Article: Make way for foot traffic

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Make way for foot traffic

Make way for foot traffic
Article from: The Courier-Mail

Chris Hale

February 06, 2008 12:01am

CENTRAL Brisbane has retained its role as the retail and commercial heart of the Sunshine State, despite the growth in suburban shopping mall retail and office parks over recent decades.

It is important to understand the mix of success factors and the historical legacy of the CBD as we envisage its evolution and further development.

Brisbane's planning during the colonial period assumed that walking would be the primary means of transport. Like other newly founded cities of the 19th century, it drew on a mixture of then-fashionable planning concepts and an older legacy of European city development.

The grid pattern also found favour in other cities in Australia and North America ? partly because of its formality, but primarily because it allowed for quick and easy development and the possibility of accommodating ongoing change and renewal. But a heritage of European city building, perhaps thousands of years old, is also reflected in the positioning of the city on a river bend, as well as in the intimate streets and the mixture of diverse activities in one location. These elements are part of the current and future success story of the CBD.

Suburban shopping centres, by contrast, currently face a crossroads.

They generally lack easy public transport access, they struggle to create atmosphere in the absence of architectural inheritance and suffer from a contrived urban design mindset. For many decades, the design of suburban shopping malls focused on the confused creation of an imagined "optimal purchasing environment", in which even casual visitors would involuntarily empty their wallets.

The results are generally charmless and dull ? and these centres are unable to compete with the CBD for activity, style and street life.

Renewal of suburban centres is likely to require a return to much older and more sustainable principles of urban design, architecture and transport in coming years.

Despite the self-imposed constraints we place on our frames of reference for planning, development, transport and urban lifestyle, the European approach to building cities, towns and activity centres is set to return to favour as best practice during this unfolding century.

Many European locations have sustained 1000 years or more of continuous human inhabitance. Clearly, only a truly sustainable city, town or urban centre can boast of this record. They have adapted themselves and maintained both character and economic viability even in the period since the car-age began.

Many of these locations are far more functional in transport terms ? despite the "handicap" of old city layouts and narrow streets.

Cities like Vienna, Munich and Amsterdam ? roughly similar in population to Brisbane or Perth ? can boast of truly integrated public transport systems featuring extensive subways, suburban heavy rail, trams and supporting bus networks.

An up-market travel guide (which has covered Sydney, but is yet to release a book on Brisbane) recently described Vienna's public transport system as "embarrassingly good".

The European locations also offer outstanding opportunities for cyclists ? with extensive trails and engineering guidelines that lead inevitably to high standard bike infrastructure and lots of healthy, cheap, pollution-free biking activities.

Many European cities have now turned the entire "old city" historical area into an exclusive pedestrian zone ? way beyond the scale of the miserly pedestrian malls in the centre of Australian cities. These areas have continued to evolve since their beginnings as walled towns.

Despite its lack of physical growth in recent years, Brisbane's Queen Street Mall is extremely busy. In contrast to the constraining of walking zones in Australia, European cities expanded the area allocated to walkers as the popularity of these promenades grew. They emphasised people instead of cars.

Perhaps we need to restate (with tongue nowhere near cheek) that the human being is designed for walking on two legs as its main means of movement. Wandering in a European old city can be a life-affirming experience ? the walker tends to meander aimlessly from shop to cafe to significant building or public art work ? a pleasant journey which elevates the participant above mere shopping.

In Brisbane, a similar joy is experienced as we wander along Queen St, browsing and people watching ? but the promenade is rudely interrupted by intrusive car traffic at the extremities of the mall. Other annoying constraints exist in opening hours and public transport service levels ? with an old-fashioned mindset that sees most shops closing relatively early, and public transport becoming scarce after about 7.30pm.

This limitation of pedestrian zones is driven by an incorrect urban planning question. The question we have been asking for 50 or more years in Australian cities is: "How do we move people around in cars?" The more important question is: "What makes an interesting place?"

And the endearingly simple answer is something like: "A vibrant mix of uses, some good public transport and lots of enjoyable public open space."

Current changes to the Queen St area, related to the new underground bus station project, indicate what might be on the cards if we gradually crimp more street space back for pedestrian use.

With the right design approach, delivery vehicles and limited commercial traffic would also be catered for.

During the late 19th and early 20th century, trams and trains were introduced to expand the transport system here in line with economic and population growth.

The idea that the capital of Queensland would be entirely re-engineered to encourage movement through the downtown area by horseless carriages moving at 60km/h would have seemed ridiculous ? and really it was.

Luckily, the seed of long-term sustainability remains for us in central Brisbane. Its narrow pre-car streets, awkward peninsular geography and vibrant social and shopping scene mean that the private car will gradually fade in importance as a means of access and circulation.

European experience has proven that expansion of pedestrian-based retail zones is an economic bonanza.

Brisbane's rebirth as a walking, cycling and public transport city of European heritage and Australian sub-tropical charm is only just beginning.

Chris Hale is an urban economist with UQ's Centre for Transport Strategy.