Wildlife Corridors

We've moved about two miles, nicer house, nicer neighborhood. But one of the things I really miss about the old place is that it was a block away from the Cooks River trail. I think I need a wildlife corridor almost as much as the wildlife does. I can still walk 20 minutes and get to the Cooks River trail, but that would be 40 minutes round trip of annoying traffic noises just to get there and come back. The whole point is pleasant walking in a quasi-natural environment, not 40 minutes of annoying traffic for 2 minutes of relaxing greenery.

Earbuds are an essential tool to block out harsh, annoying urban noise (traffic, buses, overflying jets). Generally, I don't have the music or podcasts too loud, but when I'm walking near a busy road, it's surprising how much I have to turn up the volume to hear over traffic; passing buses. Sydney's established bicycle paths are a convoluted, sometimes incomprehensible meander. On occasion I've realized they are going out of the way to avoid a busy street or impassible intersection. But as convoluted as Sydney's neighborhood streets and network of roads are, they do present an opportunity for finding routes AWAY from the maddening noise and traffic. Perhaps rather than trying to specify the convoluted path best for a bicycle, maybe neighborhoods should do more to identify "quiet streets". These would be the streets where a car should EXPECT to get stuck behind a bicycle or see children playing in the street. Rather than channeling a bike onto a specific street, this would make larger swaths more visible, with smaller red zones where bicycles should expect trouble.

Of course "quiet streets" are not wildlife corridors, but they could potentially harbor more foliage and other signs that they are more friendly towards flesh and blood than metal and machinery. They wouldn't necessarily be bicycle commuter corridors either, because bicyclists on a mission can almost be as dangerous to foot traffic as automobiles. We had a couple of accidents in San Francisco where bicyclists hit pedestrians - including killing an elderly person. OK, so keep the bicycle routes, but also identify the quiet streets (which are sometimes obvious as the lines that aren't designated as major arteries). Unfortunately, creating more wildlife corridors is a challenge in highly developed suburbia. But designating quite streets and human corridors still remains a huge opportunity.