In March and April 2014, the City of Stirling held a "Beaufort Street Charette" to develop a vision and plan for revitalising its section of Beaufort Street which included the suburbs of Inglewood and in part, Mt Lawley.
At the time the experts and locals identified:
- a hostile car-oriented environment;
- significant through-traffic travelling at speed;
- confusion over on-street parking;
- visually unattractive developments;
- a lack of pedestrian amenity, comfort and safety; and
- a lack of greenery along the Street.
One key conversation was the business communities' lament at the lack of parking or specifically the lack of understanding that drivers could park on Beaufort Street, outside of the Clearway times. The often used example of this difficulty, was the restaurant owner of Cecchi's needing to park his own car on Beaufort Street every single evening to signal the permissibility of the parking out front of his restaurant. Soon, residents in attendance, who were consulted on the challenge, expressed their surprise you could park on the street and the penny dropped – as the parking wasn't signed or surfaced in ways that would promote such use people didn't use the parking.
Process
The charette was a series of meetings over almost two weeks, and spurred the locals to band together and create what would become one of the first Town Teams, Inglewood on Beaufort Inc. The locals of Inglewood identified a "quick-win" and the experts totally agreed it was a great idea - line mark the parking bays.
Approvals
Once the opportunity was identified at the charette and the City staff commenced the task to implement, by designing the line-marking capable of being delivered and identified where the signage improvements needed to be made. Once The City had the plans completed they consulted with Main Roads WA to obtain their approval.
Activities on the Day
Within the charette period the City officers realised the poor and confusing signage, as well as a lack of formal line marking inhibiting parking on the street and committed to have it rectified as a priority.
Statistics and Outcomes
Over the next two years the City implemented the line marking and signage improvements. It took quite some time with the last section completed around December 2016, roughly 2 and half years from the charette, as it needs to be approved by Main Roads WA.
The transformation of the sections that had the line marking was immediate, as businesses experienced uplift in footfall to their doors, and residents ventured to the strip as the now, parked cars provided a physical, spatial and acoustic separation of the footpath from the relative hostility of the carriageway. Overall, the dwell time and footfall increased significantly.
Initially the speed reductions were quite minimal, with speeds pre-line marking being 54.4km/h and lowering to 53.7km/h. However as the awareness of the line-marking took hold, coupled with more businesses opening and a speed trial in place, the last speed assessments conducted in late 2021 now reveal an average speed of 47km/h.
What Worked
Having community engagements in ways like a charette are fantastic as they both inform all participants of the challenges but equally bring various and sometimes disparate groups together to find ways to collaboratively design and agree on solutions.
Lessons Learnt
- The charette was the source of one of the first Town Teams in WA, Inglewood on Beaufort Inc and demonstrated to the (then) inexperienced, community group by sharing our observations of our surroundings and a good idea, things for the better can happen.
- While everyone was in support and the cost of the line marking was minimal, Main Roads WA approval can take time, so it wasn't exactly a quick win!
