Reviving Bridge Mall

There's been a lot of talk in Ballarat circles lately about how to revitalise Bridge Mall - and (somewhat coincidentally) it's happening around the same time there's been a lot of debate about the effects of various street-shaping projects on Sturt and Mair Streets. Many people are concerned about how desolate Bridge Mall can get, and worried that the same sort of thing could happen on surrounding streets - so it's worth discussing the kinds of things that help or hinder the vitality of a street.

Bridge Mall in 2016

Primer: Line-on-a-Map Syndrome

A related phenomenon to the Coverage vs Patronage tension is Line-on-a-Map Syndrome. This is what you get when public transport advocates look at a map and say "There's no coverage here! Why don't we invest in some public transport to serve this area!" Or they might say "Hey, there's a freight railway line here, why don't we put a passenger train along there!" Or maybe "Hey, there's still an old railway station here, why don't we bring it back into service!"