Now to a story about the pain of being a pedestrian in Sydney.

I think the article is spot on, but I am amazed that we had to import a Dane to conduct some simple tests - like walking along a street with a watch and timing how much time you spend walking and how much time you spend standing at a corner waiting for the lights to cross.

These Danes are so much more technically advanced than we are - perhaps they have special stopwatches that are on their technology export banned list?

Sorry for the sarcasm -

SYDNEY pedestrians can spend as much time waiting to cross the street as they do on the move because the car has ruled the city unnecessarily for 30 years.

The Danish architect and urban planner Jan Gehl, who began studying Sydney's walkers in May, believes they are harassed and feel like a second priority, putting people at risk of getting hit by cars.

"The worse you treat people, the more they start to take the law into their own hands," Professor Gehl said.

Test walks conducted along major streets such as George, Pitt, Market and Druitt found it took much longer to cross the city from east to west than to walk up the city's spine.

The worst is Market Street, where pedestrians who obey traffic signals spend half their time waiting for the signals to turn green, his research team found. The wait created a sense of crowding, even if the number of people was not particularly high, because people were forced to cluster on each corner.

Traversing Druitt and Park streets involved waiting for about 30 per cent of the time. A spate of accidents around Druitt Street shows the disruptions that have been caused. The State Transit Authority stopped city-bound buses using Druitt Street last month after at least 11 accidents involving pedestrians in the past two years.

Sydney has the potential for "much better turnover" of people, Professor Gehl believes.

In Melbourne, whose council he has advised, the Bourke Street Mall is far more populated than Pitt Street, and Swanston Street, a major thoroughfare, has more than 15,000 more users a day than George Street.

"You have a number of built-in harassments," Professor Gehl said.

One is his pet hate, the traffic button that walkers must push to "apply" to cross the road. Another is the cluttering of the streetscape by large phone booths and bus stops that accommodate large advertising signs.

Professor Gehl has just been engaged by the City of New York to find solutions for Manhattan, which he considers has similar topography to Sydney because it is surrounded by water and has narrow footpaths.

Measures to alter the balance between drivers and walkers range from the radical - doubling tax on fuel - to the subtle - altering the configuration for turning left and right off thoroughfares.

At present, Sydney's roads, footpaths and traffic light configurations all conspired to favour the car, Professor Gehl said. They were a product of traffic engineering that was refined in the 1960s and '70s but never reviewed.

"In many cities they have never come further than accommodating this new gimmick [the motor vehicle]. They have just been allowed to fill every void."

Modern traffic engineers have found ways to accommodate walkers more easily.

"I would say that it's recognised in more and more cities that you have to be more friendly to pedestrians and public life and bicycles because we have been unfriendly for a long time."

Unlike other areas, where councils control the roads, alterations in Sydney have to be approved by the Roads and Traffic Authority.

Changes can be hard to agree on. Recent efforts by City of Sydney to have the RTA reduce the speed limit to 40kmh failed amid strong political opposition.

A City of Sydney councillor, John McInerney, who sits on the council's traffic committee, is hoping the authority will be receptive to Professor Gehl's report, which is due in December.

A spokesman for the authority said it was implementing a $17 million, three-year program to upgrade all 59 pedestrian crossings without traffic lights on state roads with four or more lanes.

-----------------

These results should come as no surprise to anyone that has ever had to walk around Sydney. It's crystal clear that the road system is completely geared towards the car, and pedestrians are 3rd class. I don't mind that sort of attitude when it comes to freeways, but at some point, everyone who drives into the city has to get out and walk.

The planners seem to have forgotten that drivers and pedestrians are the same people. (Yes, some catch the train or bus to town, but every car driver is a pedestrian at some point. Except maybe taxis.) Making the city friendly to cars and unfriendly to pedestrians is not the way to win hearts and minds.

City planners seem to treat the car as an object in its own right - that is, a car is a car and has no occupants. The important thing is to get the car to its destination in the fastest possible time - and bugger the person within. That's barmy, since you often have to park and then walk to get to your destination. Journeys can be made up of multiple parts. I hate the word, but holistic is something that needs to be injected into the heads of planners.

Preferably with a big fat needle. Right through the skull.