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Today's asshole

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Written by Grant Friday, 02 December 2011

I try not to get too upset by the state of Adelaide's footpaths but it is no exaggeration to say that every day I walk through this town I encounter poor surfaces, selfish footpath advertising, driveways that change the level of the footpath, hard rubbish and bins left out and, most frequently, those who think it's OK to park their vehicles on or across the footpath for any length of time.

I was walking back from taking my 3 year olds to Kindy when I came across this. While I was trying to work out why my phone's camera was stuck in B&W mode the driver emerged from a business. When I asked him to remove his vehicle he first pleaded his case, then became defensive and then abusive. He grunted:

Get out of the way or I'll run you over. Go fuck yourself!

Clearly this man thought it was no big deal parking how he did. His might-makes-right attitude is something I find common among Adelaide's car addicts; many drivers clearly consider themselves more important that those on foot or bike. For this reason I tell my children to not to expect turning drivers to slow for them when crossing at pedestrian intersections. This is something that has either not been noticed or is, most likely, ignored by DTEI in their continuing efforts to put the car at the head of our city's transport priorities. Asshole policies breed asshole drivers.

Oh, I reported him to the police but, as you'd expect, there's nothing they can do. They suggested I contact the ACC and try to get the driver pinged for a parking violation. No one seemed too upset that the driver threatened to run me over. It's what drivers do when confronted, no?

The low cost of good information

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Written by Grant Friday, 21 October 2011

I found this book in the sale bins at my local library.

Somewhat legendary among advocates of parking reform The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup (American Planning Association, 2005) is a clear and entertaining read about the perils of planning our cities around the idea of free on-street parking - a notion equally beloved by Adelaide's planners, most notably ACC and DTEI, as well as our car addicted population.

My father didn't pay for parking, my mother, my brother, nobody.  It's like going to a prostitute. Why should I pay when, if I apply myself, maybe I can get it for free?                         - George Costanza from Seinfeld

Adelaide even gets a mention on page 163 in a chapter entitled A Great Planning Disaster. At the time of printing Adelaide made the number 3 spot (behind Los Angeles and Melbourne) in a table of highest CBD parking densities. Of course Adelaide's planners are always hard at work increasing the amount of parking here and between 1999 (the data in the book) and 2011 parking spaces have grown from 42,000 to 68,000 (this figure presented by Timothy Horton, South Australian Commissioner for Integrated Design at the recent Adelaide festival of Ideas) so we've probably hit the number 2 spot by now..

All of this was probably lost on the original owners of the book. This magnificent hardcover book, that retails around $100 became mine for $2.50. It looks as though it's never been read so I doubt anyone ever made it to page 163. It could pass for new if it hadn't been prominently stamped Adelaide City Council Research Library.

Jan Gehl rides again

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Written by Grant Monday, 10 October 2011

Jan Gehl was recently back in town presenting for the Adelaide Festival of Ideas. This presentation is still available for listen/download thanks to Radio Adelaide. If you haven't heard him speak before I suggest you take the time (just under an hour) to do so.

He clearly loves Adelaide and believes the city has tremendous potential to become a world-class livable city but also points out:

You have one of the most traffic infested cities I've ever come across

While in town he also gave a short talk about the imminent release of his new report Adelaide 2011: Public Spaces and Public Life. This report extends and updates many of the recommendations he made 9 years ago when he launched Public Spaces and Public Life - City of Adelaide 2002 a visionary report that was shelved when Lord Mayor Michael Harbision was elected (on the promise, it seems, of not closing Victoria Square to East/West traffic - a concept deemed too scary for Central Market precinct traders).

So why doesn't Adelaide get it's act together? Why is the city not taking full advantage of it's enviable climate and topography, it's large public spaces and wide roads? Why aren't we a world-class livable city? According to Gehl it simply gets down to a lack of political will. The ACC makes a lot of money from car parking & fines and we have a State Government that still clings to an outdated car-town mentality. I can't help but wonder if Jan Gehl will return to Adelaide in another 9 years time to find his latest recommendations ignored.

Comments from Athens

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Written by Grant Saturday, 01 October 2011

Here's a comment I received recently from Athens to my Footpaths gallery launch page. Thanks for taking the time to contact me with this GallopingGalaxies!

I grew up in the city of Adelaide and lived there in the 60's, 70's and 80's. I spent a lot of time walking and riding around the city, so I know what you mean.

The lack of respect for pedestrians in some European Cities has seen the establishment of Pedestrian Action Groups. There are two groups in Athens who have had enough.

Here is the site of Pezee and has some familiar photos
http://www.pezh.gr/english/photo1.htm

The Street Panthers place "I'm a Donkey" stickers on vehicles selfishly parked on footpaths.

Here is their site with Google translate. I think that the Google translation is quite poor.

http://translate.google.com.au/translate?hl=en&sl=el&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.streetpanthers.gr%2F

And one more site, just for interest sake.

http://www.carectomy.com/car-is-god-in-athens/

Interesting that our two countries, both with a low regard for walking and biking, are often found in world top-ten lists of obese countries. According to the latest OECD report:

Obesity rates are high in Australia, relative to most OECD countries, and they have been increasing faster than in any other OECD country in the last 20 years. One in 2 people is overweight in Australia.

Low-tech scooting

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Written by Grant Friday, 05 August 2011

So it's kind of off-topic and it's 1980's web technology but I still like animated GIF images for their good-natured clunkiness.

For scooter girl S, digital images like this are the Super-8 of her age.

R, age 3, is throwing gravel into the air after I told her the structure she's standing in used to be a fountain.

Signage gone wild

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Written by Grant Friday, 15 July 2011

This is the new vogue in street signage that's popping up around the city.

Rather than the mish-mash of small signs every 5 metres or so that we mostly see, someone in ACC or DTEI has decided that it's a good idea to designate city blocks as parking areas (like the entire city isn't already one big parking area..) and bang up huge signs to alert drivers to the fact.

This area, on East Terrace, has 14 such large signs along a bit of road perhaps half a kilometre long. Some of the older signage remains.

Adelaide's footpaths are crammed with signs whose entire purpose is to direct driver behavior. They are ugly, inconvenient to those on foot (especially on our many narrow streets) and mostly unnecessary.

For a city so devoted to painted bike lanes why aren't parking terms just painted on the road? If car speeds could be capped city-wide, as Lord Mayor Yarwood's 40 km/h proposal, we could remove limit signage. Parking terms could be simplified to painted icons. Adelaide could be beautified overnight by reducing the poles poked into our footpaths. Who knows, it might lead to someone actually questioning if Adelaide's current levels of car parking are desirable or even sustainable?