For much of the year Cowes is congested, polluted, and the worst place to be a pedestrian. Photo: Marie Aberle By Christine Grayden
TWENTY years ago when I first suggested that the council develop a ‘Park and Ride’ carpark outside of Cowes, somewhere near Gap Road, my letter to the Advertiser editor on the subject gathered much support.
Boy, so much has changed since then! We Ventnor residents now find ourselves blocked in by a wall of traffic between here and Cowes and here and Newhaven for much of the year. Getting into the Cowes supermarkets and shopping centre is hard enough from any direction now. It will only get worse.
TWENTY years ago when I first suggested that the council develop a ‘Park and Ride’ carpark outside of Cowes, somewhere near Gap Road, my letter to the Advertiser editor on the subject gathered much support.
Boy, so much has changed since then! We Ventnor residents now find ourselves blocked in by a wall of traffic between here and Cowes and here and Newhaven for much of the year. Getting into the Cowes supermarkets and shopping centre is hard enough from any direction now. It will only get worse.
If council was to provide a Park and Ride now it would very quickly fill up, and when drivers can’t park in the Park and Ride, they’ll head on into Cowes anyway and make the situation worse.
For much of the year Cowes is congested, polluted, and the worst place to be a pedestrian, as frustrated drivers driving around and around looking for a parking space behave aggressively towards each other, pedestrians and cyclists. There are no spaces for those trying to provide health and personal care services, to park their own cars, let alone try to find parking for disabled occupants. I know, because I’m one of those disabled occupants.
The council has allowed developments with fewer parking spaces than required in the planning scheme. In a desperate attempt to try to solve the Cowes parking woes, council recently introduced electronic monitoring of timed car spaces, trying to hurry drivers out of the spaces to make way for others waiting.
As for the poor delivery drivers, having left Melbourne at 5am, with tight schedules and mountains of parcels still to deliver after leaving Cowes, just watch them trying to operate in Cowes and see how bad it is for them.
The whole thing is crazy! Rather than just hopelessly throw our hands in the air and say “Well, it’s horrible, but that’s just Phillip Island these days,” can we please get activated on this huge problem at a local level, and not just leave it in the hands of pollies and bureaucrats? Because that way nothing will happen.
We’re doing it for ourselves with community energy provision. Surely we can make a start on doing it with community transport?
Rather than building more roads and car parks to accommodate yet more cars on Phillip Island, let’s look at some alternatives:
There are lots more things we can do to improve the situation, but I’ve run out of space. Let’s actually DO something about it ourselves for a less car-dominated Phillip Island.
For much of the year Cowes is congested, polluted, and the worst place to be a pedestrian, as frustrated drivers driving around and around looking for a parking space behave aggressively towards each other, pedestrians and cyclists. There are no spaces for those trying to provide health and personal care services, to park their own cars, let alone try to find parking for disabled occupants. I know, because I’m one of those disabled occupants.
The council has allowed developments with fewer parking spaces than required in the planning scheme. In a desperate attempt to try to solve the Cowes parking woes, council recently introduced electronic monitoring of timed car spaces, trying to hurry drivers out of the spaces to make way for others waiting.
As for the poor delivery drivers, having left Melbourne at 5am, with tight schedules and mountains of parcels still to deliver after leaving Cowes, just watch them trying to operate in Cowes and see how bad it is for them.
The whole thing is crazy! Rather than just hopelessly throw our hands in the air and say “Well, it’s horrible, but that’s just Phillip Island these days,” can we please get activated on this huge problem at a local level, and not just leave it in the hands of pollies and bureaucrats? Because that way nothing will happen.
We’re doing it for ourselves with community energy provision. Surely we can make a start on doing it with community transport?
Rather than building more roads and car parks to accommodate yet more cars on Phillip Island, let’s look at some alternatives:
- Improve public transport, including a network of commuter e-buses. Phillip Islanders and visitors have been asking for this for years!
- Create (or use existing) travel hubs to get more people onto public transport, which will then be more viable and can operate more often and on more routes.
- Build better and more extensive cycling infrastructure, including provision for e-cargo bikes which are more efficient and healthier all-round than motor vehicles for shorter deliveries and transporting young children, e.g. on the kinder run. That infrastructure must have built-in safety guarantees – keep the cars strictly separate and slow them down!
- Increase urban tree cover, so desperately needed for climate change mitigation and neighbourhood amenity.
- Require new residential developments to incorporate e-bus stops at suitable convenient points throughout the development, and retro-fit older estates to include e-bus stops.
- Ensure the road network through the estates can safely accommodate buses and people going to and from their homes to use the bus.
- Work with accommodation and businesses to develop incentive bookings that include all-day or weekly bus passes for travel to Cowes from Melbourne and around the main tourist destinations on the island.
- Mandate event tickets to include the cost of the bus fare to and from the venue, with pick up/drop off from home, or a stop near home, or a nearby travel hub. This is a no-brainer as it’s already done for weddings, etc.
- If you’re only driving a kilometre or two, try walking or cycling, which are clearly better for your health.
- Facilitate car sharing between neighbours and others. Cars spend most of their lives sitting unused.
- Ensure equitable access for all. For instance, designate the Nobbies car park for people with a disability and the Penguin Parade car park as a travel hub with an e-bus out to the Nobbies.
There are lots more things we can do to improve the situation, but I’ve run out of space. Let’s actually DO something about it ourselves for a less car-dominated Phillip Island.
The Nobbies: Keep precious parking spots for those who need them. Photo: Marcus Wong