Typical NRMA attitude towards pedestrian-friendly city

[CommuRider]

They just hate Clover or they really are a self-centred bunch. Guess this is why the attitude of the road is king filter down to some members

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/pedestrians-w ... 1t47d.html

But the president of the NRMA, Wendy Machin, sounded a cautious note: "Sydney is owned by all the people of NSW and in fact Australia. Decisions made on how traffic moves in and around the CBD should not be undertaken only by Sydney City Council but should involve all levels of government and key stakeholders.'

How many more roads and tunnels does the NRMA want in the city?

[AndrewBurns]

Good move by the city council, I love the way the lanes work around the Melbourne CBD. Frankly I don't like any private cars in Sydney CBD, I don't think they have any place being there. I'd prefer to see the CBD become an exclusive bike/pedestrian/public transport zone.

[hewey]

The NRMA is an advocacy group for motorists, like any special interest group they're going to bitch and whinge if anything looks to impinge on 'their' turf

I went to a presentation by City of Sydney planners a year or two back and they have some really interesting ideas and plans in the works. As they said, even if someone drives to work in the CBD, they typically park in a carpark, walk to their office, walk to get lunch, and walk back to their car at the end of the day. Thus even though they drive to work they actually spend more time as a pedestrian in the CBD than as a motorist! This obviously doesnt include all of the people who ride or catch public transport to get to work (which is obviously a LOT of people), and then on top of that you have tourists etc as well. The motorist is in the minority, and they have a duty of care to make the city safe for pedestrians, as well as improving the quality of experience for the pedestrians using this area. Also even if they 100% beleived that they needed to get more cars into the CBD, where the hell are they going to fit? Bridges and tunnels aren't cheap! As I said, they're thinking long term and have some very interesting ideas floating around. Cars have reached critical mass in the city so now we've got to look at other ideas to move forwards.

[find_bruce]

Sheesh when are people going to realise that the simple solution to traffic congestion is to build more roads.

Sarcasm aside, is Ms Machlin really that stupid that she does not understand that Sydney City Council are not the only ones making the decision - as noted by the SMH, the closures have to be approved by Roads and Maritime Services, who apparently are going to "assess the council's application for each laneway case by case". Has she actually looked at the lanes they are talking about ?

Both the lanes mentioned in the article, Temperance Lane & Lees Court, are so small (and go nowhere) that Google didn't send their street view car down them. 10 kph is about the right speed for a hundred meters or so of laneway that goes nowhere.

There is more information including a map of the laneways on the City of Sydney Website

They just hate Clover or they really are a self-centred bunch.

Are those altneratives - I thought both were true.

Maybe it's my perverse sense of humour, but I like the idea of a bar in Temperance Lane.

[CommuRider]

Maybe it's my perverse sense of humour, but I like the idea of a bar in Temperance Lane.

Not at all perverted. Totally appropriate! If we can get a bit more of Melbourne's laneway scene, all the better.

[longshanks]

"Sydney is owned by all the people of NSW and in fact Australia. Decisions made on how traffic moves in and around the CBD should not be undertaken only by Sydney City Council but should involve all levels of government and key stakeholders.'

So using Wendys logic, if the city of Perth wants to make some road and laneway changes then i should be consulted...

[Kraeg]

I like the 10 km/h limit for cars so long as there is room to pass them.

[CommuRider]

"Sydney is owned by all the people of NSW and in fact Australia. Decisions made on how traffic moves in and around the CBD should not be undertaken only by Sydney City Council but should involve all levels of government and key stakeholders.'

So using Wendys logic, if the city of Perth wants to make some road and laneway changes then i should be consulted...

The NRMA has just extended their empire-building by being the voice of Australia

[gorilla monsoon]

NRMA = No Real Mechanics Available. No real interest in anything other than its own agenda either, obviously.

Still, NRMA actually does stand for National Roads and Motorists Association so maybe Wendy is trying to make this silly organisation live up to the charter suggested by its name.