Harrison

Elizabeth St: When Risks Identified at the Design Stage Become Visible on the Street The debate over Elizabeth Street was never simply about bike lanes versus parking. Council officers warned at the time that the proposed design carried increased risk because it sought to fit additional parking into a constrained corridor with narrower traffic lanes and reduced safety margins. Their report identified a number of concerns. Larger vehicles, including waste collection trucks, would face tighter operating conditions. Parked vehicles would have an increased likelihood of damage from passing traffic. Officers also warned that cyclist safety would be compromised because vehicles could park within the buffer zone, reducing the separation between cyclists and moving traffic and leaving less room to react if someone stepped into the bike lane from a parked vehicle or the footpath. Importantly, officers noted that the reintroduction of parking and narrowing of traffic lanes could increase the risk of crashes involving vehicles entering and leaving parking spaces. They also warned that, in the event of an incident, Council could potentially face legal scrutiny if it could not justify the installation of infrastructure that departed from accepted standards. The photographs taken today raise a legitimate question. They appear to show vehicles encroaching into the designated buffer areas and bollards that have been repeatedly struck or displaced. The issue is not simply whether individual drivers should be fined. The more important question is whether the risks identified by officers during the decision-making process are now becoming evident on the ground. The Safe System approach adopted across Australia begins with a simple premise: humans are fallible and will inevitably make mistakes. Good road design therefore does not rely on perfect behaviour. It builds in sufficient tolerance and resilience so that inevitable mistakes do not result in serious consequences. The question for Council is whether Elizabeth Street is currently operating in the way officers intended, or whether the photographs are demonstrating precisely the risks that officers warned about when the design was first proposed. @bicycle_network @theage