Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / City of Darwin General Manager of Innovation Alice Percy says CBD speed limits are being reviewed with a view to adding in more bike lanes

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City of Darwin General Manager of Innovation Alice Percy says CBD speed limits are being reviewed with a view to adding in more bike lanes · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now, as I mentioned a little while ago, and as
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  Speaker 1: you heard in the local news yesterday with Crystal, Darwin
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  Speaker 1: residents are being encouraged to have their say on whether
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  Speaker 1: speed limits should be reduced in our CBD. It comes
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  Speaker 1: after a recent study found that more than eighty five
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  Speaker 1: percent of people who drive at a speed of forty
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  Speaker 1: kilometers or less, well that's what they're driving through the city. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the council's City of Darwin General Manager of Innovation, Alice Percy,
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  Speaker 1: joins me on the line now to explain a little
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  Speaker 1: bit more about the council's plans. Good morning to you, Alice.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.
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  Speaker 1: How are you? Yeah, really well, thanks so much for
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  Speaker 1: your time today. Alice, tell me why are the speed
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  Speaker 1: limits being reviewed in the CBD.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you the question. So, we did a review
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  Speaker 2: of the CBD speed limits late last year and we
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  Speaker 2: found that the majority of people that are driving through
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  Speaker 2: the city are already driving at forty kilometers an hour
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  Speaker 2: or less. And what we're doing at the moment is
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  Speaker 2: where reviewing opportunities to add trees to the landscape, to
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  Speaker 2: potentially add some parklets to outdoor dining areas, and also
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  Speaker 2: to add some bike lanes and East Firtle lanes throughout
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  Speaker 2: the city. So the forty kilometers an hour or less
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  Speaker 2: within the city will aid us with all of those
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  Speaker 2: new ideas.
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  Speaker 1: So how much would so is that what we're looking
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  Speaker 1: at here? Forty kilometers an hour? Is that what the
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  Speaker 1: speed limit would be reduced to?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, correct, we're looking at forty kilometers an hour. There
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  Speaker 2: are some areas in the CEBD at the moments that
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  Speaker 2: are driving fifty kilometers an hour, and there's a small
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  Speaker 2: section where it's sixty kilometers an hour. We're aiming to
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  Speaker 2: have a look at where the community would like us
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  Speaker 2: to potentially reduce the speed to forty kilometers an hour.
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  Speaker 1: So how was the data collected from that survey to
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  Speaker 1: gauge the speed limits that you're looking at at the moment?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's usual engineering practice. We put those little
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  Speaker 2: black bars. You've probably seen them along the road as
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  Speaker 2: you're driving along, drive over, and it measures the speed
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  Speaker 2: of the traffic. So we looked at it, and we
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  Speaker 2: looked at the eighty fifth percent of So, as you
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  Speaker 2: said earlier, than eighty five percent of people are already
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  Speaker 2: driving that forty kilometers an hour on.
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  Speaker 1: I know somebody had messaged through just a little while
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  Speaker 1: ago and said, Katie, is somebody's driving quite slowly in
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  Speaker 1: front of you, and you go over that little black
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  Speaker 1: bar that measures the speed that you're going, you know,
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  Speaker 1: then it does indicate that everybody's driving slowly when maybe
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  Speaker 1: that's not the case. I mean, what do you say
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  Speaker 1: to that listener.
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  Speaker 2: I guess that's just generally what happens in the CBD,
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  Speaker 2: isn't it. So you know, in traffic lights, people driving slower,
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  Speaker 2: so you have to go what the traffic is going
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  Speaker 2: in front of you, And yeah, I just think that's
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  Speaker 2: usual practice through a CBD area, Alice.
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  Speaker 1: The big question for a lot of people who've lived
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  Speaker 1: here a long a long time are probably thinking to themselves,
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  Speaker 1: what are these bike lanes going to look like? Because
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  Speaker 1: a few years ago, I'm not sure whether you're at
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  Speaker 1: the council then, but we had that bike lane along
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  Speaker 1: the esplanade or along the road on the Espanade. The
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  Speaker 1: people blue up.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that was before my time. I moved up
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  Speaker 2: to Darwin a couple of years ago. So we have
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  Speaker 2: had a lot of learning from that project, and we're
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  Speaker 2: going to ensure that we update the design to make
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  Speaker 2: sure it's safe for everybody, and we'll also take on
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  Speaker 2: feedback from the community through this survey we have opened.
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  Speaker 1: At the moment, are we potentially though, looking at those
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  Speaker 1: bikelanes sort of running alongside or on the inside of
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  Speaker 1: car parks on the road.
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  Speaker 2: We are looking at biplanes on the road and we're
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  Speaker 2: looking at the design of those. At the moment, it
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  Speaker 2: would most likely be on the outside of the car
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  Speaker 2: park and we'd make sure there was enough space between
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  Speaker 2: where cars open up their door and where the bikeplane
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  Speaker 2: is so it's safe for people that are fighting.
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  Speaker 1: What streets could that even happening because I'm just I
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  Speaker 1: guess I'm sort of thinking of places like Knuckie Straight
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  Speaker 1: where it's already pretty narrow.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, we're getting in audit done at the moment
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  Speaker 2: through our movement strategy of the CBD and where the
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  Speaker 2: opportunity with the width of the et cetera, and where
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  Speaker 2: the trees are currently where we could put those by planes.
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  Speaker 2: So at the moment we're considering whether or not it
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  Speaker 2: would be an option on Cavanad Street, potentially on Mitchell
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  Speaker 2: Street and mid Street, but that's still open for feedback
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  Speaker 2: and we're still getting that audit.
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  Speaker 1: Completed, and has this come about because people are sort
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  Speaker 1: of calling for you know, for you know, more bike
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  Speaker 1: lanes around the place and to make it a bit
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  Speaker 1: easier if you are riding around.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we actually had a few residents turn up
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  Speaker 2: last night to our public open forum really interested in
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  Speaker 2: these loads sleeds, speed streets and having more opportunities to
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  Speaker 2: ride around the city. So one is a beautiful place
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  Speaker 2: that's quite flat and beautiful weather obviously, and so we're
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  Speaker 2: hoping to make it easier for everybody to move throughout
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  Speaker 2: the municipality.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me a bit more about these trees and activating
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  Speaker 1: spaces that are on the cards as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So through our greening strategy, we've got an aim
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  Speaker 2: to increase the number of trees within the municipality where
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  Speaker 2: obviously wanting to make a more livable city in this
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  Speaker 2: tropical environment, so we're hoping to be able to put
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  Speaker 2: more trees down the landscape of the roads. We're also
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  Speaker 2: looking at converting on street car parking bays into outdoor
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  Speaker 2: dining areas. We've got a design being created at the
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  Speaker 2: moment for a parklet or tool use some beautiful larity
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  Speaker 2: art around it as well, and that can go adjacent
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  Speaker 2: to hospitality businesses, potentially retail businesses or anyone really that
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  Speaker 2: wants to have an outdoor seeking area adjacent to their business.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah right, And so with the with any kind of
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  Speaker 1: parklets as well, would there be a situation where car
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  Speaker 1: parks are taken away? And do you think that will
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  Speaker 1: cause any concern for businesses that you know that have
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  Speaker 1: those car parks outside them.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it would potentially be taking away some on
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  Speaker 2: street car park We've done some SORROW research across Australia
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  Speaker 2: and actually globally and there's actually evidence that it boasts
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  Speaker 2: economic activity for the surrounding businesses when people are sitting
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  Speaker 2: down having in our coffee or lunch and they're looking
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  Speaker 2: around at the businesses that they could potentially purchase some
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  Speaker 2: products from. So one of the things that we are
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  Speaker 2: seeking is if there is a pathlet that you're hoping
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  Speaker 2: to have outside your business that you do do community
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  Speaker 2: consultation as well around surrounding businesses.
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  Speaker 1: Now, where to from here? Alice? Do people still have
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity to have their say and if so, where
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  Speaker 1: can they do that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a very easy survey on an engaged DAR
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  Speaker 2: one website. So there's only three questions that should probably
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  Speaker 2: take people less than a minute to complete. They just
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  Speaker 2: go on and let us know how quick, how frequently
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  Speaker 2: they visit the CBD, which are zones they'd like us
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  Speaker 2: to look at to reduce the speed within the CBD,
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  Speaker 2: and whether they believe there be any impact on them
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  Speaker 2: in any way.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I really appreciate you having a chat with us
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  Speaker 1: this morning. Alice Percy, the City of Darwin General Manager
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  Speaker 1: of Innovation, thank you for your time.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you.
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  Speaker 1: You two