News & Discussion: Water Infrastructure

[Wayno]

Bike lane trial for city street

ADELAIDE City Council will spend $500,000 on a 500m-long bike lane that will eliminate half the car-parking spaces on the northern side of Sturt St.

Good one! whilst not the busiest street, i hope this trial leads to more bike lanes elsewhere in the city...

[UrbanSG]

A lot of the businesses along Sturt Street and nearby streets rely on free parking along Sturt Street. There are already problems with a lack of parking in the area. The CMI car showroom development was going to ease parking problems as a lot of workers park on the street and move their cars every 2 hours. CMI has not officially commenced construction yet. There was public consultation about this a while ago and a lot of residents, businesses along Sturt Street were opposed so what was the point of that consultation?

Sturt Street of all streets is a stupid place for this lane seeing as it has no significant link west unlike street further north in the CBD or along South Terrace.

We are not Copenhagen. Adelaide is no where near dense enough to support this type of development. We are far too car orientated. You need to change densities etc before schemes like this will work not the other way around. $500,000 is a hell of a lot of money too which should be focused on upgrades in other parts of CBD.

This bike lane is being rushed imo because of the wastewater pipeline that is going to be constructed next year along Sturt Street. I know few businesses along Sturt Street who may relocate as a result of this. The loss of 30 odd car parks is going to be very problematic for this street believe me.

[SRW]

A lot of the businesses along Sturt Street and nearby streets rely on free parking along Sturt Street. There are already problems with a lack of parking in the area. The CMI car showroom development was going to ease parking problems as a lot of workers park on the street and move their cars every 2 hours. CMI has not officially commenced construction yet. There was public consultation about this a while ago and a lot of residents, businesses along Sturt Street were opposed so what was the point of that consultation?

Sturt Street of all streets is a stupid place for this lane seeing as it has no significant link west unlike street further north in the CBD or along South Terrace.

We are not Copenhagen. Adelaide is no where near dense enough to support this type of development. We are far too car orientated. You need to change densities etc before schemes like this will work not the other way around. $500,000 is a hell of a lot of money too which should be focused on upgrades in other parts of CBD.

This bike lane is being rushed imo because of the wastewater pipeline that is going to be constructed next year along Sturt Street. I know few businesses along Sturt Street who may relocate as a result of this. The loss of 30 odd car parks is going to be very problematic for this street believe me.

As someone who used to work in the area, I agree. As much as I'm inclined to support alternative transport infrastructure, this really doesn't seem the best use of money. I'd much rather see it be spent on pedestrian-focused street upgrades or cycling projects that will actually make a difference.

[jk1237]

A lot of the businesses along Sturt Street and nearby streets rely on free parking along Sturt Street. There are already problems with a lack of parking in the area. The CMI car showroom development was going to ease parking problems as a lot of workers park on the street and move their cars every 2 hours. CMI has not officially commenced construction yet. There was public consultation about this a while ago and a lot of residents, businesses along Sturt Street were opposed so what was the point of that consultation?

Sturt Street of all streets is a stupid place for this lane seeing as it has no significant link west unlike street further north in the CBD or along South Terrace.

We are not Copenhagen. Adelaide is no where near dense enough to support this type of development. We are far too car orientated. You need to change densities etc before schemes like this will work not the other way around. $500,000 is a hell of a lot of money too which should be focused on upgrades in other parts of CBD.

This bike lane is being rushed imo because of the wastewater pipeline that is going to be constructed next year along Sturt Street. I know few businesses along Sturt Street who may relocate as a result of this. The loss of 30 odd car parks is going to be very problematic for this street believe me.

I disagree. Sturt Street is so wide considering its traffic flow, that these types of bike lanes would be perfect. The loss of 30 car parks to me has a care factor of zero, and if some of these crappy little 1 storey 1970s+ businesses move out, and are replaced by some taller residential buildings, then I'm all for it. Sturt st aint exactly a great 'high street strip'. How are we ever gonna change this ridiculous over reliance on cars, if we never make a start.
Some cyclists could be encouraged to ride down Sturt st to connect to the bike track that runs along West Tce in the parklands. I think Franklin St is wide enough for these types of bike lanes also.

The CBD should not revolve around cars

[UrbanSG]

If the CBD does not revolve around cars when virtually the entire metropolitan area does than kiss goodbye to a CBD with any activity. I agree that increasing pedestrian priority is important but you can't get rid of cars altogether or even substantially. Making a start should instead include a gradual increase in residential densities, TOD's and so on. Then you will see people start to become less car dominated. Expecting most people to ditch their cars in a city like Adelaide that has massive urban sprawl is rediculous.

Sometimes the Council goes too far with what it expects it will encourage with its capital spending. A small bike lane along a CBD street that has virtually no connection to the nearby western suburbs and has connection to a poorly used West Terrace bike path (poorly used as people fear getting hit over the head and mugged) is stupid and will not change transport patterns in Adelaide.

Those 'crappy 1970's businesses' provide the street with a high level of activity during the day. Good luck getting much in the way of substantial residential development occuring in this area thanks to restrictive height and plot ratio limits. Instead we may be left with abandoned businesses and no replacements. That will be a great outcome :wank:

[jk1237]

Those 'crappy 1970's businesses' provide the street with a high level of activity during the day. Good luck getting much in the way of substantial residential development occuring in this area thanks to restrictive height and plot ratio limits. Instead we may be left with abandoned businesses and no replacements. That will be a great outcome :wank:

Why dont we then turn the abandoned business into carparks, caus of the huge shortage of car parking in the Adelaide CBD, NOT, and caus everyone expects to get a carpark right out the front of a business in the CBD of a 1 million+ city
:wank: :wank:

[Prince George]

(I wonder if the person who designed that auto-erotic emoticon stopped to think about how much electricity would be consumed by so many posts using it? I'm sure it must be contributing to global warming.)

You could probably gauge how important the parking on the street is to the businesses by just taking a look at the kinds of businesses and then looking at the duration that you can park there. I can't recall what is actually on Sturt St anymore, so I'll just talk in general terms. I reckon that for most kinds of businesses, your visit would last about 30 mins. If the street provides, say, 1 hour parking then there isn't time to do much more than park, go to the shop, and get back in your car and head off. So there would be a healthy turnover in parking and if the street is frequently full then it's probably serving the shops pretty heavily.

OTOH, if the parking is 4 hour, then that's plenty of time to park there, maybe go to a shop, but then also head off to some other part of town. Meanwhile for your half-hour of local shopping you consume 3-4 hours of parking, which means that you aren't leaving the spots free for someone else to come to the area. In fact, they are probably then having to repeat this pattern on some other street (park there and wander over to the starting place, using up a spot on that other street for the cycle to continue).

In the first case, I can see how losing 30 spots could be a burden for the shops; in the second, I think that it has little or no effect. In fact, I think that this points to a possible mitigation - perhaps by reducing the parking duration on (parts of?) the street it is possible to offset the loss of the 30 places.

But half a million dollars does seem like a lot, especially if you weren't already tearing up the street for some other reason. Perhaps it would be a good idea for the council to start by investing in painted markings on a larger number. I've become a fan of the sharrow over here, which are popular in cycling-friendly west-coast cities like Portland and San Francisco. Of course, they are particularly useful on streets that are too narrow for a full bike lane, which isn't something that Adelaide suffers from.

[Norman]

The Sheidow Park Connector (not sure of the official name) is close to completion, the intersection on Lonsdale Road is complete and all the lighting has too. Not sure if all the bitumen is down, as I was driving past it at night. I would expect it to open soon.

It's opening on the 18th apparently, with a ceremony ay 9.30am. I'll try to attend, but I have to change my working hours to do so. Anyone else coming down for that one?

[crawf]

Went past this tonight (first time in over 10 years since I've been down south), the new road looks good and the Hallett Cove Shopping Centre revamp is turning out quite good

[peas_and_corn]

I believe the TTG council is funding a renovation of its new CEO's house

[mattblack]

The Sheidow Park Connector (not sure of the official name) is close to completion, the intersection on Lonsdale Road is complete and all the lighting has too. Not sure if all the bitumen is down, as I was driving past it at night. I would expect it to open soon.

It's opening on the 18th apparently, with a ceremony ay 9.30am. I'll try to attend, but I have to change my working hours to do so. Anyone else coming down for that one?

Heres the brochure of the connector. also shows possible housing increase and development of some of the sheep paddocks down south.

[Pat28]

Heres the brochure of the connector. also shows possible housing increase and development of some of the sheep paddocks down south.

where's the link??

[mattblack]

Heres the brochure of the connector. also shows possible housing increase and development of some of the sheep paddocks down south.

where's the link??

Oh yeah, guess that would be handy!

http://www.marion.sa.gov.au/web%5Cwebma ... ochure.pdf

Some further info. The road will be called Patpa Drive, meaning 'Southern wind' in the local Kaurna language.

[AG]

Sections of Anzac Highway around the Keswick railway bridge are currently having the pipeline sections being installed as we speak.

[rubberman]

I notice that the Property Council wants the Government (code for the rest of us taxpayers) to pay for the pipework, and no doubt will want the water at a reduced cost (code for free).

Given that this water has to be treated using lots of energy, just recycling for the sake of it might not be the best for the environment unless there is some other payoff.

Giving this water away to private interests (which is what is happening if consumers are let off the cost of the infrastructure) sends the wrong signal about the value of water. (I do not have the same problem with it going on public facilities like parklands or charities such as Vinnies and the Salvos since everybody can get to benefit from that - even people who live elsewhere but travel through the greenery benefit).

Another option might be to only let businesses have it if they also install completely new state of the art reduced carbon footprint air con to go with it...or it is only available to businesses that have the highest green rated buildings.


So basically, I am suggesting that first offer of the water goes for public purposes or to charities, next offer goes to businesses that have the highest green rated buildings, and then and only then to those businesses who want to just replace a bit of plumbing in existing inefficient systems...and even then they should be first off, last on if there is a shortage.