Have you made a traffic model your master?Smart Urban Futures, March 26th, 2015

sburgess@mrcagney.com@burgess_steven #livemoredriveless

Is this an issue?

What are the traffic engineers trying to do?

Adelaide traffic reaches unacceptable levels | reportNews Corp Australia network ·27 January 2015

Australia ranks second for traffic congestionPosted by Unconventional Economist November 14, 2013 | 

VicRoads resolves to get traffic flowing again on clogged roads in new yearJanuary 1, 2015

NSW election: traffic congestionTraffic congestion is an aggravating issue in greater Sydney, here is what our focus group has to say. Research conducted by Visibility.

How do we do it?

What happens next?

We turn this Into this

Then

We turn this Into this

We end up with this

Liveable CitiesMelbourne and Sydney are two of the world's most liveable cities by the Economist Intelligence Unit's liveability survey of 140 cities

• Sydney at Night

• Melbourne Laneways

Unsustainable Suburbs

NEW suburbs in Melbourne are so poorly designed that residents face an epidemic of chronic diseases such as obesity and depression that will cost the health system millions of dollars, a State Government inquiry has been told.

Can we still build these?

The Big Ticket Items

• A new hierarchy of users

• A new hierarchy of streets

• A new design process

Land Use Function Form

User Hierarchy

• Turn it upside down!

• Some authorities under the illusion that they already do this.

Street Hierarchy

THIS

• Main street

• Mixed use street

• Living street

• Link street

NOT THIS

• Arterial

• Sub-arterial

• Collector

• Access street

Design Process

• Land use, function then form

• Traffic is not a mystical force to be obeyed

• It is like gas, is just uses up all the available space

• Make a street that lets PEOPLE do what they have to do first

• Design a form that responds to that

• Guidelines, not standard cross sections

Design Process

16

• Get purpose and function right before moving on to form

• Street design is not road design

• Street hierarchy and road hierarchy are not related

• The traffic model is your slave, not your master

• Link, place, origin and destination are inextricably linked

• Parking is just a traffic generating land use

• Find some touchstone exemplar streets – keep asking yourself, “Why do I like them?” “Why are they good?”

• Make communities, not just suburbs

• Allow the land use to prosper – to be excellent

Touchstones of using streets to sustain places