The recent Oxford Street East Public Domain and Activation Strategy (Taylor Square to Centennial Park) consultation from Transport for NSW was an interesting project with a huge opportunity.
With our friends at Better Streets and BIKEast, we advocated for placemaking concepts to improve how people use the area (not just as a traffic thoroughfare) including widening footpaths and keeping the traffic lanes narrow to reduce speed for safety and amenity.
We participated in workshops and discussions around ideas to promote the history of Oxford Street and the fantastic opportunity to be the bustling lively High Street Sydney, as opposed to the traffic run that it is right now.
Below is a summary of our thoughts.
Summary
WalkSydney supports the building of a separated cycleway on Oxford St. As a busy shopping street it is not appropriate for cyclists to share with walkers on the footpath. As a major bus route, neither is it appropriate for those cyclists to share with buses. There is also plenty of scope to reduce the dominance of cars on this high street due to the width and existence of parallel routes like Moore Park Road.
However, as the footpaths are generally poor (Level of Service E – at capacity – in many places), footpath widening would be beneficial as part of the project, and is more consistent with the Road User Space Allocation (RUSA) Policy than widening vehicular lanes. A design “from the outside in”, starting with pedestrians and including separated cycleways would better reflect the strategic position of TfNSW. It may also provide shopkeepers with some tangible benefits to offset their concerns about the impact of construction.
The impact of construction can also be mitigated by implementing “quick and easy” kerb extensions without moving the current kerb and gutter (see examples below), by delivering the improvement with multiple work gangs or sequentially 1 – 2 blocks at a time, and by delivering benches, cycle racks and street trees in pots early on to provide a visible improvement to the street.
| Strengths | Weaknesses | Opportunities |
| Delivers safer cycling and provides a quiet buffer to traffic | Does not currently deliver any improvement for pedestrians | Retaining existing lane widths for lower speeds and free up space for walking. |
What would London do?
Nearly all high streets in London are only one general traffic lane wide. Generally, bus priority is delivered through bus gates (short sections of bus-only) which enables only one lane in each direction to be retained without that street being choked by traffic. Parking is banned on ‘red routes’ (major roads), with the impact on footpaths mitigated through widespread 20mph (30 km/h). Very low traffic volumes also make the roads generally friendly to cross informally.
London Bridge / Borough High St, London (above) is the A3 north-south route through London, and has a semi-permanent build-out since COVID for walking and cycling.
Upper Street, London (above) is the A1 (northern route to Scotland) and is one lane in each direction plus parking, and 20mph speed limit.
London also uses ‘semi-permanent’ footpaths for rapid roadspace reallocation.
Extending the footway need not be done as a full kerb rebuild. London now very pragmatically builds second kerbs as a way of quickly reclaiming space. Oxford St in Sydney should do the same. This would allow the project to proceed with the same timeframe and a lower budget than a ‘full rebuild’ would entail.
Clockwise from top left: Coventry Street, Regent St, Chapel Market and Essex Road in London all show different ways kerbs have been extended without rebuilding the main kerb. This has also been done on Oxford St in London to reduce kerb radii and shave off about 0.5m from the road.
What would this look like in Sydney?
If this was implemented on Oxford Street Sydney this would mean a bus-only section at Oatley Street and another at Queens StreetRoad could reduce nearly all the through traffic on Oxford St, so buses could share with traffic and a major reallocation of road space to both cycling and walking could occur. Alternatively, bus lanes could be retained but a single access lane instead of two way traffic, yielding at least 1 – 2m of additional footway space, illustrated below:
With a 3m cycleway, 2x 3m bus lanes and a 2.8m general traffic lane, a low-traffic option would provide 5.2m of additional footpath space (2.6m per side). With a 2.1m loading pad, 1.8m could still be retained on the north side and 1.3m at the south side.
Here, designing from the outside in would start with widening footpaths (purple), providing safe cycle access (green) and public transport (red), and displacing traffic (grey) to the surrounding network, particularly Moore Park Road. The key element here is an Oatley/ Ormond intersection bus gate.
However, WalkSydney acknowledges that Sydney is a far cry from London and its policies of actively displacing cars from streets for the sake of better shopping, walking or cycling. Therefore, we do not expect this option to be adopted. Rather we present it as an example of the proper application of the Road User Space Allocation (RUSA), from which other options are a compromise.
Learn from good examples of floating bus stops. Generally, tactile paving, green paint and/or a small setdown can all be used to help give visual and tactile clues to people crossing the cycleway. Lifting the cycleway and a mini zebra, like a ‘wombat’ also slows down cyclists and indicates a change in priority.
Don’t Let Perfect be the Enemy of the Good
First, don’t delay or prevent the Oxford Street cycleway from being implemented because it can be
improved. Use the same standards as you apply to road projects in this project, ie:
- You have identified a network need for cycling that is not optional
- Projects can and do improve through the design process, from consultation to final. At 50%, 90% and even during construction, improvements can be made based on good design practice.
- Cost escalation is not inherently fatal. Consider how much more is being thrown at projects like the M12 due to the inflating cost of land.
Equally, however, the project should be a poster child for future cycleways on state roads. Converting shopkeepers to advocates in the long term will only help advocacy on the next major road. Widening lanes and giving nothing to place or walking will not help them help you later.
We therefore urge you to:
- Retain the traffic lanes at their absolute minimum of 2.8m for cars and 3m (or 3.2m if absolutely necessary) for buses
- Free up space within the carriageway for walking and improve public space
- Implement this by way of a ‘quick win’ 2nd kerb and paving/planting/furniture, favouring the north side to ‘offset’ the impact of the cycleway.
- Minimise impact on business by delivering the street quickly through multiple work gangs, or else sequentially with minimum impact to each block.
‘De minimus’ option with additional footway space for place
(0.5m foot, 3.2m bus, 2.8m car, 2.8m car, 3.2m bus, 1m buffer, 3m cycle, 0.5m foot)
Likewise, at a bus stop (0.5m footpath on north reassigned to 1.5m floating bus stop)
Unfortunately as there appears to be some opposition to improving the liveability of this major Sydney high street, we continue to watch the progress from Transport for NSW with bated breath.
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