Amsterdam Lelylaan: a model for level crossing removals

The current spate of level crossing removals means that more stations are being rebuilt around Melbourne than at any time in living memory. These stations, by virtue of the selection process, are generally adjacent to roads - and often those roads are major public transport corridors, whether for trams or buses. Perhaps because we've gone from zero to 100 so quickly, and therefore don't have a ton of station design experience in our local public service, some of these new stations haven't been ideal from an urban design perspective - in fact in some cases they are worse than the ground-level stations they're replacing. The Dutch, however, are very good at this, so I thought I'd go through a case study to see what lessons Melbourne can learn from it.

Re-trafficking Bridge Mall

So! The saga of the Bridge Mall continues. In my last post on the topic, I pointed out that there was a lot to like about the City of Ballarat's draft Bakery Hill and Bridge Mall Urban Renewal Plan, but that there was one very retrograde step proposed - reopening Bridge Mall to cars. Unfortunately they not only went ahead with this idea in the final plan, but have progressed it much faster than all the good stuff - they announced the designer in May, and have now narrowed the project down to three options which have been put out to consultation.

Not just carbon: the problems with planes

A plane flying over Uilenstede on approach to Schiphol Airport