Since become a parent I’ve been doing a lot of walking with a pram. It’s really opened my eyes to the fact that much of our cities and places haven’t been designed with families in mind, let alone people with reduced physical mobility that may require a wheelchair to access the things that they need.
My wife and I also choose to live car free for environmental reasons and we rely on being able to access what we need by walking and cycling, public transport and through digital connectivity. We are lucky with where we live in Manly that the public transport options are really good and if we really need to, we can always hire a GoGet shared car.
We feel very lucky to live in manly in that,
a) there are lots of things that we can walk to,
b) the walking environment is generally very pleasant with a reasonable amount of crossings and slow speeds (30kph!!!), and
c) we have lots of alternatives to the car should we need them.
The good
Walking in manly is generally pretty good and actually the work that has gone on here over the last couple of years should really be celebrated. The speed limits for traffic are 30kph which makes for a very pleasant walking environment from a stress-level point of view.
There have also been a number of new crossings that have gone in including one close to our house that allows us to walk much more safely to the beach. Previously with no safe crossing and faster speeds, this trip would have been much harder, especially with a pram. There is level boarding at the bus stops which makes boarding a bus with a pram much easier, particularly if the pram is heavy and loaded up with other items.
The bad
There is still a lot of room for improvement.
The timings at the signals is incredibly short of walkers/wheelers with only 3 seconds of green man. I’m often faced with the ‘should I risk it’ internal debate when faced with a flashing red man. I take this risk much less frequently when I’m with the pram which means I’m waiting around for quite a while.
A lot of the infrastructure is oversized, especially around Manly Wharf and Harris Farm area meaning the the distance to cross the road is far longer than it needs to be. I didn’t mind that as much when it was just me but I can’t move quite as quickly with a pram.
A number of locations don’t have drop kerbs (pram ramps), especially when further outside the central bits of Manly on the more residential streets. I’m able to navigate these with a pram but do feel a lot more vulnerable as it takes time and puts me in an area where I’m mixing more with cars. I can imagine it would be a struggle for some people, especially those with reduced mobility.
Cars are getting bigger and Manly is no exception. It is scary crossing a road with a pram, the flashing red man starts and the large SUV starts moving towards you on the crossing.
The ugly
Worse still is the refuge island crossing. These are used more on the outskirts of Manly on the faster roads. Cars often travel around blind corners with only a narrow refuse island for protection and nothing to slow vehicles down, creating a feeling of deep unease.
Venture outside on Manly and it’s a very different story. We often do day trips by bus to go for walks or to see somewhere different. Most places in the northern beaches has been designed for cars (with the odd exception) and it’s shocking how many “places” just have a multi lane 60kph road running straight through the middle of it.
There are streets without any footpaths that feel unsafe to walk down and difficult to push a pram along, especially after some heavy rain. There are bus stops without any footpaths access in a lot of places, there’s nowhere to sit or keep the pram safe from fast moving vehicles. It’s easy to see why so many people are dependent on their cars.
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