It just makes so much sense to put more rail down rather than build more freeways and tunnels....read on
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/leaving-the-city-choking-on-traffic-fumes/2008/03/16/1205602190303.html
Policies leave the city choking on traffic fumes
Jacky Fristacky
March 17, 2008
* Urban expansion a 'climate threat'
* Rob Moodie It's war on our roads and cars should not be the winners
* Letters Public transport is what we need
Building ever more roads is not the answer to growing congestion.
WITH EastLink due to open in the middle of this year, inner-city Melbourne will need to brace itself for the additional traffic that will hit the end of the Eastern Freeway.
Around 140,000 vehicles use the Eastern Freeway every day, and EastLink is expected to add more than 20%.
So where do these extra vehicles go? As 90% of Eastern Freeway traffic heads for the city centre and surrounding areas, the fight for exit spaces to the city will intensify dramatically.
Hoddle Street, Melbourne's busiest road, where 37% of cars and 35% of trucks leave the Eastern Freeway, will have to take even more, causing traffic snarls at intersections along its length.
Also, the influx of EastLink traffic into Smith and Brunswick streets will delay trams. Yarra Trams can forget its aim of increasing tram speeds along what are some of their busiest routes, including Swanston Street and Royal Parade.
All this is the result of outdated transport planning by the Government, which clings to the myth that congestion in a city the size of Melbourne can be resolved by freeways that move mostly sole-occupant vehicles. It is committing billions of dollars to projects that only worsen congestion.
EastLink, costing $4 billion, will take more cars into central Melbourne, causing more congestion. The $1 billion extension of the Monash Freeway and the projected $10 billion tunnel linking the Eastern and Tullamarine freeways will do the same.
Government advisers are misguided in thinking that building freeways will resolve congestion. It is now widely understood by urban planners that freeways through cities do not resolve traffic problems, but exacerbate congestion at intersections off freeways.
As architect and urbanist Lewis Mumford warned, trying to cure traffic congestion with more road capacity is like trying to cure obesity by loosening the belt.
The Government's faith in freeways also undermines public transport as tram and bus speeds decline on increasingly congested roads. It is worth noting that despite major increases in public transport use, 2006 census figures show that inner-city commuters are shunning slow trams and buses that share roads with cars, and are instead turning to walking and cycling.
Cycling in the City of Yarra accounts for nearly 10% of trips to work, and walking is even higher at 12%. And, according to Bicycle Victoria, in the two years since the 2006 census, cycling has increased by a massive 42%. Meanwhile, the use of buses for trips to work fell from 1.8% in 2001 to 1.4% in 2006 and tram use declined from 13.8% to 12.7%.
Yet train use continues to grow, increasing by 15% in the past 12 months. This is likely to continue and usage would be significantly greater if service levels and routes were expanded rather than restricted.
Yet another quaint policy stance by the State Government is that people should be encouraged to use the slower buses, rather than faster trains. This is like a trader trying to urge consumers to buy a black-and-white television when the demand is for plasma.
The reluctance to invest in new and fast rail lines is based on a second myth, that the provision of rail services is costly compared with building more road space. The reverse is the case. Economist John Hewson has recently highlighted the cost of building a freeway at $100 million a kilometre, which is 10 to 50 times more expensive than the rail equivalent.
Transport consultant and engineer Louis Fouvy says the cost of a road tunnel per kilometre is 2.5 to three times the cost of a rail tunnel of equivalent passenger-carrying capacity.
A third myth is that, compared with car use, the operating costs of public transport place a heavy burden on the budget. Yet the cost of hospital beds, deaths, accident repairs, emissions, pollution, and tax concessions for road transport are many times the annual operating costs of passenger transport. The cost of road collisions alone — $1.7 billion each year in Victoria — is more than the combined cost of running the train, tram and bus systems.
A fourth myth is that car transport is more efficient for cities. While one freeway lane can carry 2000 people an hour by car, a single rail line can transport up to 60,000 passengers an hour.
As far as energy is concerned, travel by car uses three to four times as much energy per person per kilometre as public transport travel. It is also more costly for users than travel by public transport and has inferior safety and health results. Australian Bureau of Statistics data for 2006 shows that the cost of car travel in Melbourne, at more than $130 a week, ranks with housing as a major household expenditure item.
The community is entitled to an explanation from Premier John Brumby about why it is being forced to fund billion-dollar road projects that exacerbate city congestion, impede tram priority and clash with federal targets to reduce emissions.
The community is also entitled to know why vital rail projects such as lines to Doncaster, South Morang, Mernda-Whittlesea, Wyndham Vale and Rowville are on the back burner when they offer far more cost-effective and sustainable travel. Ultimately they could all easily be paid for in lieu of the one projected road tunnel.
Jackie Fristacky is a City of Yarra councillor and deputy chairwoman of the Metropolitan Transport Forum.
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