Saturday, 24 March 2012

Shopping - and public transport.

There is a plan before Wollongong council to change the parking space requirement when a new city building is approved.  This calls for a reduction in the car spaces balanced against the floor space in the building - but it boils down to a new four story building having to provide just eighty-seven car spaces against the present requirement of one hundred and twenty three.

This seems to be part of the philosophical battle between those who want shoppers to leave their cars out of the city and use the free bus system, and those who know we are a lazy lot - and will shun any shopping centre that does not provide adequate parking.

In the case of the Wollongong Mall, the people who own shops have already made their decisions on shopping and parking.

If you are a customer wanting to buy a large electrical item such as a fridge or a washing machine, you can forget shopping in the Mall.   The " big ticket " electrical shops departed Wollongong ages ago and they are all in a cluster now at Warrawong.        Harvey Norman, the Good Guys, Joyce Mayne - with adequate parking for hundreds of cars.

If you are shopping for groceries, the choice is a single Woolworths Supermarket in the street behind the Mall. If you want a choice between Woolworths, Coles, Aldi, Franklins and smaller IGA stores, then look at any of the suburban shopping centres and you will find them - with plenty of off street parking within their own property.

The concept of leaving your car in the suburbs and riding the free bus to and from the Mall is fine - if you plan to buy just a pair of gloves, or visit a solicitor - or do any number of things that do not involve lugging bulky shopping back home.    That is simply not practical - and if you own a car you will certainly prefer to shop where you can load your purchases and drive them home in comfort.

The planners who advocate actually reducing parking in the CBD surrounding the Mall are swimming against the current.    All that was settled way back after the end of the second world war, when suburban shopping centres started to replace central shopping hubs - and the main reason for this phenomenon - was free parking.

No matter how much the pundits wail about saving the ecology by reducing car travel, it is a fact of life that the car gives us freedom and mobility - and the public will fight like hell against any plan to take that away.

The free bus is a marvellous concept at moving people in and out of the city hub, providing that we accept that it is not a means of transport for large or bulky purchases.    If the Mall is to survive as an expanded shopping centre it will only do so if the planners provide the right mix of public transport - and adequate parking for customers cars.


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