Although obviously derived from the same press release, the two Melbourne dailies present two quite different headlines: "Elms to be replaced on St Kilda Rd" (The Age) and "Road plan to push bikes" (Herald Sun). And two quite different openings, firstly the Herald Sun:
Motorists would be squeezed out by a new bike lane on St Kilda Rd under a council plan to revamp Melbourne's grandest boulevard.
And The Age:
The 700 historic elms that line St Kilda Road will be cut down and replanted over the next decade, as part of a plan to renew Melbourne's best-known boulevard.
Hmm, just when I thought the Herald Sun was starting to go soft on all those lycra-clad pansies! Looks like normal service has resumed. (It's also kind of comforting that the usual half-arsed comments abound. Please don't feed the monkeys.)
Masterplan
Anyway, what's going on?
Melbourne City Council has released a "masterplan" for St Kilda Rd. I haven't been able to find the document itself, but reading from both articles it includes:
-
installing Copenhagen-style bike lanes from St Kilda Junction to Princes Bridge
-
installing platform tram stops
-
reducing the speed limit from 60km/h to 50km/h
-
replacing "over 400" or "700 historic elms" along the side of the road
The Herald Sun:
Melbourne City Council planners want to preserve the boulevard's landscape, replace trees and improve safety for motorists, cyclists and tram users.
Both papers report that there were 61 collisions on St Kilda Rd in 2005, with ten pedestrians injured.
While the Herald Sun bangs on about a squeeze on motorists
their reporter doesn't appear to have made any phone calls, whereas at least The Age reporter spoke to corporate mouthpieces from RACV and BV. Interestingly, Ken Ogden from RACV is only quoted as objecting to the reduced speed limit, not to the installation of bike lanes (this doesn't mean he didn't have anything to say about it, just that it wasn't reported).
In what must be a world first, Harry Barber of Bicycle Victoria was speechless with delight
. (However he soon recovered and proceeded to talk non-stop for 15 minutes under wet concrete with his mouth full of marbles.)
Bicycle numbers had increased from less than 50 each morning heading into the city on the road in 1992 to around 700 every morning today, he said.
A 14-fold increase over 15 years? Maybe the Herald Sun should start paying more serious attention to cycling rather than just beating-up an imaginary cars vs bikes debate at every opportunity.
Well again, that's an interesting thing. The Age refers to "historic Elms" that will be "cut down and replanted", whereas the Herald Sun says that the "ageing and dying elm trees would also be gradually replaced".
More slicing, more dicing.
The Age also covers the push by a Greens councillor to have the exotic species replaced by natives, an idea that is at least worthy of consideration, I would have thought.
Comments
Bikes vs cars? What about the poor berloody trees???
;-)