This comment has come in from a reader. Given the current shambles of traffic management in Glen Eira, we publish this in the public interest.
“My mind boggles at council’s approach to parking and traffic management. Major road works are underway in Kokarib Road Carnegie, the street behind Koornang Road where Safeway is located. The street is being totally rebuilt and council in their wisdom appear to have removed the angle parking outside Safeway and are replacing it with parallel parking. This will mean the loss of about around 8 or 9 car parking spaces outside the supermarket. These car spaces were nearly always fully occupied. My amazement at this loss of parking in Carnegie follows from seeing the result of roadworks and parking in Glen Huntly near Safeway. They effectively removed up to four car parking spaces on each side of the road near the post office.. I know traffic lights have been installed, but why would you reduce car parking? What benefit is there to shop keepers? What benefit is there to shoppers? What are the benefits at all?”
And we mustn’t forget another important question – what is the cost?
Glen Eira Debates 
August 9, 2012 at 12:21 PM
So….cars rule…right?
No, they don’t have to. Research shows that those who get to retail outlets by foot or by bike stay longer and spend more money. Retailers benefit and so do the shoppers!
Council does need to compliment the removal of car parking spaces with better bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. We may even have a healthier population as a result…
August 9, 2012 at 3:37 PM
We just had a huge post on the Queens Avenue bicycle lane that has been allowed to have vegetation grow over it so that it is no longer safe to use. It is one thing to build bicycle infrastructure but another thing to maintain it.
August 9, 2012 at 5:48 PM
It’s where you put them in the first place too. Some roads just shouldn’t be bicycle paths if cars are continually parked over these lines. Most bike accidents happen as a result of this with people opening car doors. It looks good to say that you’re spending all this dough on bike lanes that should never be where they’ve been put.
August 9, 2012 at 4:25 PM
Well then lets have no parking at all! I think you must not live a lifestyle with a family and understand the need for car transport to a supermarket and food shops for family shopping. It would not be possible for me to shop and carry home on a bike or as a pedestrian the purchases I make to feed a family. I think you need to be a bit more realistic!
August 9, 2012 at 8:36 PM
At no stage did I suggest no parking at all. We need a more balanced approach which does entail a shift away from car dominance. I do have a family of four and if there was appropriate bicycle parking, which would allow for a bicycle trailer, we would do our grocery shopping on our bikes. I’d happily do the 2-3km ride each way. I’d get some good, incidental exercise and have some fun too! As noted above, we need adequate and adequately maintained infrastructure…..bike lanes not obstructed by vegetation and parked cars. Bicycle riders need to have the most direct routes available to them with bicycle lanes.
Anonymous 2, change can be good and we are all capable of adjusting to change. Sometimes it requires being a little adaptable with some creative thinking.
I’d love to spend less time in traffic and searching for car parks in preparation for doing the grocery shopping. Bike riding and walking can be quite liberating and less stressful. You see what’s going on and you even meet others in your community.
August 9, 2012 at 2:01 PM
Yes, yes, yes – well said Anon 1.
We need new councillors (that we will vote at coming Oct 2012 council elections) to have a thinking paradigm that puts pedestrians & cyclists at the top of the traffic managerment hierarchy – not cars!!!
A couple of urgent reasons/benefits for this – well supported by the most recent international research around cars & traffic management, to move Council thinking are:
*Urgent need to reduce carbon pollution (which is cumulative & we’re heading to a point of no return unless we take action NOW!)
*Improved community connectedness
*Improved health & wellbeing of the community
*Significantly improved safety of cyclists, walkers, local residents & their pets (many of whom are murdered daily on the local streets by speeding drivers diverting away from ludicrously Council set 40k/ph in main roads)
*mproved the health of the environment, *Improved liveability & quality of life of local community.
*Improved local economy as people stay longer around shoping strips etc , when cycling & walking (this is recent proven research coming out of Sweden).
So D day – We must vote in new councillors who have this new mind set now- & who will urgently introduce policies to enable this change, in addition to implementing community education campaigns to help the sections of the local community struggling to move away from relying on cars (the recent government travel survey showed that car usage is for very short trips!).
August 9, 2012 at 4:15 PM
This sounds like the 1st ‘look at me….elect me’ speil on the debates blog.
Not a concern really but who is going to vote for ‘Anonymous’?
Get onto Council and look after the environment and wellbeing etc but also make an impact by looking after the ratepayers. Ensure that there is some transparancy and accountability within the ranks. Be honest and vote not because you have been pressured but because you are concerned.
Every potential Councillor should be asked to sign a stat dec saying that their vote is for the the benefit of Glen Eira residents.
I could go on but I think we all understand.
August 9, 2012 at 6:29 PM
I must admit to being concerned with removal of car parking in Kookarib Street – parking near the shopping centre is already a huge issue.
One of biggest problems with using the shopping centre is Council’s continuing failure to enforce the restricted parking in the surrounding streets and in Council’s carparks.
Both the streets and the council carparks are clogged with cars that stay their all day.
August 10, 2012 at 3:34 AM
To my amazement yesterday:-
1 I also noted all the bluestone gutters are being removed although council
wrote in a speil of some note that bluestone was worth preserving.
2 It was also observed that there was no effective walkway to the north of
the said store so disabled, who needed a concrete path in the
racecourse and women with children, prams and toddlers are forced to
walk through cars.
3 The area already appears to be somewhat overparked how will it be
when the multi-storey block on Koornang Road and the other five
storey, with 42 residences and inadequate parking plus shops on
Neerim Road are completed and occupied?
4 How do public transport enthusiast suggest taking home about thirty
kilograms of messages every week for a family of six as I had to? Start
with ten loaves of bread and add just two peices of fruit per person per
day and breakfast cereal. THERE WAS BARELY TIME TO SHOP ONLY
ONCE A WEEK!!!!
5 For what length of time in the future do the people of Carnegie haveto
toleratre stolen footpaths in Neerim Road near Koornang Road and
near Grange Road. New laws must be drafted to keep this footpath
stealth to a minimum rather than a maximum as it seems to currently be.
As a rule if a footpath is stolen then road area should be cordonned off
for pedestrain use.
6 Maybe the councillpors who are making these decisions of no parking or footpath areas are doing it for a good reason… to try and save us from the frightening “duopoly”.
AND THEN I HAVE NOTED COMPLAINTS ABOUT FOOTPATHS BEFORE.. BUT THEY REMAIN IMPASSABLE.