On Nov 5 the Cairns Post revealed the 10 lane highway "solution" for Cairns.
http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2009/11/05/73925_local-news.html
This is what the CAST 100 strong public meeting in March this year were universally opposed to!!
The Cairns Post has labelled it "future shock". It does look like shock and awe on the natural environment. It also represents the coal and oil dinosaurs trying to continue in the old ways.
They also say that the "work will take decades" - the perfect non-solution to a climate crisis.
Have your say! Online at the Cairns Post:
http://tools.cairns.com.au/yoursay/comment_all.php?article_id=73925
Or attend one of the local consultation meetings.
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2 comments:
Doesn't the proposed solution have a busway or public transport corridor? Is that part of the solution for taking cars of the road?
Mel, Manunda
Hi Mel
What Queensland Transport has proposed for the southern corridor is a motorway of up to 8 lanes plus a busway. More than that, the busway is part of QT’s proposed Cairns Transit Network (CTN) of three bus routes, which would mostly run in busways or buslanes to the northern beaches, western suburbs and the southern corridor. Sounds great (and it would be a better bus system than we’ve got) … except that:
1. The CTN will be built as “funding becomes available”. That puts in the land of the never-never. Meanwhile, the buses will have to fight the entanglement of cars on the roads which provide the access to and exits from the motorway.
2. There will be more cars under QT’s plans. That’s the planners’ projection. Current government planning is for a 15% increase in car travel by 2036 (or earlier), even after some good urban planning (“transit-oriented nodes of population, jobs in southern corridor rather than the CBD), and reaching their target of a minimum of 10% of passenger trips by public transport (plus a doubling of bicycle trips). To get a reduction in cars a comprehensive, not just a commuter, system of public transport is needed. This is why CAST has proposed a system based on light rail “spines” with electrified local “feeder” bus services, to carry a minimum of 40% of passenger trips by the same time.
3. It is a pretty well-established fact from experience around the world that if you build more roads they will fill up with cars soon enough.
4. Key reasons for this is that making your major transport infrastructure projects road-building means the money that’s available gets spent on cars rather than public transport. The transport corridors also get used in this way: indeed, roads require much more space than public transport, tending to make cities sprawl. For the cost of the motorway and the CTN we can have a world-class public transport system with all the extra ecological, social and health benefits as well.
Jonathan
CAST member
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