New Year’s Resolutions: turning good intentions into reality

Following a wet day in Sydney, members from the Urban Design Association gathered in the beer garden of the Duck Inn Pub in Chippendale to chat about all things urban design and hear from representatives from Better Streets for NSW about their organisation and their advocacy efforts.

About Better Streets for NSW

Better Streets is an organisation calling for safe, healthy, people-friendly, climate-friendly streets in New South Wales.

• Safe streets – with safe space to walk, cycle and cross on busy roads and quiet, low-traffic streets in neighbourhoods

• Healthy streets – where walking, wheeling, or riding is the natural choice for short journeys, children can play, get physical, and move easily outdoors and infrastructure is provided equitably

• People-friendly streets – with lots of plants and seating, and where motor traffic doesn’t dominate – especially in town centres

• Climate-friendly streets - that promote the growth of zero-carbon shared mobility options so that all residents have suitable, sustainable, transport choices on their doorsteps.

They are seeking that the NSW Government adopt the following asks:

1. 75% of students walk, scoot, or take public transport to school daily

2. Adopt 30km/h speed limits on all local residential streets and town centres

3. Build 1,000 kilometres of connected, safe, and direct cycle and micromobility routes per year

4. ​Improve and expand beautiful streetsscapes for local business ​

5. Build or upgrade 2,560 pedestrian crossings

Jesse McNicoll from Better Streets for NSW took the group through some of their key activities to date and their plans for the next few weeks.

If you would like to get involved and help advocate for better streets in NSW - join the group here.

Copyright UDA NSW 2023

Image credit: Tanya Vincent