Response to Destination: High Street advocacy plan
Update: 20 June 2024: Great news this week about route 86 tram stop upgrades on High St! Darebin Council advocacy plan has been adopted
Darebin Council supports what we’ve been asking for - kerbside tram stops and increased signalised crossings. (See Item 5.2, Page 4, pdf file)
Make sure you complete the Route 86 upgrade consultation survey by 30 June 2024! Want to make a difference? Join us!
Streets Alive Darebin - Letter to Councillors: 16 June 2024
We are pleased to see that Council has developed an advocacy plan to ensure that the rollout of accessible tram stops throughout Northcote and Thornbury aligns with community values and Council strategic priorities. This plan reflects the concerns that community members have raised with us in recent years.
Streets Alive Darebin is wholly supportive of the Destination: High Street advocacy plan as outlined in the agenda papers (pdf file)for Monday 17 June special council meeting. In particular, the emphasis on kerbside tram stop designs demonstrates Council’s commitment to the safety of our most vulnerable road users – people who walk and wheel.
We urge you to vote in favour of the draft advocacy plan to demonstrate your commitment to the safety of people who walk, wheel and ride along and around High Street.
Council’s advocacy plan also emphasises the need for safety and connection for residents who ride bikes. This position is welcomed by Streets Alive Darebin, as it reflects the many submissions we have made in public consultations through Your Street Your Say and also budget submissions in recent years.
Support businesses with side street parking options
We note Council and community concerns around the loss of on-street parking and support Council’s position to ensure that parking is available to those who need it most.
We believe there is an opportunity to provide the parking that businesses and their patrons need – especially loading zones and disabled parking – in side streets near these new tram stops. This would enable delivery workers and people with mobility issues safe and easy access to the footpath. To support this approach, we encourage Council to invest in footpath upgrades on side streets to provide more kerb ramps to enable wheelchairs, prams and delivery trolleys to safely be wheeled from loading zones and disabled parking bays to their destination.
Placement of Kemp Street tram stop
There is an opportunity to retain the northern entrance to the Croxton Hotel car park and place the tram stop closer to businesses and homes near Darebin Road – by closing off the High Street entrance to Kemp Street. Kemp Street is a narrow street located in an area of High Street that is in need of more tree planting and public furniture to improve public amenity. Additionally, closing Kemp Street would provide an opportunity for PJs Mexican Restaurant and Croxton Hotel to have on-street dining spaces, and it would allow Council to develop a ‘pocket park’. We note that there has been a crash resulting in serious injury near this location in the last 5 years, and we believe that closing off Kemp Street could help reduce crashes.
Making signalised crossings more pedestrian-friendly
Destination: High Street advocacy plan should include a request for signalised pedestrian crossings to be more responsive to pedestrian traffic. Reducing pedestrian wait times will improve compliance with pedestrian signals, as people often lose patience and cross the road before the signal turns green. This behaviour undermines the hard work of parents and schools in teaching our children to wait for the green light.
Streets Alive Darebin notes that as a primary multi-modal street, High Street should prioritise access and connection for people who walk, wheel and ride, and that car traffic flow should not be a primary consideration in this tram route upgrade project.
Construction impacts
Road construction can have a significant impact on vulnerable road users, especially people who ride bikes. We request that Council advocates for safe routes to be provided around construction zones that do not require people who ride bikes to dismount and merge with pedestrians, or to merge into traffic – in particular merging into a tram lane presents unique safety risks when bicycle wheels get stuck in tram tracks.
We note that High Street is home to numerous and varied businesses, and also to hundreds of residents. We request that Council’s advocacy plan acknowledge the large number of apartment residents on High Street – an underrepresented yet growing group of residents in Darebin – in addition to the businesses who are likely to be impacted by construction activity. Residents in older apartment buildings without appropriate soundproofing will be adversely impacted, especially if night works are planned as part of the project. The needs of these residents needs to be acknowledged in Council’s advocacy plan and appropriate mitigation should be offered, including soundproofing improvements.
If you would like to discuss any aspect listed above, please get in touch with us.
Yours sincerely,
Ruth Jelley and Molly Hoak
streetsalivedarebin[AT]gmail.com