This one:
Sydney’s traffic peaked in 2005 and had been falling steadily ever since. The number of vehicle kilometres travelled per person has been falling and is now back to 1992 levels …
From The Australian – October 4, 2012:
‘Motorway madness to waste billions’ as rail and bus use grows
PUBLIC transport advocates have slammed NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell’s decision to set aside $1.8 billion in funding for a new motorway from Parramatta to Sydney airport, claiming Sydneysiders’ per capita road use is falling amid high petrol prices and increased use of rail and buses.
Gavin Gatenby, the convenor of lobby group Ecotransit, said the NSW government’s support of the WestConnex motorway was “about supporting private vested interests that have sunk billions into building motorways”.
“Per capita road use has been falling for the past eight years in all Australian capital cities, as public transport use has surged. Yet NSW decides to invest billions of dollars in motorways before major public transport projects. It’s sheer madness,” Mr Gatenby said. …
Recent motorway projects in NSW — including the Lane Cove Tunnel, the Cross City Tunnel and the Eastern Distributor — had all failed to reach their forecast traffic numbers. …
Another indication that something profound is going on, with evidence of declining traffic volumes coming in from around the world. Don’t we need to understand this better before committing to billions of dollars of more road capacity on the assumption that traffic volumes will increase?
Did anyone else notice that Obama’s go-to examples of infrastructure spending were always “roads and bridges”?
Sounds a lot like Vancouver
Repairing roads, bridges, pipes and expanding fast rail isn’t such a bad idea. I just wish one national leader in either Canada or the USA had an urban agenda. Maybe only mayors should be prime ministers and presidents? For a change.
Frank, does that mean you will be endorsing Rob Ford for PM?
Of note, the motorways mentioned (Lane Cove Tunnel, the Cross City Tunnel and the Eastern Distributor) are all tolled.
When I was in Melbourne, the expressways i traveled on were tolled. They even had photo radar as I unexpectedly found out.
IMO another thing i liked in Australia was people using a Ute to haul stuff. In North america, usually the option is to use a large truck, larger and heavier with presumably worse fuel consumption. .
Rico – interesting leap in “logic” you’ve made there. Don’t know why. Do you have a problem with REPAIRING infrastructure, which is what I said?
It was a tongue and cheek reply to your assumption that somehow urban mayors would make better PM material than the cuurent system, obviously Rob Ford would be a bad PM for cities.