View
0
Download
0
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
Monday, August 9, 2010 NEWCASTLE HERALD 9
OPINION&ANALYSIS
Varsity valuesandcobblestonecapers
PhillipO’Neill
FULL ENGLISH PACKAGE: Oxford’s planners have made car driving painful.
Professor Phillip O’Neill is directorof the Urban Research Centre,University of Western Sydney.
I’VE been in Oxford, England’s olduniversity city, for nearly two weeks.I don’t have a car, but I don’t needone. I walk everywhere.
Our apartment is close to Oxford’sshambolic mishmash of HarryPotter colleges, mediaeval walls andchurches, gardens, playing fields,riverside meadows, pubs, shops andeateries – accessible easily by amaze of cobbled streets, alleys andpathways.
This morning my journey to theSchool of Geography and theEnvironment, where I am a researchvisitor for a short time, started witha brisk walk from St Clements acrossthe Magdalen bridge over the RiverCherwell, and along the high street,competing with earnest walkers,swift cyclists and filled buses, butfew cars. My pace then slowed as Igave in to the temptation to explorea different route, and the chance tolook up at the morning sunlight onspires, domes and vaults, walking attimes through darkened, damppassages, confined by close stonewalls, and then bursting back intothe sun as I stepped my way onto agrand forecourt announcing yetanother historic cathedral, museum,gallery or stately home. You get thefull English package here.
Deliberately, Oxford’s plannershave made car driving painful. Thefew inner routes that are accessibleto private vehicles are slow andcongested. Parking right across thiscity of 150,000 people is restricted topermit holders. There’s no basicright for a household to operate two,three or four cars. Visitors and long-distance commuters dutifully leavetheir cars and join buses at thenumerous park-and-ride facilitiesaround the Oxford ring road. Or theyarrive in town by rail, deliveredconveniently right into the heart ofthe city (duh!).
The city’s buses are numerous,and they are clean and quiet. Manyare hybrid-electric powered. Theycreep slowly through pedestrianmalls, before darting briskly alongreserved bus lanes to destinationsnear and far. Customers at bus stopsglance at their wait times from
electronic notice boards, and areinvariably pleased.
Less than 40 per cent of Oxford’sworkers use cars to get to work, andnot all work at the colleges anduniversities, or in the city centre.The famous Cowley factory stillmakes the Mini, and there areindustrial and office parks scatteredthroughout the metropolitan area.Yet nearly 20 per cent of workers aredaily walkers. Similar proportionscommute to work on bicycles, orcatch the bus.
And these stats don’t includeOxford’s 20,000 students, who almostall walk or cycle as they go abouttheir business, which sometimesincludes attending class.
The contrast with NSW isastonishing. Figures from ourTransport Data Centre reveal thatbarely 7 per cent of commuters inNewcastle, Sydney and Wollongongwalk to work, while 67 per cent arecar-dependent. In the Lower Hunter,though, less than 4 per cent walk towork.
Moreover, NSW is also witnessinga major decline in the once normal
practice of walking to school.Astonishingly, 50 per cent of schoolchildren in Newcastle, Sydney andWollongong arrive at school by car.Only 16 per cent walk, down from22 per cent 10 years ago.
About 1.5 million years ago, ourHomo sapien ancestors learned towalk.
Children today start walking atabout 11 months. It’s astonishing towatch them become accomplishedwalkers so quickly, isn’t it?
The rewards for their sterlingefforts are obvious. They free uptheir little hands to point and push,to grab and hold, to feel and hug.Walking turns their eyes upwardsand forwards, to watch, to wonder, tolearn. Soon they will talk. Butwalking comes first.
When you walk, you explore, yousee things that car drivers miss, yousee faces and flowers, you feel theair on your face, you have time tothink. And experts tell us thatwalkers are healthier and livelonger.
Oxford is an unusual city, its mainactivities are packed into a tight
six square kilometres. Of course,then, walking, cycling and bussingare easier. Newcastle, Sydney orWollongong can never be an Oxford.
Yet Oxford’s experience doesteach a powerful lesson. This is thatthe quality of a city is formed over avery long time period. We know thatthe best cities have concentrationsof diverse activities in their centres;and that they are filled at all hoursby people from near and far. Thesethings don’t just happen. Theyrequire careful choices andnurturing, and obstinatedetermination. Patience isimportant too, for the stakes arehigh. As this city shows, everythingfrom grand buildings and publicspaces to humble footpaths, eachwith their own purpose and charm,should serve a city for centuries.Expediency should never be anoption.
Vote for thebenefitsof reducingpovertyHow much is too much tospend on the world’s poor,asks Colin Haggar.
Major Colin Haggar is thecommunications officer for theNewcastle & Central NSW Divisionof The Salvation Army. This article issubmitted by the Churches MediaAssociation – cmahunter.com.au.
AS we approach the federal electionand go through the process ofconsidering which political party isgoing to give us the better deal, willwe cast our vote purely on the basisof self-interest?
Ten years ago, the nations of theworld agreed that it was not onlypossible but eminently achievableto do something significant aboutreducing extreme poverty in ourworld. From this were birthed theeight millennium developmentgoals (un.org/millenniumgoals).
Toachievethegoalofhalvingextremepovertyby2015,developednationswereaskedtocommit0.7 percentoftheirgrossnationalincomeintargetedforeignaid.
The benefits of such positiveaction include a reduction in boththe threat of terrorism and illegalcross-border people movements, thelatter a matter of intense attentionin the lead-up to the election.
Australia, along with the rest ofthe developed world, signed anagreement in September 2000stating that we would “spare noeffort” to achieve the millenniumdevelopment goals.
Two thirds of the way to 2015, eventhough there have been successes(reductions in infant and maternalmortality rates) there is still someway to go.
Our foreign aid stands at 0.33 percent of our gross national income.This means that for every $100 weearn as a nation, we give the poor ofthe world 33¢.
This record makes me feelashamed and embarrassed. As anaverage Australian I not only tread
more heavily upon this planet, butmy government by its inaction onthis promise made in 2000, isundermining our internationalintegrity. All for the sake of 37¢ inevery $100.
The Micah Challenge is amovement emanating from thechurches of Australia calling uponour federal government to practisewhat it preached in September 2000.See micahchallenge.org.au/mdg.
Both the federal government andopposition have committed tospending 0.5 per cent of Australia’sgross national income on foreign aidby 2015. But when you consider thatAustralia survived the globalfinancial crisis in far better shapeand with far lower national debtthan any other developed economy,we look more than just lame – wemake Scrooge look like Santa Claus.
There may be those who will saythat we should look after our own
first; that charity begins at home. Allthe evidence suggests that we haveindeed looked after ourselves first,last and every point in between.
We may say we care, but ourinaction as international citizenssays something else.
Perhaps as we consider how tovote this federal election we shouldbe looking for leaders who willcommit to extending compassionbeyond our borders – to treatingrefugees more kindly – not becausewe will get any benefit from it(which we will) but because it is theright thing to do.
Topics today
Today’s fact
Most house dust particles aredead skin.
Today’s word
Bonhomie: geniality, good-natured friendliness.
It happened today
From our files – 1967: A detailedreport into the the services atNewcastle Post Office will beprepared after complaints aboutdelays in mail delivery andtrunk-line calls.
Today in history
480 BC: After three days’resistance, King Leonidas ofSparta and 1000 Greeks arefinally beaten by the Persians atthe battle of Thermopylae.378: Visigoths annihilate a Romanarmy and kill the emperor atAdrianople, marking thebeginning of serious barbarianinroads on Roman territory.1529: Writs are issued for aparliament in England.1942: Britain arrests MahatmaGandhi and 50 others in Bombay.Gandhi is interned until 1944;HMAS Canberra sinks during theBattle of Savo Island.1945: US plane drops secondatomic bomb, destroying morethan half of the Japanese cityNagasaki.1969: Actress Sharon Tate andfour other people are foundmurdered in Tate’s Los Angeleshome; cult leader CharlesManson and his disciples arelater convicted of the crime.2008: Russia and Georgia headtowards a wider war as Russiantanks rumble into the contestedprovince of South Ossetia andRussian aircraft bomb aGeorgian town.
Born today
John Dryden, English poet-dramatist (1631-1700);P. L. Travers,Australianauthor andactress(1899-1996); RodLaver, pictured,tennis star(1938-); KenNorton, USboxer (1945-);Melanie Griffith,US actress (1957-); WhitneyHouston, US singer (1963-); EricBana, actor (1968-);
Odd spot
South Korea’s military isplanning a new campaign:against the use of foul languageby young soldiers.
Today’s text
For I am persuaded that neitherdeath nor life, nor angels, norany power, in fact nothing willever be able to separate us fromthe love of God, which is oursthrough Jesus Christ our Lord.Romans 8:38-39
Recommended