sydney-city-centre-review-of-environmental-factors

2 Need and options considered
This chapter describes why the proposal is needed. It also describes and analyses
the options Roads and Maritime has considered during the development of the
proposal. Finally, it describes the preferred option (the proposal) taken forward for
approval by Roads and Maritime.
2.1 Strategic need for the proposal
The proposal is needed to support the growing demand for access into the Sydney
city centre and to improve road network efficiency and functionality over the coming
years to maintain the operational performance of the road network to support buses,
taxies, service and freight delivery and general traffic; including during construction
and operation of a number of projects proposed under the Access Strategy.
As described in Chapter 1, the Access Strategy prioritises and allocates street space
in the city centre for light rail, pedestrians and cyclists, buses, taxis, freight and
service vehicles and private vehicles, in order to address existing competing and
conflicting transport priorities and deliver an integrated transport network in the city
centre. This prioritisation includes:
Pedestrianisation of 40 per cent of George Street (considered the central spine
of the city) between Bathurst and Hunter Streets
Multimodal traffic alongside and across George Street by creating corridors for
buses, taxis, cyclists, motorcyclists and private and delivery vehicles
Private vehicles on the outer routes to provide bypass gateways to the north,
west, east and south.
In support of the Access Strategy, a number of projects to be constructed and
operated in the city centre over the coming years, including the CSELR and Sydney
City Centre Bus Infrastructure projects as well as the proposed Sydney City Centre
Cycleways project. Of critical relevance to this proposal will be the closure of George
Street to traffic between Bathurst Street and Hunter Street, as approved under the
CSELR project, and to pedestrianise this zone.
To allow the changes proposed in the Access Strategy, traffic capacity improvements
would be required on a number of roads and intersections within Sydney city centre.
Some of these locations are either already at capacity in regard to existing traffic
volumes and/or they provide an essential function in enabling the above projects
(refer section 2.2).
The need for the proposal is reinforced by the scale of the demand on the city’s
roads where ‘630,000 [plus] trips [that] are made to the…centre each day’ (Transport
for NSW, 2013). By 2031 this number is expected to increase by 23 per cent; the
equivalent of an additional 145,000 daily trips’. The proposal would support the city’s
road network to continue to function in line with the priorities set under the Access
Strategy.
In summary, traffic capacity improvements are needed at several critical roads and
intersections in the city centre in order to:
Allow the city centre road network to continue to function in response to
anticipated changes in traffic demands, traffic priorities and travel patterns,
including during construction and operation of the Access Strategy projects
Maintain the operational performance of the road network to support buses,
taxies, service and freight delivery and general traffic
Sydney City Centre Capacity Improvement 8
Review of Environmental Factors