Mt Wellington Sustainable Transport System

Here are my views submitted on the Sustainable Transport System for Mount Wellington.


It would seem that the most feasible place in which to manage vehicle visiting the mountain is at The Springs. In my view it will be cost of travel and fuel supply factors that will ultimately make an impact on motorised vehicle usage, but there is no reason why the Wellington Park Management Trust cannot put in place a system that encourages better use of resources and help sustain the planet.

To this end and to overcome access in snow conditions and congestion problems I suggest:

  1. Place a barrier just above the Springs that only lets a certain number of vehicles through at any one time. This is used at Cradle Mt and is based on available car park spaces.
  2. Consider making the barrier coin operated, if point 3 can be achieved.
  3. Encourage and licence an operator or operators to provide all weather vehicle transport, which could be subsidised by point 2 and thus make
  4. Consider making the section of road between junction of Upper Springs road and the barrier one way in the down direction and funnel all up traffic through the Upper Springs road to the barrier. This would avoid problems of jams at the barrier.
  5. Make parking more efficient by making the Upper Springs angle parking.
  6. Develop overflow car park on site close to where the large shed exists, also using angle parking.
  7. Have the all weather service a drop off and pick up at various points to encourage people to walk or enjoy different locations.
  8. Restrict access to above The Springs to vehicles over a certain size, such as large buses, provided that point 3 can be achieved.
  9. Continually publicise the system as having environmental, carbon and health benefits.
  10. In heavy snow conditions where access is difficult to the Springs have the all weather vehicles start from Fern Tree and encourage a shuttle bus service from a suitable location in Hobart. Income from the barrier (item 2 ) could be sued to subsidise the service.

I think these changes would be of minimal cost to implement and should be able to operate at the very least on a cost recovery basis from the barrier fee, but there is no reason not to allow for some to be used for the management and improvement of the park. In addition by encouraging people to park at The Springs would make a cafe and visitor centre more viable.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wind turbine studies: how to sort the good, the bad, and the ugly

Image
Article  demonstrating the biased reporting of the Australian newspaper, from The Conversation By Jacqui Hoepner , Australian National University and Will J Grant , Australian National University Blowhards? The debate over wind turbines is heated, so it’s best to rely on solid science. Fir0002/Flagstaffotos/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-N Yesterday, The Australian ran a front-page article about what it called a “groundbreaking” new study on wind turbines and their associated health impacts. The study supposedly found a trend between participants’ perceived “sensations” and “offending sound pressure”. The Australian’s environment editor Graham Lloyd claimed the (non-peer-reviewed) study shows that “people living near wind farms face a greater risk of suffering health complaints caused by the low-frequency noise generated by turbines”, adding that it may help to “resolve the contentious debate about the health impact of wind farms”. Carried out by Steven Cooper of The Acousti
Read more

Globally thirteen of the 14 hottest years on record have occurred since 2001.

Image
  From the report in the Conversation   quote Globally  …... Thirteen of the 14 hottest years on record have occurred since 2001. That means that according to the Government’s advisor and probably many in the Government they would have us believe that the the people worldwide who keep these weather details have been conspiring to tell a lie for the last 13 years .  That is truly a remarkable achievement and must be brilliantly organised and without anyone of them spilling the beans.   Here is the article in full 2013 was Australia's hottest year, warm for much of the world By Blair Trewin , Australian Bureau of Meteorology ; David Jones , Australian Bureau of Meteorology ; Karl Braganza , Australian Bureau of Meteorology ; Neil Plummer , Australian Bureau of Meteorology , and Rob Smalley , Australian Bureau of Meteorology The Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed 2013 as Australia’s hottest year since records began in 1910. Average temperatures over the continent
Read more

Ownership of Western Arthur Range

This is not written in anger but with a feeling of sadness. Some years ago there was plenty of controversy about managing the environmental issues resulting from bushwalking, especially in the more vulnerable alpine areas.   Parks and Wildlife Service put together a stakeholder group to work through the issues and try to find solutions.   The outcome of this was a mechanism that would trigger increased management actions as thresholds were approached or exceeded. The initial target area was the Western Arthur range and PWS put in registration boxes to monitor campsite occupancy.  Books to record the information were printed for 2006 to 2007 and placed in the boxes. Since then PWS have never reconvened the advisory group, however I recently walked along the Western Arthur  and what should I find but these very books still there at Cygnus and Oberon with all the data recorded by walkers for  the period in question (2006-07) plus plenty more for subsequent months up until now. Two
Read more