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Transport Planning

Submission to Sydney Metro – Sydenham to Bankstown – Mod 1 – Bankstown Station

By
2020/09/07
Submission

Updated with Sydney Metro’s “Response to issues raised in the submissions”.

Regarding the Revised station design for Bankstown Station. Includes the provision of a new north-south connection across the rail corridor between Appian Way and Restwell Street.

Reordered Submission June 2020. Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a Transport Analyst and Planner. I was asked to address the NSW Legislative Council to Transport & Customer Service Committee Inquiry regarding the Sydenham to Bankstown Metro Conversion. I have worked extensively on projects with Sydney Trains including on the Responsive Passenger Information System designed for customer congestion management at Town Hall and other important interchange stations.

I will be brief, as I only saw this proposed change on the day submissions closed.

Firstly, the proposed bike parking area is too small. The northern commuter car park only has space for 50 cars, a tiny fraction of possible demand. Central Bankstown is too be redeveloped as Transit-Oriented Developments. Therefore, 40 car spaces should be retained for disabled passengers, and the space on the west of the driveway should be converted to secure covered bike parking. This would significantly increase the station’s passenger catchment.

Secondly, to 1) reduce crowding, congestion, and delays, 2) improve fire and life safety, and 3) increase patronage; I would recommend the instillation of exits on the eastern end of the metro station. These eastern exits would allow quick exit in the event of an emergency. These eastern exits would spread passengers more evenly on the trains. These eastern exits would attract passengers from further afield and connect all passengers quickly to more locations. These eastern exits might allow some bus stops to be relocated to improve network efficiency.

Diagram of proposal
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Newtown Square – build identity and connect businesses

By
2020/08/31
Transport Planning

Built around Sydney’s tramways in 1890s, Newtown needs KPIs to prioritise humans not cars.

Proposed changes overlaid on aerial photography

The proposed transformation will activate Newtown as a premier destination for locals, as well as domestic and international visitors.

  • Bring the tram sheds back to life – creating a new gathering point. Landscape and open the areas around the tram sheds, with increased passive surveillance and human scale lighting. Make more spaces to sit, reducing crowding, and create new cooling green islands.
  • Create quicker connections between business areas with new paths. Most people head straight to northern King St. Use shared identity, anchors, and wayfinding to encourage visitors to spread.
    • Newtown only receives 10% of the international visitors as the Opera House
    • Reactivate Brennan Lane and the old path along the Bank Hotel.
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Demonstrating place making and safe streets in Enmore

By
2020/08/30
Transport Planning

Making Enmore’s commons safer for children, removing rat-runs, and giving more space to people

Proposed changes overlaid on aerial photography

This compact area can be used as a low-cost minimal-disruption demonstration transformation.

  • Safe 30 km/h limit in these narrow residential streets will increase pedestrian safety, decrease pollution, and will achieve Vision Zero.
    • Speed limits of 50km/h on narrow streets (60km/h on Liberty St) are dangerous and frequently results in accident and near-misses.
  • Raised continuous sidewalk on all roads throughout the area will psychologically calm traffic by showing the area is human-centric.
    • The daylighting zones will be enhanced with seating, tables, and swings.
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Returning space to the people to make Stanmore a Place again

By
2020/08/29
Transport Planning

Opening the Stanmore commons to make space for people, businesses, and cooling greenery.

Proposed changes overlaid on aerial photography

The Sydney Metro Sydenham to Bankstown conversion will see a train stopping at Stanmore:

  • every 3 minutes in peak-hours,
  • every 8 minutes off-peak,
  • currently waiting time is at least 15 minutes.

A protected cycleway will soon be installed on Gordon Crescent and Railway Avenue connecting Petersham to the universities, CBD, and beyond.

The inner-west cycleway network overlaid on an aerial photograph
– Stanmore Station is circled in purple.

These changes will make Stanmore an accessible location for the western corridor.

These changes transform the 1950’s car-centric design focused on through-traffic, into an attractive human-centric commons:

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Sydneysiders are working from home more, but the shift is linked to where you live, data reveals

By
2020/08/27
Transport and Covid-19

‘Sydneysiders are transitioning to a digital working-from-home future, but movement data has revealed the scale of this shift is linked to where you live.’ Hanrahan, Nguyen (2020-08-27)

My Quotes

Mathew Hounsell, a transport researcher at the University of Technology Sydney, said the data showed that people in professional jobs who could work from home during the lockdown were continuing to do so.

“This is starting a change that has happened in other places and industries, towards a more distributed digital team. What we’re seeing is essentially a behavioural change that we would expect to continue,” he said.

Hanrahan, Nguyen (2020-08-27)
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Adam Ruins Everything

By
2020/08/01
Traffic Violence, Transport Planning

“In Adam Ruins Everything, host Adam Conover employs a combination of comedy, history and science to dispel widespread misconceptions about everything we take for granted. A blend of entertainment and enlightenment, Adam Ruins Everything is like that friend who knows a little bit too much about everything and is going to tell you about it… whether you like it or not.”

Why Jaywalking Is a Crime

Adam reveals the derogatory origins of jaywalking and explains how the auto industry made it illegal.

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‘It could take years’: Slow recovery predicted for public transport

By
2020/07/16
Transport and Covid-19

Rabe, Gladstone(2020-07-16) opened with ‘Public transport users in Sydney are slowly returning with a surge of 10 million commuters in June but experts warn it may take years before passenger numbers go back to pre-coronavirus levels.’

My Quotes

“I don’t think things will ever return to quite what they were,” University of Technology transport expert Mathew Hounsell said.

“There has been a significant behavioural change among the professionals in the CBD, as a lot of people realised they can work from home.”

He added that more people would choose to walk, cycle or drive to work in coming months amid fear of community transmission of COVID-19 on public transport.

Rabe, Gladstone(2020-07-16)

Citation: Rabe, Gladstone(2020-07-16)

Tom Rabe and Nigel Gladstone. 2020-07-16, “’It could take years’: Slow recovery predicted for public transport”, Fairfax Media Ltd – Nine Entertainment Co. https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/it-could-take-years-slow-recovery-predicted-for-public-transport-20200715-p55c91.html

Public transport union wants face masks mandated but experts remain divided

By
2020/05/23
Transport and Covid-19

Public transport experts are calling for the wearing of cloth masks to be mandated on trains, buses and trams as COVID-19 restrictions ease and Australians return to work, but medical experts remain divided on whether they are necessary.

The transport union’s call is in line with a growing push from medical professionals around the world for mandatory face masks, including in Australia where the “Masks for All” campaign protests against the official advice they are not needed.

Associate Professor David Allen, an occupational physician involved in the campaign, said multiple studies around the world showed cloth masks reduced the risk of spreading SARS-CoV-2 through droplets, including by people without symptoms.

“A large proportion of the spread is from people who don’t know they have the virus … It’s a low-cost, simple intervention and, in those countries that do have it, the risk of transmission is measurably lower.”

Australia’s chief nurse, Alison McMillan, said on Friday the advice of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee’s (AHPPC) infection control group remained that “there is no evidence for the need of general use of masks in the community”.

McCauley, Jacks (2020-05-22)
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An hour to get from Newtown to CBD: warnings over impending gridlock

By
2020/05/20
Transport and Covid-19

‘Almost 300,000 city workers would need to find a new way to get to work under new physical distancing measures for public transport announced on Monday, which only allow for 12 people on buses and 32 on train carriages.’

Rabe (2020-05-20)

My Quotes

And while Qantas confirmed on Tuesday that it would offer optional face masks to its passengers, Transport for NSW said current health advice still didn’t indicate masks were needed on public transport.

University of Technology Sydney transport expert Mathew Hounsell said one way the government increase density on the network, which is currently at around 20 per cent capacity, was through face masks.

“They are going [for] very strong on the distancing on public transport, there should be some discussion over time whether we can use some infection control measures on public transport to increase capacity,” he said.

Rabe (2020-05-20)
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