As attractive as it may be to build on a greenfield, the future of the ACT is urban renewal – taking the old and turning it into something new. In this context, we expect to hear a lot more from RobertsDay, a leading Australian urban planning firm that has penned many of Canberra’s future urban areas, including Ginninderry, Molonglo Stage 3 Project Design Brief, and the little known village in Red Hill.
“Bikes can move seven times more people than cars: a single lane of traffic can move 14,000 cyclists an hour, compared with 9000 people on buses and just 2000 people in cars.”
Press release, RobertsDay, 8 July 2021
Mettle work
As attractive as it may be to build on a greenfield, the future of the ACT is urban renewal – taking the old and turning it into something new. In this context, we expect to hear a lot more from RobertsDay.
RobertsDay has a progressive approach to urban planning and does things differently. ‘Different’ is close to a swear word in some people’s mind, but ‘different’ should not be a reason to have an amygdala hijack. Politically, we allow the past to cement our urban planning discourse and our thinking in the status quo. The old way is comfortable and gives us a sense of certainty, and therefore seems to be safe. The biggest problem though is that it presents us with a big lost opportunity.
Opportunity cost is one of the most valuable concepts in economics. Simply put, the cost of development will approximately be the same, but we can choose to do it well or accept the mediocre. After 40-50 years, a suburb is tired and urban renewal is inevitable and typically desired. We can build for future generations or just replace the concrete.
Canberra.bike would suggest we take the opportunity to do something better, at the risk of getting it wrong and having to adopt an agile approach to improve on it. We are not born urban planners, and our limited childhood experience in a city sets the boundaries of our imagination. RobertsDay has well-informed ideas, not pie in the sky type stuff, but things that have been successfully done elsewhere.
“Nearsightedness (myopia) is a common vision condition in which you can see objects near to you clearly, but objects farther away are blurry.”
Nearsightedness, Mayo Clinic, accessed 18 July 2021.
Press release
Cycling was the topic of a recent press release from RobertsDay.
“Louise Ford, Place Strategist from Hatch RobertsDay, says overall infrastructure issues with safety, lighting and uneven cycling paths are deterring the community from cycling. She reveals what local councils and governments can do to rectify this.”
Press release, RobertsDay, 8 July 2021
“Louise Ford is a Melbourne Place Strategist at award-winning Australian urban planning and design practice Hatch RobertsDay (robertsday.com.au). She says Melbourne, and many other Australian cities, lack the infrastructure to keep up with growing post-COVID demand for cycling. A cyclist herself, Louise has seen first-hand how crowded shared bike and pedestrian paths can be, particularly around Melbourne’s Yarra River and city trails. Louise believes the issue is not with people owning bikes or having access to shared-bike schemes, but rather it lies with the infrastructure. There are overall infrastructure issues with safety, lighting and uneven cycling paths that are deterring the community from cycling. Along with issues with the overall width of the paths, one solution is to separate paths for walking and cycling, especially on heavily trafficked routes.”
Press release, RobertsDay, 8 July 2021
“A Place Strategist from a leading urban planning consultancy believes that despite the rapid take up, there is a growing issue around the lack of cycling infrastructure across our cities that needs to be addressed”
Press release, RobertsDay, 8 July 2021
“Place Strategist says the lack of bicycle infrastructure is limiting sustainable patterns of living and impacting our health”
Press release, RobertsDay, 8 July 2021
““For shared e-bikes to be effective, ‘docking stations’ for a BYKKO scheme would ideally be within a 5-minute walking distance and conveniently located near existing bike lanes and other infrastructure.””
Press release, RobertsDay, 8 July 2021
“People also tend to cycle on e-bikes for longer and more often than a regular bike, and this effect is greater among women”
Press release, RobertsDay, 8 July 2021
RobertsDay is the idea-smith that hammers out designs that echo across the hills of Canberra. Let the sparks fly, we say.
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