Fri 21st Jul 2006
Posted mid-morning, filed under
Rants and Raves ,
Transport.
I hate the growing trend in Urban areas for zones that are not pedestrian friendly. For instance, not having paved footpaths in residential streets makes it much harder for people to walk around their local community. This is especially evident in places like West Lakes, where everyone has a car. Hell, in Adelaide, everyone has a car.
However, today after dropping my car off for a service, I began the long walk into town. I initially waited for the bus, but decided I’d wander into Bunnings first. So, I did. First bad point of Adelaide Roads, which is not a pedestrian issue, but rather a car issue. Where they’ve made the new connector between Deakin Terrace and Burbridge Road, or rather Don Bradman Drive, they’ve totally fucked things up. If you head South-West down the connector, you cannot go down Deakin Terrace, only South Road when you reach the end. Similarly, coming up from Deakin Terrace, you cannot head up the connector, but still only go North up South Road. Why the hell build a big expensive connector, and then don’t connect it up properly? But I digress.
There is no footpath anywhere along said connector. I had to walk through garden beds, treading carefully around bark chips. And then into Bunnings, which is another notoriously unfriendly pedestrian area. I’m not sure if it’s so people cannot walk into the carpark and store, or if it’s so people cannot park there and go somewhere else. I guess as far as they are concerned, if people haven’t come in their cars, they aren’t going to be buying enough…
Finally, I headed off from Bunnings and into town. And this was where things got worse. Not only was there no path on the northern side of the Hilton Bridges, but you cannot actually get through. I had to hike up and down a couple of hills, jump across safety barriers, and cross a road on a blind corner. By this stage, I was rather angry.
Finally, to make my morning complete, I was attacked by a crazy little bird as I wandered through the parklands. I had to protect myself with the laptop case I was carrying.
