ABC Central Victoria: Launch of Walk Bendigo

Anyone who’s spent much time in Bendigo will be familiar with the stop-start of driving through the CBD, or with waiting for the lights to change to cross the road. A new plan, launched this morning by the City of Greater Bendigo council and state Minister for Planning, Justin Madden, aims to change all that, making the Bendigo CBD both more efficient for vehicle traffic and more attractive to cyclists and pedestrians. Mayor Julie Rivendell says that Walk Bendigo is tied into the CBD plan, which is intended to ‘create a vibrant and interesting city centre’ in Bendigo.

“[It's] aiming to make us more pedestrian-friendly, having spaces that are vibrant, community open spaces that encourage people to be in them,” she says. “We’re trying to ensure that it’s attractive for fast moving trucks and traffic to go around the city [via the bypass being worked on at the moment] rather than through the main streets. “We clearly need to provide good traffic movement, but part of the overall plan is to encourage people to be in the city, to be able to move easily around the city and get where they want.”

The plan is to widen the footpaths and create better traffic flows through Bendigo’s central business district, and City of Greater Bendigo director of Presentation and Assets, Jos Duivenvoorden says the new plan should see a change in traffic flow pattens, going from a stop-start pattern to a ‘continuous slow movement’, with no real loss in the average amount of time it takes to drive from one side of the CBD to the other. “Our road system, as a whole, tends to be designed around cars,” Mr Duivenvoorden says.

“We don’t think that’s appropriate in high pedestrian-use areas like shopping precincts. We want to redress the balance between cars and pedestrians. We can do this by changing the physical environment, making it a more people-friendly space.” The idea that mixing cars and people in together would actually make the CBD safer sounds counter-intuitive, but Mr Duivenvoorden says he believes it to be true. “The idea is to reduce the speed that vehicles travel at,” he says. “We don’t think we’ll get it down to [walking speed], but if we can get it below 20 kilometres per hour, we believe the severity of incidents and the number of incidents will be reduced.”

State Planning Minister Justin Madden says the plan would make the central business district a better place. “Bendigo is about to become the first city in Australia to formally adopt a planning policy of making streets more walkable,” he says. “[Walking] is a great way to improve the health and fitness of local communities and individuals; it’s also a great way to understand your neighbourhood.” It’s an ‘outstanding example’ of building health into the planning process, he says.

Julia Smith is the sustainable transport officer for City of Booroondara Council, and she says she’s excited by the idea of redesigning streets like this. “I’ve come here to have a look in the flesh and see what’s going on, because we’ll be looking at implanting something similar in Kew Junction,” she says.

“Kew Junction at the moment isn’t very cycle- or pedestrian-friendly and we’d like to increase it for many reasons…it would just improve the vitality and sustainability of the area.” Michelle is a local resident who says the idea is a good one, but other areas in the city need attention too. “[It's] good, I guess, but I think they’re concentrating too much on the centre of Bendigo.

For example, the Golden Square shopping strip needs major work done on the sidewalk.” Andrew is from Bendigo, and is vision-impaired. He says navigation for him in the CBD is ‘getting better’. “The biggest thing I find is the A-frame signs that are left outside shops…I don’t pick them up, they can be a very big hazard for people like me.” He says, if the CBD redesign is about inclusion, then disabled people, including the visually-impaired must be considered. “People with disabilities are part of that [community] structure. We’ve really got to work together and work out needs against other people’s needs to really get the suitable city that we’re aiming for.”

Cameron works at Bendigo Regional Institute of TAFE (BRIT) as coordinator of the sport and rec programs, and he says he’s excited by the proposal. “I coordinate the bicycle users group at BRIT as well, so one of the things we’re working towards is getting staff to walk and ride to work rather than clogging up the town with their cars…this is a great step. I’m really surprised with what they’re going to do. It’s ground-breaking, really.”