An Orange resident has called for part of Anson Street to become a pedestrian mall to improve safety for shoppers and boost businesses.
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Will Woods said the Anson Street block bounded by Summer Street and Kite Street should be closed to traffic.
Mr Woods has started the Anson Street Pedestrian Plaza group on Facebook to find supporters and advocate for change.
The pedestrian crossing has caused headaches for motorists for many years which includes a mix of loading zones, a taxi rank and a 40 kilometre an hour speed limit.
“It’s not ideal for motorists or pedestrians,” Mr Woods said.
“The easiest thing to do would be to remove the crossing, but it would be to the detriment of walkability.
“We need to move away from the myth that parking and cars are good for business.”
Mr Woods said motorists drove through areas compared to a pedestrian which would visit shops when walking between destinations.
“Pedestrians are great for business,” he said.
Mr Woods said he started his group because he didn’t want to see the only pedestrian infrastructure in the city’s centre removed.
He said Orange at times was a struggle for pedestrians and he said young children and elderly residents found it hard to make their way on foot due to a lack of marked crossings in the city.
“It isn’t very walkable once you get out of central Orange,” Mr Woods said.
“This is like the chicken and the egg, if there’s no infrastructure for pedestrians, people won’t cross the street and people won’t necessarily realise they need that infrastructure.”
Mr Woods call for a pedestrian plaza on Anson Street follow a letter to the Central Western Daily (CWD) from Brian Keighran calling for a solution.
In a poll on the CWD’s website, closing the street for a pedestrian plaza attracted 39 per cent of voters from 400 readers who responded.
Readers overwhelmingly wanted to do something to change the street, whether it be a pedestrian mall, giving cars right of way or installing traffic lights.
Only eight per cent of readers supported doing nothing at all while 6.8 per cent wanted to remove the crossing.