On Wednesday 7th December, urban planner Mike Harris launched a new booklet showing how Australia, in this case Sydney in particular, could learn from best street design practices in Europe which would see a vast increase in cycling here.
The launch, held at a Sydney hotel, was attended by a wide range of people with links to various levels of government, design agencies and so on.
His book is entitled, ‘Reconfiguring Sydney Streets – Copenhagen case studies and Sydney adaptions.’
In the first half, Mike, who has spent extensive time living in Copenhagen over the past eight years, looks at a wide range of streets there from main roads to quiet back streets and describes exactly how they have provided space for cyclists and pedestrians, whilst still allowing for motor vehicle traffic and parking.
In the second half Mike takes these concepts and overlays them onto nine types of Sydney streets, once again ranging from main roads to shopping strips to quiet residential streets.
Although his book specifically uses Sydney streets as examples, the principles could be just as effectively be applied in any Australian city.
The bottom line is about making space for all forms of road use, not only improving safety but also making streetscapes more attractive, with trees, planter strips and so on.
The book was published by Sustainable Transport Consultants, which was founded many years ago by Warren Salomon, widely regarded as one of Australia’s cycling pioneers.
Amongst other activities over the past forty plus years, Warren has founded Freewheeling magazine (no longer in publication), the annual Sydney to the Gong bike ride which has attracted up to 10,000 riders, was president of what is now Bicycle NSW and many other roles.
Copies of Reconfiguring Sydney Streets are available free of charge via office@sustainabletransport.com.au
