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Trafficking in illusions

By Jeremy Gilling, John Muscat and Rolly Smallacombe - posted Friday, 4 May 2007


While some urge the carrot of better public transport, others raise the stick of penalising car use. According to the BTRE report, “if a pricing mechanism could be put in place that obliged all motorists to base their travel decisions not only on their private costs but also on the additional costs imposed on others ... then transport choices would alter”.

This brings us to the holy grail of urban planners: a London-style congestion charge. This was a special gift to Londoners from Lord Mayor “Red” Ken Livingstone. As Nico McDonald points out, however, the charge isn’t such a success: “More generally, the Congestion Charge doesn’t appear to be designed to reduce driving in central London during the busiest periods. For instance, drivers, such as commuters, pay a single daily charge. Once paid, there is no incentive to avoid the charging zone or period when driving back from work. In addition, drivers are able to pay the charge for a year ahead, which incentivises them to use their car rather than other modes of transport.”

Unpalatable as it is to planners and activists, the solution has to include more and better road construction. The NRMA will be dismissed as a self-interested motoring association, but the organisation is right when it says “a transport corridor is needed along the northern beaches, which combines public transport options and the upgrade of local roads”, and “Sydney also needs to act now to ease traffic around Port Botany and south and south-west Sydney by completing the F6 and M4 extensions”.

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Sydney’s freeway and orbital motorway networks are integrated systems. Failure to complete a certain sections renders the whole network less efficient. A case in point is the M4 East, the “missing link” of the M4, a lateral east-west axis across the city. The plan to complete the M4, which now terminates at Strathfield, but is meant to terminate close to the city centre, is on hold due to community opposition. Community opposition should be distinguished from public opposition, however. The M4 East corridor crosses the greenie heartland of Sydney’s inner-west, where a highly organised coalition of resident action groups, Greens, local councillors and MPs is always ready to mobilise for action.

These activists are really concerned about property values, but will resort to tired old slogans to fight their cause. One of these is the well rehearsed line that road construction never works because more roads just mean more cars. But this depends on the circumstances. According to the international consultancy Demographia, for instance, in the 1980s Houston, Texas had the worst traffic congestion in the United States but reduced it by 45 per cent after building more road capacity. Few other cities across the world have tried it.

Perhaps it’s time for a novel thought. Let’s reduce congestion by building more state of the art roads.

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First published in The New City on April 23, 2007.



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About the Authors

Jeremy Gilling is a co-editor, along with John Muscat, of The New City, a web journal of urban and political affairs.

John Muscat is a co-editor, along with Jeremy Gilling, of The New City, a web journal of urban and political affairs.

Rolly Smallacombe is a co-editor, along with Jeremy Gilling and John Muscat, of The New City, a web journal of urban and political affairs.

Other articles by these Authors

All articles by Jeremy Gilling
All articles by John Muscat
All articles by Rolly Smallacombe

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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