Hobart’s scramble crossing trial is a “stupid ridiculous exercise” that one Alderman believes the city council has got ‘completely wrong’.
During a motion put forward at Monday night’s council meeting to ‘urgently seek data’ on the impact of a ‘disastrous’ scramble crossing in the Hobart CBD, Alderman Marti Zucco called on the State Government to shut the trial down “immediately”.
“Hobart is not Flinders Street Station. We do not have the population and the amount of people crossing the roads to need a scramble track,” Zucco said.
“It might be a temporary installation but it’s actually creating havoc … causing profound problems to business in Hobart … This would have to take the cake as one of the most ridiculous things we have done as a council.”
After a short discussion, Alderman Louise Bloomfield expressed her ‘enormous disappointment’ in her fellow councillors who voted against her motion by a five-to-four margin.
She questioned why the council thought it was acceptable to “experiment” on small business owners while they awaited official data, due after the trial finishes next month.
“I am very saddened to see that this room actually values these other alternative concepts but does not value small business. Small business is the CBD,” Bloomfield said.
“Without them you do not have a CBD. You have have a central nothing district, and that’s what we’re now supporting and that disappoints me enormously.”
She said some business owners have contacted her and expressed concerns about a decline in foot traffic, an increase in vehicle fumes and drop in trade of up to 40%.
The joint State Growth and City of Hobart trial is currently measuring the ‘real life impacts’ on the city’s traffic network, which Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds and other councillors believe is having a positive effect on pedestrian safety.
But Bloomfield said if the council was serious about the safety of pedestrians, they would have not allowed the ‘much more dangerous’ e-scooters in the city.
Councillor Ryan Posselt called the “hysteria” around the trial unwarranted and said that the crossings have “nothing to do with the traffic congestion”, a comment Bloomfield slammed as “unfair”.
“It’s not hysterical to lose the ability to pay your mortgage or to buy food for your family,” she said.
Posselt said the traffic light ‘behaviour change’ was working as a “measure to discourage drivers from cutting through the city when they should be going around”.
Councillor Louise Elliot believed the crossings have “definitely had an impact” on traffic, but she wants information to back that up.
“I am confused as to what problem [the crossings are] trying to fix,” Elliot said.
The council plans to provide the results of the trial, including delay periods and traffic impacts, after it wraps up next month.
