![]() ![]() They can use these much better while taking transit, or even biking and walking – but they are downright inconvenient (and illegal) if driving. Young people recognise freedom and connection happens first of all through their electronic devices. Freedom and connection is no longer about a set of motorised wheels. The new urban era we are seeing in Australia is the opposite of the wide open road. And public transport is growing dramatically with recent NSW and Victorian elections driven by the need to actually build rail deep into car dependent suburbs. Car use per person has declined by 12% in the past 7 years after 100 years of growth. But a major social transition is underway. ![]() Indeed I found we could win elections on the basis of restoring Perth’s aging rail system.Īfter 50 years of neglect, our cities are still very short of funding for public transport, cycling and walking infrastructure. The wide open road began to lose its shiny lustre as the centerpiece of government policy. It was left to the states to prioritise road funding from their GST payout.Īs soon as roads became subject to state policy the bottom dropped out of their funding and instead priorities flowed to health, education, police and even some public and active transport.įrom this period on, the transition to a more rational and market-oriented transport system began. Data isn’t even collected on the small amount spent on walking and cycling infrastructure.īut this government did inadvertently bring some rigour into the road funding issue by adopting the GST. In the Howard era $8 billion was awarded to road projects and less than 1% of the Federal transport budget went to rail and urban mass transit. In our 2001 book, Back on Track, Philip Laird and I did some calculations showing there was an $8 billion annual road deficit, once you consider road crashes, pollution and other health impacts such as obesity. The myth established in Australia was that roads paid for themselves. Public transport, cyclists and pedestrians were left to fend for themselves with no capital investment. Fuel taxes were hypothecated (used specifically) for road funds and National Highways created the wide open roads we all apparently dreamed of. The NRMA in Sydney and the RAC in other states are part of a national lobby – the Australian Automobile Association – that sits in a building as close to Parliament House as it is possible to get.įor years the lobbying for roads was highly successful. ![]() But in Australia motorists tend to think the road is just for them: not for pedestrians and certainly not for cyclists. In Dutch and Danish cities this priority for cars has never been granted. In a global first, that request was granted and the right soon spread across Australia. In the early part of the 20th century the Royal Automobile Club in Perth lobbied to give priority to cars over pedestrians. Roads have been designed for the benefit of motorists thanks to heavy lobbying. Roads were not always just for motorists traffic didn’t always equal cars. So how did we lose our pedestrian-, bike- and transit-friendly cities so easily? The answer, as always, is “politics”. Many Australians go to European cities and see how much is done for users of transit, with quality cycling and pedestrian spaces, and so much less for cars. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |