Australian Urbanist

Ku-ring-gai, an affluent, heavily forested, and low-density area in Sydney's North Shore, faces challenges like housing inaccessibility and limited urban diversity due to its predominance of expensive, detached houses. This report recommends extending the "diverse housing options" priority by increasing medium-density housing. This change is crucial to meet the needs of younger people priced out of the current market and older residents seeking to downsize, and it suggests altering zoning restrictions to enable more medium-density housing. It also suggests improving bus routes to make better use of the nearby metro station as the population grows.

This thesis investigates the impact of medium-density housing on walking, cycling, and public transport usage in the Canberra-Queanbeyan urban area from 2016-2021. Using GIS and a gravity model, the study found that medium-density housing, especially when combined with mixed land-use, significantly encourages sustainable transport, leading to a 25-30% increase in mode share usage compared to lower-density scenarios. This translates to an estimated 1% decrease in annual ACT emissions and an annual economic benefit of approximately $35 million. The findings support existing literature on the benefits of medium-density development.

This policy brief addresses the challenges and potential improvements for bus transport utilised by McGill students. The existing bus service, despite its significant ridership, is characterised by unsatisfactory speed and reliability. Analysis highlights routes 24 and 55 as crucial for improvement due to high student usage. These routes have excessive stops; increasing stop spacing by eliminating less important stops could boost travel times by about 10%. Further improvements could include implementing all-door boarding and relocating bus stops to after traffic lights.

A historical analysis overviewing how changing transport technologies, ideas and policies in Sydney affected the Norton St corridor over time.