Is walkable urbanism just for our capital cities?

The idea of the 15-minute city (or neighbourhood) is an important one for reducing carbon emissions, and for making livable, vibrant cities - cities where you can meet most of your daily needs within 15 minutes walk or bike ride from your house, and destinations further away are connected by quality public transport. Unfortunately, it has attracted some conspiracy theories, so the term "15 minute city" itself might be falling out of favour - but the idea is a good one. 

New designs for Little Bridge Street

Concept art of the Little Bridge project (via CoB)

As part of its wider revamp of the Bridge Mall area, the City of Ballarat has released some new designs for Little Bridge Street, including the bus interchange. Let's take a look, starting with the stuff I think is a bit more contentious. 

The proposed Glenelg Highway bike path

It's been a while since posts - I've been busy with a new job - but I wanted to talk in a bit of detail about a new proposed shared use path along the Glenelg Highway in Sebastopol and Delacombe. The City of Ballarat is currently seeking feedback, so I wanted to talk through some of the opportunities this presents and encourage others to feed into this process. 

Proposed Glenelg Hwy path stages (via City of Ballarat)

Draft Ballarat Net Zero Emissions Plan

The City of Ballarat's Draft Net Zero Emissions Plan (via CoB)

The City of Ballarat has passed a motion to come up with a plan for the whole municipality to reach net zero emissions by 2030. This is an incredibly ambitious goal, and it's fantastic to see this level of ambition from the council. They've released a draft plan - so how'd they do? 

Clean Transport 101: Reduce

Last time, we discussed why the Reduce, Replace, Repower framework is the key to cleaning up the transport sector. Today let's go into the details of how we can Reduce travel demand. 

Clean Transport 101: Reduce, Replace, Repower

Transport is Australia's third-largest, and fastest-growing, source of emissions. If we're to have any chance of keeping climate change to 1.5°C, we have to urgently clean up our transport system - but how? 

Updated designs for Deer Park Station

The latest render of the new Deer Park Station (via LXRA)

LXRA have released updated designs for the new Deer Park Station to be built as part of the removal of the Station Street/Mount Derrimut Road level crossing. Let's take a close look at the details. 

Detailed designs for Bridge Mall

Illustrative concept plan for reopening Bridge Mall (via City of Ballarat)

Design firm Hassell has put forward detailed designs for reopening Bridge Mall and redesigning Grenville Street, which will be considered by Ballarat Council this Wednesday. So what's in store? 

A new station for Deer Park

Draft design for the new Deer Park Station (via LXRA)

A few weeks ago, LXRA announced that the removal of the Mount Derrimut Road level crossing and the revamp of Deer Park Station would be happening a year ahead of schedule - it'll still happen a bit after the Robinsons Road and Fitzgerald Road crossings, presumably to help manage local traffic during construction, but they're now aiming for 2024 instead of 2025. They've also released some draft designs for the new station, and consultation has just opened, so let's take a look. 

Designs for the new Bridge Mall

Renders for the new Bridge Mall design (via CoB)

The City of Ballarat's chosen design firm, Hassell, has come back with a preferred design option for the Bridge Mall. It's going before Council for approval tonight, so let's take a look. 

Updated drafts for Deer Park level crossings

The new design for Robinsons Rd, looking south (via LXRA)

About nine months after releasing their first draft designs, the Level Crossing Removal Authority (LXRA) have released updated drafts for the Robinsons Rd, Deer Park and Fitzgerald Rd, Ardeer level crossing removals. I made some suggestions when the initial drafts were released, so let's take a look and see what's different. 

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.

Draft designs released for Deer Park level crossings

Concept image looking north over the planned Fitzgerald Rd bridge (LXRA)

On Saturday, the government announced that the level crossing removals at Fitzgerald Rd, Ardeer and Robinsons Rd, Deer Park would be fast-tracked, and set to be completed by 2023; while the Mount Derrimut Rd, Deer Park crossing - and rebuild of Deer Park Station - would happen a bit later, slated for completion by 2025. At the same time as this announcement, they released design concepts for Fitzgerald and Robinsons, so let's take a closer look at these.

What to do with the Lydiard Street crossing?

The crash site (via Luke66683251)

Ballarat Station is right next to Lydiard Street, and the level crossing there is unique in Victoria for its heritage swing gates. Approximately a century old, the gates cross the railway line by default, allowing cars through, and swing around to cross the road and allow trains through when required. At various points in past decades, there have been proposals to replace the heritage gates with more modern boom gates, but the people of Ballarat have been pretty adamant that the gates form part of the heritage aesthetic of the station precinct and they want to keep them for as long as possible.

Late on Saturday night, a V/Line passenger train ploughed through the heritage gates at speed, severely damaging them and only coming to a halt beyond the Doveton Street level crossing, several hundred metres away. The investigation into how this happened will take time - given the stopping distance it seems clear that the train ran through Ballarat station at some speed, but it's not yet clear why. Regardless, though, the extensive damage to the heritage gates will mean we need to think about what the future of this crossing should be.

Will these intersections improve Ballarat's cycling network? (Part 2)

Bike hoops at Wendouree Station in 2015

In Part 1 we looked at the proposals for the intersections at Hertford and Albert Streets, and Wiltshire Lane and the Glenelg Highway. Today we look at the intersections at Wiltshire Lane and La Trobe Street, and Gillies and Gregory Streets, as well as summing up the overall approach.

Will these intersections improve Ballarat's cycling network? (Part 1)

Shortly before they released the Sturt Street path plans, Regional Roads Victoria released the designs for a number of revamped intersections around Ballarat. Most of these are currently roundabouts, and all of them are very dangerous for pedestrians to cross - and signalising them should increase walkability across the board. But most of them are on key routes in the City of Ballarat's proposed cycling network as well - so let's take a look at how well the designs fit into those plans, and whether they fit world's best practice.

Diagram of City of Ballarat's proposed cycling network

Finally, the Sturt Street path proceeds

The bike path down the centre of Sturt Street is in many ways the crown jewel of Ballarat's future cycling network. It will act as the spine of the network, connecting several suburban routes with a large percentage of Ballarat's workplaces, retail and hospitality - but by travelling along the Sturt Street gardens it will also be probably the most beautiful ride in Ballarat. Despite a lot of controversy fomented by people lying about the impact it would have on the heritage of the gardens, Regional Roads Victoria have stuck with the project and delivered the final designs for their section on Friday.

The view down Sturt Street

The platform switcheroo at Melton

Track duplications on the Ballarat Line Upgrade are nearing completion (via BLU)

Just as the rule on Australian roads is for cars to drive on the left-hand side of the road, the general rule for Australian two-track railways is for trains to use the left-hand track. On single-track railways with crossing loops, including single-track railways where stations have two platforms, this rule isn't applied anywhere near as consistently - there will generally be a "main line" (or at stations, a main platform) that gets used by default, whether it's left or right, whichever direction the train is heading; if a train is coming the other way it'll just have to use the other track. But on two-track lines, we have pretty consistent left-hand running.

Travel Diaries: Barcelona

Having left Singapore, the next stop on my trip was Barcelona. I am normally the kind of person who does an obsessive amount of research on the public transport options before I go somewhere, but for this trip I decided to keep that to a minimum, so that - as much as practical - I could experience it firsthand and see how easy and intuitive it was for the uninformed visitor.

How best to remove the level crossings in Deer Park?

Project map (via LXRA)

Just before the 2018 election, the Andrews government announced that if re-elected they would remove three level crossings in Deer Park, as part of their second tranche of 25 level crossings. Somewhat unusually, the Level Crossing Removal Authority (LXRA) announced the preferred method of removal for all three almost immediately. These crossings are all on the section of track shared between the Ballarat and Geelong lines, and I also used to live in Deer Park right near them, so I'm keen to make sure they're done right – and the City of Brimbank is doing early consultation on the project, so now seems like the right time.

I'll get the uncontroversial ones out of the way first, then get stuck into the one I think needs to be changed.