North Cottesloe Primary School parking

North Cottesloe Primary School has a problem. A lot of parents use cars to deliver their children to school. The car parks adjacent to the school are busy and near full capacity at morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up times. The "kiss-and-drop" car park on the southern side of the school sometimes has drivers queuing onto Eric Street which can cause congestion problems for general traffic.

The car park on the western side of the school can only be reached by crossing Railway Street. Although Railway Street has a children's crossing with traffic warden on school days, many people cross unsupervised directly from the car park area.

Similar to most Australian schools, the amount of car traffic makes it risky and unpleasant for people walking and cycling. 

In 2015 the school board resolved to improve the situation with "the clear objective to create a more accessible and safe environment for the school, while attempting to effect improvements for the community" (Railway Street Car Park Design Proposal, M. Goodlet, 2017).

Railway Street Cottesloe 8:45am

The main idea has been to create a new "kiss-and-drop" area on Railway Street with enlarged car park. Over the past four years the concept and proposed designs have been controversial issues with local residents. The Town of Cottesloe has called for public comment on the latest proposal. Comments close on 12 November 2019 at 4pm, there is not much time left.  Here is a simple summary. 

CURRENT SITUATION

The school is located on the corner of Eric and Railway Streets. The Fremantle railway line is nearby and there are many mature trees in the railway reserve.

PLAN A

The first proposal was a large new carpark with drive through "kiss-and-drop" facility adjacent to the school. The street would be realigned further to the west. This would eliminate the need to cross the street from the car park and would have doubled the number of car parking bays. 

This design was a typical car-orientated engineering solution. It seemed very functional but took up lots of space and would have required the realignment of Railway Street into the trees. The potential loss of up to 24 mature trees meant this plan was rejected.

PLAN B

This plan aims to retain almost all the trees and has a more compact design. 

PLAN C

Plan B is an improvement on Plan A, but we should be considering if we are on the right track. Is Plan B just doing-the-wrong-thing-better? The current budget for these works is $550,000 to $700,000. The Town of Cottesloe is not planning on providing all the money. They are planning on providing $350,000 from Cottesloe ratepayers, the rest they hope to get from the state government. In other words, the rest of us. Should we spend half a million dollars on encouraging the people of Cottesloe to drive their children to school? 

Everyone wants the streets around our schools to be safer. One of the best ways is to reduce the amount of car traffic. However, building a bigger car park and another "kiss-and-drop" facility is similar to adding another lane to a freeway. This is the school version of induced demand.

There is another option. 

The Town of Cottesloe should consider a modal filter on Railway Street. This would stop car traffic travelling all the way through the street and allow the existing car parking area to become much safer.  With less traffic and without high-speed traffic, the existing street could be used as a drop-off zone. This would be much cheaper, quicker and easier. 

The filter could be made in a variety of ways. Most commonly bollards are used, but those can be supplemented with a range of landscaping devices including trees to make the area an attractive addition.

The modal filter could be applied at all times, or just during the important school hours. The times when we are hoping to keep our children safe.

For those not convinced, the modal filter solution is simple enough to be done as trial before committing to the expensive (and unfunded) Plan B idea. 

A modal filter could save the Town of Cottesloe and Western Australian tax payers more than half a million dollars and achieve a better result. Instead of supporting and encouraging motor vehicle traffic around schools, we should be looking a ways to reduce it.

London's "Mini Holland"

Guest writer - Dan Kelly

Is your suburb plagued by rat running and traffic chaos? 

Get some planter boxes.

Cleveland Park Avenue Walthamstow. Photo: Tim Burns 2017

Fed up with rat running motorists and school drop off chaos, my suburban London neighbourhood used low-tech interventions such as planter boxes and outdoor seating to create safer streets, improve liveability and boost active transport. Here’s how Perth can do it too.

West Avenue, Walthamstow. Photo: Tim Burns 2017

Starting in 2015, an innovative project was rolled out across the whole local government area of Waltham Forest, an outer suburban area of north east London where I live.

Just as in Perth, residents were increasingly frustrated with issues of rat running, parking woes, school gate chaos and speeding. 

Somers Road, Walthamstow. Google Streetview 2008

Somers Road, Walthamstow. Google Streetview 2017

People said they wanted calmer streets, more greenery, streets less dominated by fast moving traffic and where children could play and people could interact more. They said they wanted the option of walking and riding bikes for short trips around the neighbourhood but were put off by unsafe street design and high volume traffic.

Dubbed ‘Mini Holland’ and spearheaded by go-getting then London mayor Boris Johnson, the Waltham Forest project took inspiration from the people-friendly, calm streets approach of the Netherlands.

The project involved improved pedestrian crossings, reduced speed limits on residential streets, the planting of more street trees, new public spaces and protected bike lanes on main roads that fully separate two-wheeled traffic from cars.

An important feature of the project was the partial closure of some streets to rat-running motorists. This low-tech re-design known as ‘filtering’ used heavy planter boxes or bollards to block the street to through traffic, reducing traffic volumes and making it safer for those on foot or bicycle. All homes remain accessible to motor vehicles but non-essential ‘through traffic’ is radically reduced.

Northcote Road, Walthamstow. Google Streetview 2016

Northcote Road, Walthamstow. Google Streetview 2017

Northcote Road, Walthamstow. Photo: Tim Burns 2017

The project was relatively inexpensive, at around £27 million (AU$46 million) over six years, approximately the cost of adding nine kilometres of lane to the Kwinana Freeway.

Most residents supported the project before its introduction however, a noisy minority of businesses and residents protested the changes, determined to stick to the status quo.

Three years on and the nay-sayers’ fears have proved unfounded. Waltham Forest’s Mini Holland project has delivered dramatic results that have made the area much more pleasant, safer and liveable.

East Avenue, Walthamstow. Google Streetview 2012

East Avenue, Walthamstow. Photo: Tim Burns 2017

Research by Westminster University found the Mini Holland project has led to increased rates of walking and cycling with many of the bike trips done by new riders.

Rat running and traffic volumes around school drop off zones have reduced. New public seating, pocket parks and pedestrian-priority crossings have improved the walking experience and increased the sense of community. Children are once again playing in the street, there’s been a rise in parents biking with their kids to school, and footfall is up around local businesses.

Church Road, Walthamstow. Google Streetview 2016

Church Road, Walthamstow. Photo: Dan Kelly 2018

A separate study found children in the area may have a longer life expectancy due to improved air quality and greater opportunity for active mobility.

But the best thing about the success of the Waltham Forest project is that it can be replicated in other communities – including in Perth. It doesn’t cause chaos, as detractors feared. Instead it has improved quality of life for residents and made town centres and suburban streets work much better.

West Avenue, Walthamstow. Google Streetview 2012

West Avenue, Walthamstow. Photo: Tim Burns 2017

All across Perth, local governments are facing issues around traffic, road safety and car parking. Local governments and residents say they want kids to be able to walk to school, they want the streets to be safe for bike riding, and they want vibrant town centres and prosperous local businesses.

My suburban neighbourhood provides there's a workable template for local governments in Perth and beyond to achieve these goals. It’s not technically complicated, it’s not expensive and the results are delightful.

Hatherley Road, Walthamstow. Google Streetview 2015

Hatherley Road, Walthamstow. Google Streetview 2018

Hatherley Road, Walthamstow. Photo: Tim Burns 2017

Hatherley Road, Walthamstow. Photo: Tim Burns 2017

Dan Kelly is a London-based liveable streets advocate who specialises in community engagement and campaign strategy. He recently visited Perth.

Filtered Permeability in Little Grove

Here is a simple example of filtered permeability in Little Grove, Albany. These children are riding home from school on a residential street that has a very low volume of car traffic.  King George Street is a cul-de-sac for motor vehicles. There is no reason to drive on this street unless you are a resident or visiting. 

However, if you're on a bike or walking it is not a dead-end. There are connecting paths that enable access to Bay View Drive to the north and Little Grove Primary School to the south.

These paths are obviously not a new idea. They would have been incorporated into the design of the suburban sub-division and the age of the concrete indicates they have been in place for a while. The southern path can be seen connecting to the cul-de-sac in the photograph below.

The path at the northern end is difficult to find and unusual. The first part doubles as a residential driveway.

The entry to the rest of the path is hidden by bushes on the left. 

 Once you get past the two unfriendly barriers it continues along the side of the house.

It then joins as a T-junction with Bay View Drive at the northern end.

This part of Bay View Drive has a relatively new shared path. The City of Albany seems to have recognised King George Street is a safe and useful route and are gradually improving the network with new infrastructure.

King George Street and these connecting paths were probably built in the 1970s or 80s. It was a time in Western Australia when cul-de-sacs became very popular. When built with a full closure for all modes, they encourage car use because of the distance to reach a destination. In other words: they're the worst. But, if they are built so that cars are stopped and people on bikes or walking can still get through: they're great. We have some examples of this better cul-de-sac design in suburban Western Australia. King George Street is one of them. This could be called a Bicycle Boulevard.

Filtered permeability is an important aspect missing from Western Australia's current Bicycle Boulevard program, now known as Safe Active Streets. The program is being implemented in three suburban areas all with a grid system of streets from the 1920-1950 period. Pinch-points are being used with the intention of reducing motor vehicle speeds and volume. The problem with pinch-points is they are always a disincentive for people on bikes and in the worst cases become dangerous. Retro-fitting cul-de-sacs to the residential grids, although politically a more difficult task, would create a much better end result for the Bicycle Boulevards. Rat-running would be prevented, short street lengths would help restrict motor vehicle speeds and there would be no need for pinch-points or speed bumps.