2008 Lord Mayor response – Michael Kennedy

Dear Anthony
thanks for the opportunity.
Here is our reply:

Eddington

We are proposed to the Eddington Tunnel and believe that the initial presumption was ‘arse-up’, in that primary consideration should be improving the capacity and timeliness of public transport, better bike paths, and better pedestrian access. Building more roads only increases traffic, thereby necessitating more roads, etc.

Swanston St

Should be closed to all traffic, except for trams and pedestrians, and should be extended to Victoria Street.
We would also consider closing all or part of Bourke Street.

Car parking

We believe that there is an excess of car parking in the CBD and that better public transport, bike facilities, and pedestrian access will further reduce the need for car parking.
Furthermore, we support an increase in metered car parking and a reduction in the number of ‘all day’ car parking.

Trams and traffic

Trams should have priority at traffic lights and be separated from other traffic.
We believe that the east/west tramline gap in Victoria Street (between Swanston and Latrobe streets) should be ‘tracked’, thereby allowing a direct non-CBD public transport connection between the western and eastern suburbs.

Other

We support the separation of all modes of transport. Dedicated tramlines, Copenhagen lanes for cyclists, the removal of the Kensington rail crossing, and pedestrians separated from them all.
The CBD speed limit should be 30kph in the ‘little’ streets and lanes, and 40kph in all residential streets.
We would close Alexandra Pde, from the Swan Street Bridge to Anderson Street, to cars.
We support the extension of the underground railway.
We support the building of a monorail to Melbourne Airport

regards
Bob ‘King’ Crawford and Michael Kennedy

PS
Neither Bob nor I have drivers’ licences or own cars. Both of us use public transport.