Cars cause traffic.

The simplest way to solve the traffic conflicts is to take the cars out of Byron Town Centre and accommodate them elsewhere.

The town centre should then be made a ‘high pedestrian activity’ area with a 40 Km/hr speed limit and pedestrian priority areas allowing full and safe movement by people.

This Master Plan contains many features to resolve the traffic issues based on common sense, personal observation and experience within the town. They are not based on traffic counts, intersection and road design, engineering and drainage calculations which I choose to leave to the experts.

It would be interesting to compare traffic flows and parking before and after the planning changes outlined.

The main features incorporated within the Master Plan are:-

• remove the car park area on the beachfront at Main Beach
• provide a new car park on the existing swimming pool site (the pool is relocated)
• close the top section of Jonson Street between Lawson and Bay Streets and create apedestrian plaza.
• provide a new one way street access through the car park west of the Jonson Street shops
• in Lawson Street, between Jonson and Fletcher Streets - (see diagram No 14)
  • remove angle car parks and allow only parallel parking both sides
  • widen the footpaths for pedestrian use to 6m wide
  • provide a 2m wide landscaping strip along the edge of each footpath
  • provide a 2 m wide tree planting strip down the centre of the road
• basically, remove car parks, allow through traffic and give more space to people not cars
• in Jonson street between Byron and Lawson Streets – (see diagram No 14)
  • remove all car parking
  • allow two lanes of through traffic (one each way)
  • widen the footpaths
  • provide a landscaped area and tree planting 2m wide along the kerb line on both sides of the road with gaps to allow pedestrian crossings
• in the Butler Street reservation provide angle parking both sides with footpaths
• provide new walkways from Butler Street across the rail line directly into the town centre
• provide a new town bypass road using the north end of Butler Street and a new road reservation along the western side of the railway line
• the southern bypass section has angle parking both sides and footpath connections
• multi-level car parks are proposed at both north and south road approaches
• in the north, a multi-level car park on the vacant land in Kendall Street between Shirley Street and the railway line gives direct walking, cycling and rail access to the town centre
• in the south, there is room for two multi-level car parks, at the end of the new bypass road reservation and on the eastern side of the rail line behind the existing buildings if these two parking stations were built they can be linked to a new station platform to give direct train access to Station Park
• with station platforms at both north and south parking stations you could run a train shuttle service between the two with a busy timetable.

See diagram No 15 which shows the car park locations and connections.

The measures outlined concern mostly traffic flows and cars but efficient circulation involves much more than through traffic.

Other issues to be considered are:-

• Vehicles
  • through
  • destination
  • service
  • emergency and security

• Pedestrians
• safe access for walking and strolling
• flow lines and destinations
• Access for people with disabilities
• Wheelchairs and scooters
• Bicycles
• Child strollers and skateboards.
• Walkways and nature trails are provided to connect existing bikeways and lead to interesting destinations. They can be used for bikes, skateboards, disabled access and any mode of slow travel except motor vehicles which would damage the environment.

The latest estimate of through traffic which would use the bypass is at 30%.

The parking stations would substantially reduce the long term parking capacity required in the town.

The many new car parking spaces along Butler Street and the new bypass with direct pedestrian

access to all parts of the town would remove many more cars from the chaos of the town centre.

Every major city with traffic gridlock or at saturation capacity from vehicles has solved their problems with a range of public transport options. These range from buses, to people movers, light rail, trams or monorails. It is logical for Byron to look at a public transport system using the existing railway line which would greatly assist people coming to town from near and far.