Week 2 - Faulty Fantasy of Sustainable Sydney 2030

Australia is a highly urbanised country. After a long period of urbanisation process, Australian has realised the issues are coming along with population growth: pollution, water supply, garbage and urban sprawl. All these issues point toward environmental impact due to urban development. In some countries, it is realised that too many wetlands, forests and farming land are destroyed in order to make place for infrastructure and houses. 

Consequently sustainable development plans are raised all over the world. Things are also happening close to us. Sydney has make a set of goals to achieve and make the city greener, the whole development plan is called Sustainable Sydney 2030.

"What if Sydney had a light rail loop in the city centre, an indigenous Cultural Centre, a major new park at Darling Harbour, George Street reclaimed for people, and sustainable development over Central Railway Station's rail tracks?" By all means this is a beautiful vision of future Sydney. It is a vision that comes from people who care about climate, convenience of the city, and public space.

There are three main principles of Sydney Vision 2030:  A Global City, aims to place Sydney among key global players and stakeholders who depends on the global status of sustainable Sydney; A Green City, refers to the long term sustainability of the city; A Connected City, it promotes a future of a pedestrian based city as proposed by the architect Jan Gehl. It also promotes bicycle and public transport as the major travelling methods in metropolitan area. All of these strategies including learning from other successful cities and councils.

Artists Impression on Circular Quay Light Rail Station

Artists Impression of Light Rail on George Street

Major changes have already taken place in Sydney CBD. Buses have been moved away from Sydney CBD to give way to light rail construction, all bus routes are bypassing on the roads that parallel to George Street. Although the government has warned Sydneysiders that there might be interruption on their commuting, the problem still occurs severer than expected. 

As a sydneysider, I can feel the inconvenience from this movement. Due to the high demand and scarce land in Sydney CBD, parking fees are unbelievably high, and amount of parking slots are incredibly low. it is almost impossible to travel to city by driving. Before the movement, bus is the major method to travel to city from eastern suburbs, as there is no train available as well. Therefore travelling to city now seems more troublesome than it used to be.

Driving to city is also an issue. Since all buses have been bypassed on other roads, traffic congestion around city is severer. Traffics around Hyde Park is getting worse. It is claimed that these are all short term problems. Once the light rail construction is finished, travelling to city will be more efficient and sustainable.

However, some also said that it could be expected that there is a "permanent havoc". Once the light rail construction finished and light rail gets to run, "congestion will gridblock the city", as it will block all traffics travelling east-west through the city. Also moving bus lines to other streets, for example, Elizabeth Street, would line up the vehicles as the streets are not designed for that amount of traffic. The extra traffic is creating more carbon emission in the air. How sustainable is it? It worth a discussion.

It is understandable of all these doubts, judging by the current traffic condition due to the "big move". There is no doubt that the visions are beautiful. But how practical is it? The city is suffering, although it is claimed to be short term problem. Let's look forward to the future, maybe time will tell.







References: 
http://www.sydneymedia.com.au/3556-city-of-sydney-presents-2030-vision-for-a-green-global-and-connected-sydney/
https://www.planning.org.au/documents/item/459
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydneys-george-street-light-rail-construction-too-few-commutes-ready-for-bus-changes-20151005-gk1dqq.html