Government has lost control of the wheel

The Queensland State Government should take driving lessons and dog obedience training if it wants to make sensible investments in southeast Queensland's transport infrastructure.

In an advanced driving course they teach you a simple strategy to avoid crashing into an obstacle when you lose control of your car: focus on the place you want to go instead of focusing on the obstacle you are trying to avoid.

As the population of southeast Queensland grows the state government is steadily "losing control" of the transport system. More people are forced to use the car for more trips, and this causes more accidents, congestion and pollution.

Since the late 1990s, the government has acknowledged that our transport system is heading full speed towards the street pole, and that if we continue in the same direction we will become more polluted and congested.

The Integrated Regional Transport Plan for SEQ reflected this change of attitude, and the draft Regional Plan for SEQ showed that the government finally had decided to grab the steering wheel and take evasive action.

Accordingly, the Regional Plan aims for a transport system that promotes public transport use, walking and cycling by creating efficient, fast, frequent and reliable public transport.

So how would a government achieve these goals in a region where the majority of trips are in the car? How would a government encourage greater use of public transport in a region where the car is far more convenient? To achieve this goal it seems obvious that the majority of infrastructure spending should be on public transport, walking and cycling.

But no, our government has decided to drive towards the street pole at full speed. The recently released State Infrastructure Plan for SEQ is meant to support the transport goals of the Regional Plan.

But it is focused on the thing it is trying to avoid.

For example, in greater Brisbane $5,555 million (65 per cent) of transport funding is to be invested in roads and tunnels, while only $3,029 million (35 per cent) is to be invested in public transport, walking, cycling and freight rail. Do the planners and politicians understand the law of cause and effect? If you continue to focus on the street pole you will hit it. If the government invests heavily in roads then people will keep driving.

But maybe the government thinks it can keep buying votes by building roads, and that people just magically will start using public transport because it is "nice, green and ethical".

Governments are good at telling us cars create pollution and it would be nice if people caught the train. The conventional wisdom is: cars are bad and public transport is good.

But why would the majority of people start using public transport when the government rewards motorists by investing the majority of transport funding into roads? If you are trying to teach your dog to sit do you smack it when it sits and give it a bone every time it runs away and bites the neighbour? No, that would be sending the wrong messages.

But this is what the state government is doing by treating public transport users, pedestrians and cyclists like second-class citizens, while pampering drivers.

If the government is serious about getting people on to public transport it has to reward people by making it more convenient than the car.

It can only do this if they reverse the transport funding ratios in the infrastructure plan. A real plan would reverse the percentage of investment in public transport and roads.