2022 Melbourne Sessions

Session 1: Car Dependency

Session: 1

Room: Melbourne Room

Session Title: Car Dependency

Format: Discussion

Presenter Name: Sebastian Aurisano

Summary

  • Main Problems: Traffic jams, pollution, climate change. 25% of emissions come from transport.

  • How to tackle it? Public transport, active transport, infrastructure. The pedestrian-oriented built environment is most critical. Autonomous and electric vehicles should also be considered. Electric vehicles tend to tackle pollution and climate change, but congestion will still remain.

  • AVs might improve traffic jams but they may encourage urban sprawl.

  • Car dependency has a gender impact, mothers need cars to take kids around. We can only use happy wheels if the urban built environment supports it.

  • Minimum parking requirements based on floor area ratio should be reconsidered.

  • Car sharing is important to diminish the parking issues related to autonomous vehicles.

  • Private e-scooters should be allowed and encouraged in Melbourne.

Session 3: Active Transport Integration

Session: 3

Room: Melbourne Room

Session Title: Active transport integration

Format: Presentation

Presenter Name: Danny Davis

Summary

  • FLAIR: Flexible, local, accessible, integrated, and responsive.

  • Accessibility in stations should be increased.

  • High patronage for better bus stops.

  • App-based information needs to be reliable.

  • Multimodal journey app timetable should be user-friendly.

  • Sharing data between companies will increase journey reliability.

Session 5: Gender, Transport, and its Numerous Intersections

Session: 5

Room: Melbourne Room

Session Title: Gender, Transport, and its Numerous Intersections

Format: Open Discussion

Presenter Name: Zoe (Merri-bek), Elise (CrowdSpot), and Adam (Merri-bek)

(Photograghed by Benish

Summary

  • Highly skewed and underrepresented numbers of women and non-binary people in cycling in Melbourne and Victoria. Removing the barriers to entry of bicycle riding

  • The gender gap in cycling (Elise): Absence in policy for people that do not identify as men or women. We need to shift the conversation from increasing cycling opportunities for women to increasing the opportunity for anyone facing barriers. Some barriers include: safety, and raising children. Transport data should be provided with a gender breakdown.

  • People ride to train stations when the alternatives are poor.

  • Designing cross-community routes rather than just 'journeys to work'. There is no data on these journeys because they are currently not catered for. No safe infrastructure that allows women to give things a try and have the opportunity to "fail".

  • Safety exists in many forms, including injury risk and the perceived safety of other people using the space.

  • Lighting is a concern in footpath safety. Roads have lights, but footpaths do not. However, lighting is not the only concern for gender inclusion.

  • Findings: Girls stopped using bicycles when moving from primary school to high school. Boys are given more freedom to travel to school independently.

  • It's about pushing that market, activating new infrastructure, and making sure people are aware. Consider micro-mobility as a mitigating solution for last-mile, after-dark trips.

  • Many people in typically female-dominated jobs will use scooters and won't cycle -

  • E-cargo bike trials (Zoe): - Doing persona route mapping, rich heat map of trips women are choosing. Most people who haven't cycled or used cargo bikes are returning to cycling after having children. Mapping is showing routes taken, routes being avoided, and what streets young families and women are riding on. If we do more of these trials, we can target infrastructure and show where we should be investing it.

  • Need quantitative and qualitative data - the stories of community members




Session 6: Parking Minimums

Session: 6

Room: Melbourne Room

Session Title: Parking Minimums

Format: Discussion

Presenter Name: Lachlan Burke (Movement and Place Consulting)

Summary

  • Parking minimums are set by the council and are resisted by the business owner.

  • Parking is most of the time provided more than requirements.

  • Making people use active transport would make parking opportunities for the people with issues.

  • We need some kind of management if accessibility is being impacted by the lack of parking. The car parking minimums have also made some businesses apply for waivers to their complexity and expense for small businesses.