Imagining a Rockhampton that is less car dependent

It is entirely normal and obvious to have a transit hub where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or transport modes.

CBD FRAMEWORK: Artist impression of a transport hub, to include budget short-term accommodation under the Rockhampton CBD Redevelopment Framework. Picture: Rockhampton Regional Council

I was sadly disappointed to see a car park go into the old Wintergarden site behind the Leichhardt hotel.

Not because I don't like the carpark, per se.

Sure it's another slab of heat-refracting bitumen typical of recent constructions which threaten to turn our CBD into an amorphous grey blob.

Alma St carpark Sth Rockhampton. Picture: Jann Houley

Further west along Denham Street there's one stretch where pedestrians really feel the temperature pick up yet another a degree or two.

The bitumen road gives way to a concrete footpath beyond which more bitumen, in the form of carparks, nudge up against awning-less grey-painted flat slabs of office walls and windows.

There's not a blade of grass in sight unless you count the astroturf some misguided soul chose as a simulacrum of nature along the car yard strip.

(Compare that to a recent historic photo in the same vicinity came up on Rockhampton: Remember When's facebook showing ladies strolling in the shade of a great big tree).

BITUMEN CITY: Areas of the CBD are becoming unattractive to pedestrians because of the lack of shade and greenery. Picture: Jann Houley

No, the reason I'm disappointed is because I heard there was going to be a transit hub there.

I was looking forward to Rockhampton joining the 'grown up' cities' club and giving locals and tourists alike what is, undeniably, a feature of a progressive city's infrastructure.

As Rachel Lynskey wrote in the the Sydney Morning Herald this week, "more people travelling by foot, bike and public transport create safer streets and stronger sense of community."

"Our governments must listen to urban planners and designers so that urban development is delivered with adequate infrastructure for people to imagine a city that is less car dependent."

I suspect I'm not going to get much support or sympathy from the Rockhampton locals who've spent their whole life around here.

During the dozen years since I moved here what I often hear is "we've never done it like that in Rocky, that's just the way it is".

I think the refrain continues "some things never change"?

But Rockhampton does change; it changes with every passing year and some of that transformation is very well thought out and actualised.

BLOCK REDEVELOPMENT: Rockhampton Region mayor Margaret Strelow revealed Council's bold plans for the long vacant Wintergarden Theatre site on Alma St. Picture: Contributed

The swimming and waterpark facilities, the riverside improvements, the Mt Archer canopy walk are some examples of improvements made during my stay which are attracting acclaim from locals and tourists alike.

But our public transport system is an absolute embarrassment.

There are bus stops which offer no shade; until recently the main northbound local stop had no seats.

Locals on their way to work and school had to squat on the Leichhardt side stairs among cigarette butts, trash and the occasional spew.

What roofs do exist are not calibrated to block the fierce Queensland sun; take the Northside Plaza bus stop as an example.

Waiting for a bus one doesn't generally have access to public toilets or drinking fountains.

No wonder the number of people who wouldn't consider swapping out their single occupant car ride to work regardless petrol gets more expensive and carparks more scarce.

Then there's the utter confusion over which bus stop goes where.

Imagine you're from out of town and you're looking for directions to "the bus station" only to have it explained that 1) if you're heading out to the beach on Youngs bus you need to be in front of the police station but 2) if you're wanting the local bus, to Stockland for example, you need to be on Denham Street except 3) if you're heading south to, say, the botanic gardens you want to be in front of Kerr Arcade on Bolsover. Another couple of metres further down for the shuttle to the hospital.

Finally, and this is the most absolutely retrograde thing about Rockhampton in my opinion, there is no local bus service past midday Saturday.

No doubt the local company will argue they can't afford it but if Rockhampton wants to be taken seriously as a place to visit it can't afford not to have weekend routes.

Again, the driving addicted are going to be "like, meh, get a bloody car, ya whinger!" about it.

But in the same breath they're going to be the ones complaining if tourism in the city fails and more jobs are lost as a result.

Don't forget how many dollars our regional University brings in from international students who would prop up the CBD's café, music scene and inner city rentals every evening and weekend if they weren't stuck seven clicks out along the highway.

So let's be very clear how, for those of us who haven't been here long enough to become numb to or defensive about Rockhampton's failings: it is entirely normal and obvious to have a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or transport modes.

One place.

It would have bus parking under cover on the ground floors with waiting rooms behind glass windows in the aircon.

It would have toilets and drinking fountains aplenty as well as retail venues where one can buy all manner of food and beverages, drop off and pick up drycleaning, access wi-fi and an internet lounge, purchase newspapers and stationery, organise future travel, look for lost-and-found and so on, access first aid etc.

It would connect the airport and train station to other services via shuttle buses as well as motels, hostels, hospitals, van parks, taxis, the future ring road etc.

Heck, we could even run a shuttle to a water taxi which whizzed people along the river between the CBD, the swimming pool, the fishing ramps!

Typically a transit hub would feature carparking for subscribed locals as well as offices on the upper floors and pleasant, shady landscaped courtyards below in which to while away a half-hour between buses with a coffee and a kindle.

Having imagined all this would come to fruition in Alma Street in the foreseeable future, I can't help but feel a bit glum at the carpark which unfurled in its place.

Challenging Rockhampton's car-reliant culture and redressing what, for people accustomed to travelling around Australia and overseas, seems a major drawback in our region's infrastructure, a transit hub in that spot would have proved of benefit to exponentially more people than a carpark... whether they realise it or not.

Originally published as Imagining a Rockhampton that is less car dependent