Newsletter 46 – Cars and Parking

We need to plan for North Sydney’s future.

A future, like the past, where disruption be an on-going reality?

• Electric light and the lengthening of the “working” day.
• Internet and the change in the nature of “work” and the places where it’s carried out.

Let’s look at cars and parking.

The Toyota vision – it sees a move

• away from private ownership
• to autonomous vehicles (and ride share)

Should we share that vision? If so, should we:

• let the laws of supply and demand determine the allocation of public pavements between pedestrians, bikes/scooters and cars; or
• drive the outcome?

Should Council get involved by engaging in “social” engineering?

If yes, how? Council could:

• move to further limit the provision of parking spaces in:

• • shopping centres;
  • commercial areas;
  • established residential developments;
  • all new residential developments or new residential developments near transport hubs
    • Noting that:
      • it is being proposed to reduce the number of parking spaces in new developments to one for every 4 residential apartments;
      • the destination of a resident may not be near a transport hub;
      • residents without parking will have an increased need for delivery services (that will need on-street parking).
• adopt planning rules that facilitate the repurposing of parking spaces;
• leave it to the State Government.

Leave it to the State Government – a Government that has a plundering attitude toward open green space; a Government that in:

• 1939 gave us Bradfield Park as compensation for the damage inflicted on our community by the building of the Harbour Bridge – then in:
  • 1988 “temporarily” took away the southern end of Bradfield Park to allow the building of the cross-harbour tunnel with the unfilled promise that it would be returned; and
  • 2021 moved to take away the northern and central sections of Bradfield Park to build a velodrome styled bike ramp and remove 24 car parking spaces along with an unspecified number of trees.
• 2014 promised us the western foreshore of Berrys Bay.
• 2022 took away half of Cammeray Park and more than 700 trees.

For further reading – North Sydney Sun

If ever there was a time for our community to be heard on how the streets are divvied up between pedestrians, bikes/scooters and cars, it is now – one place to be heard Council Enragement re Parking

Let me know your thoughts on how Council should manage parking issues going forward – imutton@crafers.com