The influx of traffic into Alexandria, and the limited parking
availabilities in the area were heated topics, but the Council defended its
stance towards parking development and parking permits. “Yes, we do restrict
development on-site for parking and that is to really prevent all those car
trips. We restrict that so it provides less incentive for people to drive,”
said the Council’s transport planner, Melanie Fyfe.
The tenants of the Australian Technology Park (ATP), including Channel
7, were criticised at the
forum for not doing enough to encourage their employees to use public
transport. However, the director of planning at the SMDA, the branch of
government that deals with the ATP, said the authority was focused on creating
alternative travel modes. “The ATP and the state government and the city have
desirable objectives to change travel behaviour, to move behaviour to other sustainable
forms of travel,” said Jason Perica.
But transport consultant, Chloe Mason, said promoting public transport
and cycling should have been a focus point from the beginning. “We need to
encourage and support the City of Sydney to include travel plans, and to
enforce them on major developments,” Ms Mason said.
The Lord Mayor acknowledged that the rail and bus services in the area
needed to be improved to make this possible, describing them as “patchy at
best”.
Former principle train driver of Railcorp, Wayne Rylance, also stressed
the importance of upgrading the railway system and increasing the amount of
trains that stop at Erskineville station. “What you simply need is another two
tracks; it’s been planned for years,” he said.
Mr Rylance also called for more rail stations in the inner-city area.
“You’ve got a railway line just across the street, you could have a station
there called Alexandria. Just down the street you potentially have another
station, Waterloo.”
While parking and public transport were the prominent issues of the
evening, the forum also discussed the Department of Transport’s “Long Term
Transport Master Plan” which will be released in November this year.
Event organiser, and active member of the Alexandria Residents Action
Group, Desley Hass, deemed the forum a success. “Just having the different
groups here sitting at the table together and hearing their replies. It’s
really important they’re all working together on these issues,” she said.
Source: The South Sydney Herald May 2012 – www.southsydneyherald.com.au