Thursday, December 18, 2008

Walking's slower in the west

If you reckon walking's faster in the middle and eastern parts of the CBD than in the west you're not mistaken. As the figures below demonstrate long light cycles and the lack of or closure of station subways shrinks pedsheds and lengthens access times in the west.

Station entrances that allow access over or under major road

Southern Cross: 0 (since subway under Spencer St closed)
Flagstaff: 1 (under Latrobe St)
Melbourne Central: 1 (under Latrobe St)
Parliament: 4 (entrances at Nicholson, Bourke, Collins, Macarthur St)
Flinders Street: 1 (under Flinders St)

Source: Melway Map 1A & 1B

Traffic light cycle times
intersections with Bourke Street, walking from west to east

Spencer St(120s)|King St(120s)|William St(90s)

Queen St (90s) | Eliz St (75s) | Swanston St (60s)

9 comments:

Andy B said...

There was some discussion about 12 months back about making the Spencer/Bourke St intersection a "barn dance" style to improve transfers between tram & train. This was knocked on the head very quickly.

Vic Rail (Riccardo) said...

Good topic.

What is barn dance style? Would love to see.

Why is the approach so different in Sydney? You can just about walk from Town Hall to Museum, or TH to Wynyard, without walking on the streets. All this space is used for retail.

Peter Parker said...

Ricc. I was going to ask the same thing.

My guess is it's like in Perth where you can cross from any corner to any other (including diagonal) as all traffic stops.

I haven't timed the traffic light cycles so don't know if it's worthwhile for those crossing just one road.

Unknown said...

Spencer and King streets are our two busiest City streets for road traffic, so its common sense that any cycle which has to cross these will take longer than other streets.

This can be quite frustrating when one has to run from work, across the road to the station for a train to get home, and facing the red man.

Andy B said...

Barn dance is exactly that, cross from any corner to any corner. That I can think of the only place in Melbourne that presently has that is Flinders & Elizabeth Sts.

Dave said...

Where is the underground access for Melb central that passes under LaTrobe? I don't think I've ever used one that lets you pop out at the northern side of LaTrobe...?

Anonymous said...

It's there, about halfway along the block. Used to be into a car park IIRC. Where all the computer shops were, and the useless false concourse deck was.

Dave said...

Cheers, found it on Google Street view after the hint. Will check it out soon.
Pity they couldn't have similar arrangements a bit closer to the main intersections. Although if the Eddingtunnel ever gets built a Parkville station may substantially reduce people actually exiting at Melb Central.

Anonymous said...

As you know, I am not a fan of the City Loop, and this is one of its shortcomings.

If the Loop alignment had been more northerly, so that exits to the south reached as far as Latrobe, and as far north as Swanston/Victoria, both the northern CBD and the Uni precinct would have been in the pedshed.

Of course people will say, yes but it wasn't like that in 1970, I will say, maybe, but it only became the way it is today because of all the additional access brought about by having a loop station there. You'd hardly blame the tram service, pathetic as it is, for the improved urban amenity.

You could have put the loop under say Franklin, had the Museum station with substantial exit networks reaching around on all sides.

I know subterranean pedestrian access is expensive, but building a loop in the wrong place, so you need to build another one, is even more so!