The City of Yarra design proposals for Wellington Street in Collingwood and Clifton Hill are a bit tricky to get one’s head around. However, after careful consideration I am tentatively in favour of Option 1 for the section between Johnston Street and Alexandra Parade.
As someone who uses our local streets in this section of Collingwood as mainly a pedestrian, I don’t particularly notice a lot of traffic in local streets or on Wellington Street. However my overwhelming instinct is that the increased garden and tree cover as part of Option 1 will improve amenity as a pedestrian in the local area considerably.
I may not notice car traffic along Wellington Street because I am usually walking in the local streets outside peak times. Furthermore, banked up traffic going both ways down Wellington Street is usually travelling slow enough that it does not impede the crossing of Wellington Street on a walk deeper into the western streets of Collingwood (or on return).
I do find that bicyclists along Wellington Street can be a bit scary as a pedestrian, and have nearly been hit by bicyclists a couple of times in both directions at the intersection of Hotham Street and Wellington Street. I feel that this may be aggravated by the presence of car traffic because when walking it becomes normal to pay more attention to cars that are travelling along Wellington Street than bicycles.
When I was driving a car I noticed that traffic would be banked up along Wellington Street making a trip from grocery shopping on Smith Street difficult to get easily home.
I don’t get the sense that all the car traffic along Wellington Street during peak times is local traffic. What is it doing on Wellington Street in any case? Is traffic using Wellington Street as a short cut to avoid travelling along Hoddle Street?
Local Hotham Street considerations
The proposed plans show that traffic travelling south along Wellington Street would turn left into Hotham Street. Critically, traffic travelling north along Wellington Street would not be able to turn right into Hotham Street. I feel that this critical feature would help to reduce the total amount of traffic diverted onto the east section of Hotham Street.
Although I understand some of my neighbours concerns that the Option 1 proposal would increase traffic in our local streets off the east part of Hotham Street, I feel that most of the traffic would be local, since cars are not likely to use Wellington Street as a short cut to Johnston Street if they would need to divert their path along Hotham Street.
I would like to know how much traffic travelling south from Alexandra Parade to Hotham Street is local traffic over the course of a typical day.
Would local traffic travelling south along Wellington Street be able to turn left into Keele or Easey Street? I feel this is an important question because of the vulnerable intersection of Hotham and Gold Street which has frontages including a child care centre, a pub and a coffee corner shop that all provide human scale places for community connection and outdoor amenity and would benefit greatly from protecting pedestrian safety and amenity in that intersection.
I think that if the outcome of this proposal were to push more local traffic into Gold Street from the intersection of Hotham and Gold Street that would not be ideal.
Local Easey Street considerations
Having northbound traffic turn left into Easey Street would certainly reduce the flow of traffic along Wellington Street, however, again, I am concerned about the amenity of the intersection of Budd Street and Easey Street which is currently particularly pleasant as a pedestrian and the human scale of Easey Street, which currently houses many sociable and cultural businesses that may be impacted by more traffic going along Easey Street.
Is the aim to get traffic travelling north on Smith Street?
I am wondering if it might be better if these two modal filters were swapped. What would happen if ->
Turning left for northbound traffic along Easey Street and turning right for southbound traffic along Hotham Street?
Option 2 – complete road block at Keele Street
The reason why I don’t fully support this option is because it results in less garden and tree cover on Wellington Street which is going to be so important as climate change intensifies and local microclimates become more critical.
However, if the parks at Budd Street and Mater Street still go ahead, I am in favour of this option as a way of improving walkability along the Keele Street corridor rather than rejecting both options or doing nothing to improve the traffic and bicyclist safety along Wellington Street.
Thank you.
