7 SmartRoads

Roads for moving people: Smart!

26 February 2010. Victoria is adopting a new system for designing and managing roads which puts the priority on moving people rather than just vehicles.

Efficient people movers, such as public transport and bikes, will benefit most from the new philosophy.

Called SmartRoads, the new system creates a heirachy of road users—pedestrians, trams and buses, bikes, trucks and cars—which prioritises scarce road space and time to give the best throughput of people for each travel mode in a given location.

For decades road space has been expanded at great taxpayer expense only to be choked off by private vehicles carry one passenger and hardly moving. Trams and buses carrying people by the score were back in the queue. Bikes were squeezed to the edges.

The government has now developed plans covering all of Melbourne which identify where the priorities for road use will be in terms of transport mode, time of day, and locality.

It identifies the routes where cars and trucks will get priorities, where public transport will win, and where pedestrians will be encouraged.

Watch the VicRoads video on YouTube

Bikes get own priority plan

Bikes are to get their own priority plan, a brand new version of the Principal Bicycle Network (PBN).

The PBN was not included in the recent SmartRoads announcement as further consultation is being undertaken to fine-tune the plan before its release, expected soon.

The new PBN will better reflect the preferred routes of riders, and will provide the framework for accelerated investment in high priority routes, including new hard infrastructure and signalling.

For details of the SmartRoads plans (not including bikes) go here.

The detailed bike network will be posted as soon as available.