Can a solution for Canberra's Bunda Street Shared Zone be salvaged from these proposals? My submission.

The ACT Government is planning to redevelop a key roadway in the Canberra CBD called Bunda Street. At present this corridor is heavily choked during weekdays, with numerous pedestrian crossing points, almost continuous streams of pedestrians moving between major destinations, and car drivers who simply can't get it into their skulls that this is a really dumb place to try to drive through at lunch time...

It's not clear from the documentation on the Community Consultation website, and the terms of reference for the design competition are not given, but the public announcements made by the Government at the launch time indicated that a Shared Zone solution was desired.

Following is my submission. I've also taken the opportunity to pass on my thoughts about the design of the rest of the Civic Cycle Loop that is currently under construction (has been for many months, dragging on endlessly...).

You can also comment on the proposals—by 5pm Monday 4 March 2013.


GTA consultants: The Bunda Street shareway.

The GTA concept is the most faithful implementation of the Shared Zone concept. However, it fails to incorporate footpath and roadway blended seamlessly, with traditional kerbing removed. Only through such treatment will car drivers realise they do not have right of way and treat it as a traditional roadway. The proposal to raise the "roadway" to the footpath height will present flooding risks. The solution is to instead remove the kerbs and blend the entire corridor from facade to facade into one unbroken line, with central drainage.

This new paving treatment should go from building to building and not stop at the lot line as is happening around Moore Street, leaving jumbled paving treatments. Implement a benefited area levy to cover additional costs if necessary, with agreement of building owners.

The idea of actually placing tables and chairs in the choke points is silly and dangerous and fails to recognise that there will still be cars and cyclists on this corridor.

The stick-on stencilling could be subject to early failure and expensive maintenance.

The concrete embossing is interesting but it is likely the indents will hold dirt etc as well as presenting a significant trip hazard for people in heels. Overall, this treatment may be overpowering over such a large area.

There remains a risk that cyclists and pedestrians will not respect or notice each other enough, with incidents highly likely. A segregated bikeway would resolve this.

Spackman Mossop and Michaels: The separated cycleway.


Apart from the segregated cycleway, this is the most undesirable proposal. It is little changed from current car-dominated design and will leave usage patterns largely unchanged, therefore failing to achieve the desired shared zone outcome.

Tract: Bunda Street shared space.

The concept PDF file does not open. Only the "Fact Sheet" can be accessed.

This is a highly unsatisfactory proposal. Apart from intersection paving treatments, the existing road system is virtually unchanged.

It will fail to achieve the desired objectives as vehicle drivers will fail to respect other users of the space and pedestrians will fear to use the "road".

Further Comments:


The SMM concept shows a cycleway remaining at the same surface level as the road. This is the approach that should have been used for the rest of the Civic Cycle Loop. Instead, there has been an extraordinary level of expenditure (dragging on for months) in digging up the existing road surface, and raising it to footpath level, with ramps up and down at every "conflict" point. This is further complicated by ramps directing cyclists up onto busy footpaths, sometimes in front of main building entries (e.g. 50 Marcus Clarke Street).

Cyclists are likely to reject these works because of all the up and down (requiring slowing down for cyclists with very thin tyres), the very high likelihood that pedestrians will not appreciate they are cycle lanes, and the already demonstrated tendency of drivers to park cars up on them. This is compounded by the fact that the new surface has been hand laid. Although it is undetectable to someone on foot, this has resulted in quite a bumpy ride for cyclists due to the higher speed and resonances resulting.

Instead, a stack of money could have been saved by merely installing nail-in kerbing along the existing (smooth machine-laid) surface. Whenever resurfacing of the road was required, it would have been a simple matter to remove the nail-in kerbing, redo the entire surface, then reinstall the kerbing.

A shared zone design that works

When I was a Councillor with Maroochy Shire in Queensland, we implemented this shared zone, in Duporth Avenue and Ocean Street in the Maroochydore CBD. This is how a shared zone can be effectively implemented, with a similar banding treatment perhaps used to designate cycleways requiring extra caution from pedestrians: