Calls for Chapel Street car-free zone

[TheBeastie]

Calls for Chapel Street car-free zone which is a big old shopping street in Melbourne.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/vic/video/watch/25233484/calls-for-chapel-street-car-free-zone/

A lot of anger from car motor heads against such an idea but I think it would be great.
Interestingly I almost got bowled over by a car the very day they announced the idea, you can see my front light is bright enough to reflect off stuff during the day time light and its probably what saved me this time around.

This is almost exactly how it happened to me last time but last time the car didn't stop at all and went over his hood and he then continued on down the street and parked his car to check out the carnage etc. He did it right in front of a police car. My bike was a rightoff and I got a brand new bike via his insurance company, physically I fully pulled through OK.

[youtube]sPoy6kgDySo[/youtube]

 

[Dauntless]

The ultimate example of this being the Santa Monica Promenade. Doesn't make it safe. One guy was fleeing his hit and run accident and yelled "Get out of the way" at pedestrians just like a cyclist on the sidewalk as he drove through the Promenade, killing 10 people and injuring another 63.

http://www.downtownsm.com/

http://3rdstreetpromenade.com/

 

[dogman dan]

Watching that video, I wouldn't ride that get your ass doored bike lane if you handed me a hundred bucks to do it. That's a death strip. The city govt in my town has striped out a few of those here too. Only a moron rides there. Even bigger moron thinks that shit up.

Hope it works for you. My little town tried that on Main street 40 years ago, and just recently completed restoring it to a real street again.

But not the same, this was a dinky town, who's main street had just gotten killed by the new mall in the 70's. Nothing was going to bring back those shitty mom and pop stores with their outrageous mark ups once we had competitive chain stores in the new mall. So main st sat there dead for 40 years, infested by bums. NOBODY dared walk that pedestrian mall after dark.

Now that you can park in front of the store again, it's slowly reviving. Art galleries, coffee bistro's etc filling in again.

What your town should do, is make it car free only during certain hours. In Tucson, they do this with 4th avenue. Friday nights and Saturdays are car free and the street is jammed with walking traffic. Rest of the week when business is slow, it's you can park in front of the shops. And,,,, restripe, get rid of that death strip bike lane.

 

[TheBeastie]

Watching that video, I wouldn't ride that get your ass doored bike lane if you handed me a hundred bucks to do it. That's a death strip. The city govt in my town has striped out a few of those here too. Only a moron rides there. Even bigger moron thinks that shit up.

Hope it works for you. My little town tried that on Main street 40 years ago, and just recently completed restoring it to a real street again.

But not the same, this was a dinky town, who's main street had just gotten killed by the new mall in the 70's. Nothing was going to bring back those shitty mom and pop stores with their outrageous mark ups once we had competitive chain stores in the new mall. So main st sat there dead for 40 years, infested by bums. NOBODY dared walk that pedestrian mall after dark.

Now that you can park in front of the store again, it's slowly reviving. Art galleries, coffee bistro's etc filling in again.

What your town should do, is make it car free only during certain hours. In Tucson, they do this with 4th avenue. Friday nights and Saturdays are car free and the street is jammed with walking traffic. Rest of the week when business is slow, it's you can park in front of the shops. And,,,, restripe, get rid of that death strip bike lane.

Yeah I think the bike lanes were created to make it cycle friendly but the amount of dooring attacks are ridiculous and they are kind of unwinding them by removing the cars. I notice regular cyclists go way faster then me along the bike lanes, I believe they feel the need to go at same speed as cars but are in the dooring lane which makes it stupid dangerous. I have no need to go fast as having an electric bike 'I have been there done that'.

Yeah Chapel Street is noticeably dying in terms of active stores and new stores that come and go over 6 month period. For the amount of shopping centers Melbourne has its amazing Chapel street has lasted as long as it has.
Its always been seen as a trendy hotspot for cafes and night clubs for a long time, but the core of it has been to find something upmarket to wear but I think it struggles in that regard.

Some of the things they have done to make Chapel St hip are kind of embarrassing like they sent Paris Hilton down there to go shopping etc but its hard to believe she saw the place as anything but a dilapidated death hole. There are some places in Melbourne where they have that rustic Cuba charm but Chapel Street doesn't fit in that regard either.

 

[dogman dan]

Car free weekend evenings would make sense for it then. That may help the bar hopping crowd.

Along with a better bike route parallel with chapel street if possible. Perhaps just lower the speed limit on Chapel to 20kph.

Part of the design of the new main street here is much wider sidewalks, narrow slow speed two lane, and only about half of the street parking spots available. So there is a large section of even wider sidewalk for 50% of it.

The design idea is to make it suck as a through street, but possible to drive by, drop off passengers at the door, then find parking. Before, even the handicapped faced a long hike.

Ours shuts down twice a week for a farmers market, plus any other special events. It's working better than the previous 8 blocks closed off 24-7.

 

[t3sla]

But where to go and do chap laps in the Ferrari on a Saturday night?

 

[TheBeastie]

But where to go and do chap laps in the Ferrari on a Saturday night?

Somewhere else, maybe they could spend a million dollars on an electric bike, then we can finally all be actually impressed 8)