Traffic Plan' to emphasis the community friendly aspect of the plan, rather that an emphasis on cars - and how to move them as quickly as possible.

The report (click on the 4th link in the further information section) is the most interesting document. It's well worth reading - if you're impatient jump to the recommendations on page 8. It's accompanied by some detailed maps summarising proposed changes - you can also download high-resolution versions of the maps as well.

In summary, the draft plan includes:

• Pedestrian and cycling access improvements across the area, including intersections on Wilson Street and Abercrombie Street
• Working with the RTA to install new crossings missing at signalised intersections and a new crossing along Mallett Street
• Cycleway projects on Missenden Road, Wilson Street and Shepherd Street
• Kerb extensions and additional crossings along King Street, and potential new bike parking.

We have until Friday 25th September now to prepare any comments - once again, I really recommend taking the time to check out the report and submitting any feedback - all the evidence suggests the council takes it seriously, and this plan will be the framework for changes over the next 5-10 years.

And from the photo above, it seems that the Federal government is still investigating sites a lot closer to home for Sydney's second airport ...