It will come as a surprise to many that the draft Kiama Traffic & Parking Study (KT&PS) finds that there is no need to increase public car parking in the Kiama CBD for the next 10 years.

The KT&PS was conducted by specialist consultants to investigate the feasibility and impact of concepts proposed in the Kiama Town Centre Study, which was endorsed by Council in September 2019, as well as looking at other growth pressures on traffic.

The Town Centre Study was developed by Council, with extensive community involvement, to help balance growth in the Kiama town centre while also retaining its historic character.

“In simple terms, once exhibited and endorsed, the Traffic & Parking Study will tell us what we need to put into our Capital Works Program years about improving traffic, pedestrian access, cycleways and parking in the Town Centre for the next 10 years,” says Mike Dowd, Council’s Director Engineering & Works.

“It tested all of the things that came out of the Town Centre Study, to see: is it feasible from a traffic engineering perspective? What impact does it have somewhere else in the network?

“Once we get feedback from the community, we need to weigh up technical versus community benefits and impacts to make a final list.

“What will go back to Council after this exhibition is the final study, with a list of agreed options, that will then roll into a future works program.”

An artist's impression of the Town Centre Study project to widen the footpath on Terralong to encourage traffic up Railway Parade

Although it was conducted in July 2020, during the week and on a Saturday, the figures have been extrapolated using accepted methodology to make the predictions.

Amongst the findings in the 285 page report are:

• warning that by 2131 it will be necessary to have traffic lights at the corner of Collins and Terralong
• advising against making Terralong Street into a pedestrian-friendly zone (10km speed limit and priority for pedestrians)
• removing the rumble strips in crossings in Terralong St in favour of raised zebra crossings
• supporting the temporary closure of Terralong Street between Railway Parade and Manning Street (known as the ‘Summer Streets’ initiative), with appropriate traffic management plans
• giving support to the idea of narrowing Terralong St on the western approach to the railway bridge and encouraging traffic to use Railway Parade
• changing the intersection of Blowhole Point Road and Terralong St to give priority to those leaving the Point
• installing a median strip at the intersection of Farmer and Manning Sts, to stop right hand turns
• a raised platform for the whole intersection of Railway Parade and Bong Bong Sts.

“I expect the traffic light proposal for Terralong and Collins, will be one of the ones more questioned by locals,” says Mr Dowd.

“But the modelling is telling us in 10 years, on a normal day, that intersection is going to reach capacity.

“Because of the peaks in summer, we may want to bring this forward because those impacts are a reality now on the really busy weekends and in the summer peak,” says Mr Dowd.

The Town Centre Study's Summer Streets Concept is feasible

On the parking front, the KT&PS found that there are 1,441 public car parks in the study area.

The changes suggested above would result in the loss of 42 car spaces (plus an extra 26 during the Summer Streets period).

With overall parking occupancy at 61 per cent on Saturdays and 26 per cent on weekdays, the KT&PS says there is sufficient parking capacity to accommodate growth over the next 10+ years.

The study says current public car parks are underutilised

The Study vindicates Mayor Mark Honey’s long held view that Kiama doesn’t have a parking problem, it has a walking problem.

Its recommendations for parking are:

• increase signage to direct drivers to underutilised parking
• improve pedestrian conductivity from existing car parks
• ensure future developments retain existing public access to carparking
• introduce RV parking in Shoalhaven St
• ensure sufficient onsite parking is provided in any new developments
• introduce a levy on new developments to fund parking and transport infrastructure in the town centre.

“No parking design caters for the worst case, which for us would be a very busy holiday period in the middle of summer,” says Mr Dowd.

“No council will design parking to cater for everybody that would come to that zone then, as it’s totally cost prohibitive and we’d have multi-story car parks everywhere that for 99 per cent of the year were unoccupied.”

Interestingly, the Study says that the proposed Kiama Arts Centre, with auditorium, would require 100 car spaces compared to the eight envisaged in its most recent design.

The consultants also looked at traffic congestion around Kiama Public School and concluded it was due to illegal and poor driver behaviour, bus timetabling and student finishing times not being staggered.

Suggestions for improvement were outside the scope of the study.

The KT&P Study is now on exhibition on Council's website, with submissions due by 5pm, Sunday 31 October.