tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/westconnex-13809/articlesWestConnex – The Conversation2020-05-18T20:03:09Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1368362020-05-18T20:03:09Z2020-05-18T20:03:09ZIs another huge and costly road project really Sydney’s best option right now?<p>The New South Wales government has focused on delivering more motorways and rail links for Sydney, along with main roads in regional NSW, since the Coalition won office in 2011. The biggest of these, WestConnex, is still being built. Plans for yet another major motorway, the <a href="https://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/projects/western-harbour-tunnel-beaches-link/index.html">Western Harbour Tunnel and Beaches Link</a>, are well advanced. </p>
<p>A hefty environmental impact statement (EIS), but incredibly no business case for a project costing about <a href="https://www.afr.com/street-talk/big-balance-sheets-tested-for-nsw-s-next-15b-roads-project-20190717-p527xx">A$15 billion</a>, was recently put on public exhibition. When submissions closed at the end of March, the vast majority of <a href="https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/project/10451">1,455 submissions</a> from public agencies, individuals and organisations were objections to the Western Harbour Tunnel project.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335297/original/file-20200515-138615-kjng4a.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335297/original/file-20200515-138615-kjng4a.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335297/original/file-20200515-138615-kjng4a.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335297/original/file-20200515-138615-kjng4a.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335297/original/file-20200515-138615-kjng4a.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335297/original/file-20200515-138615-kjng4a.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335297/original/file-20200515-138615-kjng4a.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335297/original/file-20200515-138615-kjng4a.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The NSW government has promoted the Western Harbour Tunnel since announcing it in 2014, but hasn’t convinced the many objectors.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G8fYlAP-M4">YouTube/NSW government</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The proposal follows three stages of WestConnex and the F6 Extension south of Sydney. Thousands of objections in the planning process did not stop the government going ahead with each stage. </p>
<p>This led to a state parliamentary <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lcdocs/inquiries/2497/Final%20report%20-%20Impact%20of%20the%20WestConnex%20Project%20-%20FINAL%20-%2014%20December%202018.pdf">inquiry</a> in 2018. Its first finding was: “That the WestConnex project is, notwithstanding issues of implementation raised in this report, a vital and long-overdue addition to the road infrastructure of New South Wales.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/health-impacts-and-murky-decision-making-feed-public-distrust-of-projects-like-westconnex-106996">Health impacts and murky decision-making feed public distrust of projects like WestConnex</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, the committee also found “the NSW Government failed to adequately consider alternative options at the commencement of the WestConnex project” and that “the transparency arrangements pertaining to the WestConnex business case have been unsatisfactory”.</p>
<p>These two findings apply to the Western Harbour Tunnel process too.</p>
<p>In the run-up to the 2019 state election, the government promoted the project and placed on public exhibition an environmental impact statement for the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/abcillawarra/photos/a.170201826359012/1799373796775132/?type=3&eid=ARCxMdhfJzTCWlRd2sIUTVqLc7P-hfGmJAX00uY3WgnhS5zmMSeB-eYCCDmKAu9AjkfW_xUj3_IrdxXM">A$2.6 billion F6 extension</a> between Arncliffe and Kogarah.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335296/original/file-20200515-138615-1z0hr26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335296/original/file-20200515-138615-1z0hr26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335296/original/file-20200515-138615-1z0hr26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335296/original/file-20200515-138615-1z0hr26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335296/original/file-20200515-138615-1z0hr26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335296/original/file-20200515-138615-1z0hr26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335296/original/file-20200515-138615-1z0hr26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335296/original/file-20200515-138615-1z0hr26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The proposed Western Harbour Tunnel and Beaches Link.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/projects/western-harbour-tunnel-beaches-link/index.html">Transport for NSW</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The state opposition promised to scrap the Western Harbour Tunnel and F6 projects. Instead, it would give priority to rail and public transport upgrades. </p>
<p>Some have <a href="https://theconversation.com/infrastructure-splurge-ignores-smarter-ways-to-keep-growing-cities-moving-105051">suggested time-of-day road congestion charges</a> as a much better option than more motorways.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-nsw-election-promises-on-transport-add-up-112531">How the NSW election promises on transport add up</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Local government objections</h2>
<p>Four councils made detailed objections to the Western Harbour Tunnel proposal. </p>
<p>The City of Sydney, noting “it has been a long-time critic of WestConnex”, said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This is primarily because this costly motorway project will fail in its primary objective of easing congestion. Urban motorways do not solve congestion; they <a href="https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/09/citylab-university-induced-demand/569455/">induce demand</a> for motor vehicle trips and any additional capacity created is quickly filled. This phenomenon applies equally to the Western Harbour Tunnel and Warringah Freeway Project, a component of the WestConnex expansion.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The City of Sydney recommended the government provide alternative public transport options.</p>
<p>The Inner West Council, whose suburb of Rozelle will be adversely impacted by the project, has also long opposed inner-urban motorways. It prefers “traffic-reduction solutions to addressing congestion, including public and active transport, travel demand management and transit-oriented development, with some modest/targeted road improvement”.</p>
<p>North Sydney Council noted significant concerns with the EIS, including “inadequate justification and need, loss of open space, construction and operational road network impacts, air quality and human health concerns, environmental, visual, social, amenity and heritage impacts, as well as numerous strategic projects having the potential to be compromised”.</p>
<p>Willoughby City Council noted the limited time given for considering a very large EIS, made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. It questioned why a public transport alternative was not assessed. “Known alternative solutions with lower climate impacts need to be considered to be consistent with action on climate change and improved resilience.”</p>
<h2>Ignoring the alternatives</h2>
<p>In 2017, it was <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/f6-planners-told-to-ignore-public-transport-build-roads-documents-show-20170407-gvgbon.html">revealed</a> the NSW government was instructing transport officials to ignore public transport alternatives to motorways such as the F6 extension and Western Harbour Tunnel. Wollongong-Sydney train travel times could be cut by half an hour for A$10 billion less, according to a Transport for NSW internal memo. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-can-halve-train-travel-times-between-our-cities-by-moving-to-faster-rail-116512">We can halve train travel times between our cities by moving to faster rail</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is at a time when Sydney train ridership has been <a href="https://www.bitre.gov.au/publications/2019/yearbook_2019">increasing faster than the distance driven by Sydney motorists</a>. Rail showed 39% growth over ten years to 2018-19 and road just 12% in a time of rapid population growth.</p>
<p>Over many objections, the F6 extension is proceeding. Many aspects of the Western Harbour Tunnel need further attention. The NSW Ports Authority is concerned about the amount of highly <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/warning-about-amount-of-toxic-sludge-to-be-dug-up-for-harbour-tunnel-20200416-p54kd3.html">contaminated sludge that will be dredged up</a> from the harbour. The shadow minister for roads, John Graham, <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnGrahamALP/status/1251415324324319234">notes</a> dredging will be close to residential areas.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1251415324324319234"}"></div></p>
<p>Heritage NSW has noted the project will have direct impacts on six sites, including the approaches to Sydney Harbour Bridge.</p>
<p>The Action for Public Transport (NSW) group questions the influence of the Transurban company on transport planning at a time when NSW’s long-term integrated transport and land use plans aim for net zero emissions by 2050. Its submission says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The funding for the project should be reallocated to more worthwhile projects such as filling in missing links in urban public transport systems, disentangling the passenger rail network from the rail freight network, and providing faster rail links to regional centres.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/infrastructure-splurge-ignores-smarter-ways-to-keep-growing-cities-moving-105051">Infrastructure splurge ignores smarter ways to keep growing cities moving</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What are these other priorities?</h2>
<p>NSW has a shortage of “fit for purpose” rail infrastructure to serve a growing population. This includes the Sydney Metro West (an <a href="https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/project/25631">EIS is on exhibition</a>) and ensuring the new Western Sydney Airport has a rail service. More funding is also needed to upgrade the existing rail system and to cover a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/4-3-billion-cost-blowout-in-sydney-s-metro-rail-project">A$4.3 billion cost blowout</a> on the Sydney City and Southwest Metro project. </p>
<p>The government has <a href="https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/news-and-events/media-releases/fast-rail-network-to-transform-australia">acknowledged</a> a need for better rail services to the South Coast, Newcastle, Canberra and Orange. In 2018, it <a href="https://www.nsw.gov.au/projects/a-fast-rail-future-for-nsw">commissioned</a> an independent report on <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-04/fast-rail-given-green-light-by-berejiklian-without-commonwealth/10580658">fast rail options for NSW</a> by British fast rail expert <a href="https://static.nsw.gov.au/Fast-rail/1543351718/Expert-advice-on-fast-rail.pdf">Andrew McNaughton</a>. The completed report <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/faster-journeys-on-sydney-canberra-trains-among-priorities-20200225-p5444m.html">is yet to be released</a>. </p>
<p>The question now is should the Western Harbour Tunnel be abandoned or, at the very least, deferred until major rail projects have been completed.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>A reference to Western Highway Tunnel (which is of course the Western Harbour Tunnel) has been corrected in the last paragraph.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136836/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>
Philip Laird owns shares in some transport companies and has received funding from the two rail-related CRCs as well as the ARC and made a submission to the WHT proposal. He is affiliated, inter alia, Action for Public Transport (NSW) along with the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, the Rail Futures Institute and Engineers Australia. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
</span></em></p>Once again, the state looks intent on pressing ahead with a huge road project without releasing a business case. Among the many concerns is the failure to look at lower-emission alternatives.Philip Laird, Honorary Principal Fellow, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1069962018-12-03T18:59:26Z2018-12-03T18:59:26ZHealth impacts and murky decision-making feed public distrust of projects like WestConnex<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247877/original/file-20181129-170232-ibwxa5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Much of the public opposition to the WestConnex project is related to concerns about the impacts on health.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.westconnex.info/parliamentary_inquiry">No WestConnex</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>WestConnex, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/westconnex-audit-offers-another-17b-lesson-in-how-not-to-fund-infrastructure-73206">most expensive piece of transport infrastructure</a> being built in Australia, looms large over the next New South Wales election. Construction is well under way, fuelling community concern about the project’s impact on their health and wellbeing. </p>
<p>The NSW Coalition government was elected in 2011 on a promise to deliver major infrastructure including a road for Sydney. Attention should have been paid to the adage that history repeats itself. The M5 East project became a major headache for the previous Labor administration because of <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/m5-risks-50-times-worse/news-story/8ff9510416c9f2ee79bd5ce86bfc1245?sv=14811001bf23a9bf74af6a11f8197603">concerns about the impact of tunnel emissions on human health</a>. </p>
<p>Subsequent research showed <a href="https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/news/Pages/20120723_01.aspx">some health concerns to be scientifically unclear</a>. Nevertheless, WestConnex is showing that concerns about a range of human health issues, including but not limited to tunnels, remain at the forefront of public concern. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-health-assuming-its-rightful-place-in-planning-here-are-3-key-lessons-from-nsw-94171">With health assuming its rightful place in planning, here are 3 key lessons from NSW</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What do submissions to WestConnex inquiry tell us?</h2>
<p>We wanted to test our assumption that health is a core issue for the public in relation to infrastructure projects. We asked two masters of public health students to investigate the content of the nearly 500 public submissions made to the current <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/inquiries/Pages/inquiry-details.aspx?pk=2497#tab-submissions">parliamentary inquiry into the impacts of WestConnex</a>. Both randomly picked 150 submissions made by individuals, plus 70 from organisations or those with a professional interest in the project. They analysed these submissions for mentions of health and related themes.</p>
<p>The impact of Westconnex on health was one of the most consistent themes in submissions. Around three-quarters referred to “health”. About half of these did so explicitly and the other half identified a health concern but without using the word. </p>
<p>The majority focused on air quality. Many were concerned about children’s health – relating to both the proximity of schools to WestConnex works and the loss of green space and its impacts on physical activity. Submissions also raised issues of noise, traffic accidents, stress, reduced physical activity, sleep disturbance and odour, often in quite disturbing detail. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1050285563528470528"}"></div></p>
<p>Crucially, many submissions showed evidence of independent health research – for example, on the difference between filtered and unfiltered stacks. They called for health outcomes to be measured and publicly accessible.</p>
<p>Submissions also showed evidence of disenfranchisement from the planning process. Specific concerns included:</p>
<ul>
<li>lack of comparison with costs and benefits of alternative transport infrastructure</li>
<li>failure to consider the full range of health impacts</li>
<li>overestimation of benefits relating to demand and travel time savings.</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-transport-projects-arent-as-good-for-your-health-as-they-could-be-68326">Why transport projects aren't as good for your health as they could be</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Health was missing from the start</h2>
<p>Ultimately, these concerns about health result from misgivings and frustration about the transparency of decisions behind the project. Digging deeper, the <a href="https://www.westconnex.com.au/sites/default/files/WestConnex%20Updated%20Strategic%20Business%20Case%20-%20November%202015.pdf">2015 updated business case</a> demonstrates that the analysis over-relied on benefits and underestimated costs to find that WestConnex would be:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… economically viable and will return $1.71 for every dollar invested … without wider economic benefits and $1.88 with wider economic benefits.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is an example of a misuse of cost benefit analysis that, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1068/b32111">international research</a> has shown, ultimately culminates in massive cost blowouts, overruns and impacts that are not in the public interest.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/westconnex-audit-offers-another-17b-lesson-in-how-not-to-fund-infrastructure-73206">WestConnex audit offers another $17b lesson in how not to fund infrastructure</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The focus on travel time savings omits health and related impacts raised in submissions. It ignores the required mix of transport options that are known to have a positive impact on community wellbeing. </p>
<p>This is made more problematic by the early planning never having been in the public domain. By the time the updated business case was produced in 2015, key decisions, which led to the motorway being proposed without any alternatives, had been made but are still not available for scrutiny. The details behind the original analysis that Infrastructure NSW undertook in 2012 are missing. </p>
<p>The original <a href="http://www.infrastructure.nsw.gov.au/media/1127/sis_report_complete_interactive.pdf">INSW state infrastructure strategy</a> and woefully parsimonious <a href="http://www.infrastructure.nsw.gov.au/media/1160/insw_tfnsw_and_roads_and_maritime_services_wcx_25_sept_2012_final_120927.pdf">35-page report</a> argue that “WestConnex must be more than a road”, but this objective appears to have gone missing in action soon after. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/transport-access-is-good-for-new-housing-but-beware-the-pollution-77790">Transport access is good for new housing, but beware the pollution</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Lessons from the WestConnex experience</h2>
<p>It’s fair to say that the 2011 infrastructure commitments have come back to haunt the government. The unprecedented scale of investment has been coupled with unnecessary hubris. Planning processes appear for the most part to be serving vested interests rather than the public interest. </p>
<p>The opposition, smelling blood, is promising to make infrastructure planning decisions transparent if elected next year.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1064331498566926344"}"></div></p>
<p>The WestConnex experience shows the political cost of marginalising health in such decision-making. Perhaps the biggest lesson is that the public may never be satisfied with technical predictions of risks late in the planning process. </p>
<p>Transport planning has the potential to improve the health and wellbeing of the population. With this in mind, it’s better, then, to include health across decisions about what type of project best fits the strategic goals of the city. This process should weigh up options and alternatives based on a balanced assessment of costs and benefits that places a value on human health.</p>
<p>Above all, we need transparency about these decisions. If not, governments will continue to suffer the consequences at the ballot box.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Thanks to Tom Robertson and Abigail McCarthy for their outstanding analysis of the inquiry submissions in their final major unit of the Masters of Public Health at the University of Sydney School of Public Health.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106996/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Harris receives funding from NHMRC and ARC. He is affiliated with the Public Health Association of Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edward Jegasothy is currently employed by the University of Sydney and was previously employed by NSW Health. He is affiliated with the Public Health Association of Australia. </span></em></p>The health concerns that dominate public submissions to the parliamentary inquiry into WestConnex are a reminder that papering over such issues comes back to haunt governments.Patrick Harris, Senior Research Fellow, Menzies Centre for Health Policy, University of SydneyEdward Jegasothy, Lecturer, School of Public Health, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1012462018-08-28T20:20:54Z2018-08-28T20:20:54ZWe hardly ever trust big transport announcements – here’s how politicians get it right<p>Australian governments regularly spend billions of dollars cancelling infrastructure projects, or dealing with delays and legal challenges. The NSW Berejiklian government, for instance, is mired in legal battles around Sydney’s light rail project – with the Spanish company building the rail line <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/spanish-builder-claims-state-failed-to-reveal-full-facts-on-light-rail-20180413-p4z9et.html?clicksource=inartcilelink">suing the government</a> for A$1.2 billion for costs and damages.</p>
<p>Other examples include the cancellations of the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-28/opposition-reveals-new-plans-for-controversial-east-west-link/9918306">A$1.1 billion</a> East-West link in Melbourne and Perth’s <a href="https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/state-overturns-approvals-quashes-rumours-of-roe-8-by-stealth-20180606-p4zjtc.html">A$450 million Roe 8</a> project. </p>
<p>Research shows transport infrastructure is costly because of its size, complexity, and the <a href="https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1409/1409.0003.pdf">misrepresentation of project benefits</a>, resulting in cost overruns. But transport projects are also costly because they are controversial. Governments and project proponents can spend significant amounts of money to manage the risk of project cancellation, delays and legal challenges.</p>
<h2>Why the constant controversy?</h2>
<p>Transport will be a key policy battleground area in the upcoming Victorian election. Just this week, the Andrews’ government announced a A$50 billion <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/state-government-announces-massive-suburban-rail-loop-for-melbourne-20180828-p5005r.html">underground suburban rail loop</a>, which will link every major rail line in Melbourne and the new airport rail. </p>
<p>The announcement is politically motivated rather than being grounded in a publicly engaged strategic planning process attached to a clear evidence-base.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/east-west-link-shows-miserable-failure-of-planning-process-40232">East-West Link shows miserable failure of planning process</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Victoria is not alone in such political infrastructure planning. The NSW government is currently embarking on the largest transport infrastructure project in the country’s history, with the 33km <a href="https://www.westconnex.com.au/about">WestConnex</a>. The project continues to attract opposition from some parts of the community and from the <a href="http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/vision/changing-urban-precincts/westconnex">City of Sydney</a>. </p>
<p>WestConnex is also currently subject to a <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/inquiries/Pages/inquiry-details.aspx?pk=2497#tab-timeline">parliamentary inquiry</a> into its impacts, including the adequacy of the business case for the project and the <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lcdocs/inquiries/2497/Terms%20of%20reference%20-%20WestConnex%20inquiry.pdf">compulsory acquisition of property</a>. The inquiry comes following pressure from community groups and <a href="https://www.mehreenfaruqi.org.au/greens-secure-westconnex-inquiry/">some members of the state’s Greens</a>.</p>
<p>Large-scale transport infrastructure will always attract attention because it involves the distribution of a finite resource in complex regions pressed with significant infrastructure needs. But we need to consider why transport infrastructure is almost always so controversial, and how politicians can ensure they have the public’s trust when making announcements for all transport projects. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-fewer-drivers-are-likely-to-use-westconnex-than-predicted-38286">Why fewer drivers are likely to use WestConnex than predicted</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>1. History</h2>
<p>Australia has a history of anti-road activism that centred on the notion <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/general-books/current-affairs-politics/Car-wars-Graeme-Davison-9781741142075">cities are for people</a> not cars, as large motorways <a href="http://www.umass.edu/umpress/title/street-fight">divide communities</a> and promote car dependency. In the 1960s and 70s, large urban motorways were set to pave over suburbs as part of a wider urban regeneration agenda, which set the anti-road agenda in motion.</p>
<p>When the East-West Link was proposed again in 2012, many of the same activists from the 1970s returned to the scene. One such activist, Tony Murphy, would lead a high-profile <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/east-west-link-details-may-come-out-in-court-20140519-38k82.html">legal challenge</a> to the project in 2014.</p>
<p>Inner-city motorways - such as the East West Link and Stage 3 of the WestConnex project – are underpinned by this historic opposition. And it’s strengthened by the privatisation of roads and the introduction of toll roads. Under these conditions concerns will continue to be put forward about who actually gains to benefit from such projects – private companies, the government or the people?</p>
<h2>2. Infrastructural symbolism</h2>
<p>Inner-city motorways crystallise competing visions for the Australian city. Should we be investing in roads or rail, or both? How do we prioritise delivery? Where should we be investing? How will we pay for these investments? And do the benefits - and we need to be clear about how we <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-closer-look-at-business-cases-raises-questions-about-priority-national-infrastructure-projects-94489">define these</a> - outweigh the costs of construction, the loss of natural assets and urban displacement?</p>
<p>The act of investing in one form of infrastructure over another becomes a symbol of what we value. Road based infrastructure planning is controversial because it’s often seen to value cars over non-road based alternatives.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233833/original/file-20180828-75984-1xu64cb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233833/original/file-20180828-75984-1xu64cb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233833/original/file-20180828-75984-1xu64cb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233833/original/file-20180828-75984-1xu64cb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233833/original/file-20180828-75984-1xu64cb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233833/original/file-20180828-75984-1xu64cb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233833/original/file-20180828-75984-1xu64cb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233833/original/file-20180828-75984-1xu64cb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We often see roads as controversial as they become a symbol of our value of cars.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The East-West Link, West Gate Tunnel, North East Link and WestConnex projects are symbols of past poor investment in integrated land use and transport planning. They are also a symbol of little clarity and coherency about what it is we are aspiring to, and how these expensive projects will help us get there.</p>
<h2>3. Trust in evidence</h2>
<p>There are concerns projects are being <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/events/the-right-infrastructure-at-the-right-price/">announced</a> before they are properly costed. And this has been further complicated by the introduction of public and private partnerships and more recently the use of <a href="https://www.dtf.vic.gov.au/infrastructure-investment/market-led-proposals">market-led proposal schemes</a> (where a private firm makes an infrastructure proposal to goverment), which calls into question the role evidence and the business case plays in decisions about transport infrastructure. </p>
<p>These concerns are only exacerbated when public access to this data is difficult to obtain. And they will only intensify unless bodies such as the <a href="https://www.afr.com/business/infrastructure/roads/transurban-to-release-more-tollroad-data-to-try-and-win-over-accc-on-westconnex-20180809-h13qbz">ACCC demand</a> data accessibility, including from tolling operators and sharing platforms.</p>
<p>In Toronto, project business cases are written before investment announcements are made. The <a href="http://www.metrolinx.com/en/regionalplanning/projectevaluation/benefitscases/benefits_case_analyses.aspx">business cases</a> are then used in wider discussions about what kinds of infrastructures the region should invest in. While every city and region has its challenges, the controversy in Australian cities has become as much about the role of evidence, including its accessibility and transparency, as it is about the contents of those documents. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-closer-look-at-business-cases-raises-questions-about-priority-national-infrastructure-projects-94489">A closer look at business cases raises questions about 'priority' national infrastructure projects</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What politicians should do</h2>
<p>As Australian cities continue to embark on ambitious infrastructure programs - both roads and public transport - governments must pause to ask themselves who these projects are really being built for. To abate future controversy, governments must:</p>
<ul>
<li>develop plans for public debate and engagement, which will help provide a strategic case for projects when they are announced</li>
<li>deliver business cases before projects are announced, not after. This must include a clear evidence-base for land use, affordable housing, employment and integrated transport</li>
<li>plan transport with a regional outlook, but also be mindful of stories and histories of the places and neighbourhoods that might be affected.</li>
</ul>
<p>Ultimately, residents must be engaged in discussions about urban scenarios and project alternatives. Infrastructure Australia <a href="http://infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/2018/2018_07_24.aspx">recently released</a> a set of guidelines for big projects. These guidelines are important.</p>
<p>We can also look to Infrastructure Victoria. They included a citizen jury method in the development of their 30-year strategy, which perhaps can be expanded into a larger planning exercise that ties the visions with short-term solutions – such as better quality bus integration. These can then be linked with the more ambitions ideas such as a suburban rail loop as announced this week.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/city-calls-on-jury-of-its-citizens-to-deliberate-on-melbournes-future-59620">City calls on jury of its citizens to deliberate on Melbourne's future</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101246/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Crystal Legacy has received funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>We need to consider why transport infrastructure is so controversial, and how politicians can ensure they have the public’s trust when making announcements for all transport projects.Crystal Legacy, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/901712018-02-08T18:10:51Z2018-02-08T18:10:51ZThis is how WestConnex can deliver Sydney a better city centre<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202046/original/file-20180116-53302-16ci1eq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Much of the traffic using Sydney's Anzac Bridge and, in the distance, Harbour Bridge is travelling through the city centre, not to it or from it.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Roggema</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>People are debating the need for new roads and in particular the need to build <a href="https://www.westconnex.com.au/">WestConnex</a> in Sydney. These discussions are always about more or less cars, relief of congestion or not, and pollution. This article offers a new perspective: if WestConnex is built in full, most cars will no longer need to drive through (or alongside) the city centre. </p>
<p>This could open the way to new uses for current highway corridors. Much less traffic in the city centre would deliver a much better urban environment.</p>
<p>Most drivers along current routes to the city centre aren’t using these to actually reach the centre and stay there. WestConnex connects the destinations of many drivers through the city from the west, the northern beaches and south to the airport and beyond. Once traffic is diverted underground, these drivers will be able to bypass (or travel under) the city centre (see figure 1). </p>
<p>This is similar to the changes the <a href="https://www.linkt.com.au/sydney/using-sydney-toll-roads/cross-city-tunnel">Cross City Tunnel</a> delivered for the inner west and eastern suburbs, but on a much bigger scale.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202059/original/file-20180116-53292-1msbxxm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202059/original/file-20180116-53292-1msbxxm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202059/original/file-20180116-53292-1msbxxm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202059/original/file-20180116-53292-1msbxxm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202059/original/file-20180116-53292-1msbxxm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202059/original/file-20180116-53292-1msbxxm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202059/original/file-20180116-53292-1msbxxm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figure 1: Westconnex and its northern and southern underground connections.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Roggema</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Making the best of WestConnex</h2>
<p>Hardly any Western country is building highways <a href="https://www.worldfinance.com/infrastructure-investment/project-finance/how-the-construction-of-elevated-highways-came-to-an-end">any more</a>. Many are tearing down the expressways that separate their city centres from the waterfronts, including <a href="http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/highway/TheBigDig.aspx">Boston’s Big Dig</a> project, San Francisco’s <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/06/05/san-franciscos-waterfront-freeway-was-removed-25-years-ago-no-one-misses-it.html">Embarcadero removal</a>, and <a href="https://landscapeperformance.org/case-study-briefs/cheonggyecheon-stream-restoration">Cheonggyecheon</a> in Seoul. </p>
<p>It is <a href="https://theconversation.com/do-more-roads-really-mean-less-congestion-for-commuters-39508">questionable</a> whether WestConnex is the best solution for congestion problems. However, the project is well under way. What is more important now is to identify its potential benefits for other areas and ensure current decision-making locks these in.</p>
<p>When WestConnex and associated highway links are completed, these will effectively create a bypass two kilometres west of the CBD. This could remove much of the traffic now entering city centre. </p>
<p>Traffic flows southward to the airport will be diverted using the <a href="https://www.westconnex.com.au/projects/m4-m5-link">M4-M5 tunnel link</a>. The <a href="http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/projects/sydney-north/western-harbour-tunnel-beaches-link/index.html">Western Harbour Tunnel and Beaches Link</a> will eventually connect the M4 to north Sydney. (Click on the blue links in the map below to see how these combine to replace existing routes, in red). </p>
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1MtA1savGHsGWXLu6tP-G8XK3mu_tw9jT&z=12" width="100%" height="600"></iframe>
<p>In the city centre itself, more than 90% of people walk to get around. Only <a href="https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/media/documents/2017/sydney-city-centre-access-strategy-final-web.pdf">2% of trips are by car</a>. Still, 25% of trips to the city centre (only 14% during peak hour) are by car, most of which probably require parking.</p>
<p>To sum up:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Traffic on Anzac Bridge would be reduced significantly if cars heading to the north shore (using the traverse towards Harbour Bridge), the eastern suburbs (using the <a href="https://www.linkt.com.au/sydney/using-sydney-toll-roads/cross-city-tunnel">Cross City Tunnel</a>) and the airport (using the <a href="https://www.transurban.com.au/our-operations/our-roads/eastern-distributor">Eastern Distributor</a>) were redirected.</p></li>
<li><p>Drivers coming over the Harbour Bridge from the north, heading to the western suburbs, could be diverted from the Harbour Bridge-Anzac Bridge, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Distributor_(Sydney)">Western Distributor</a> route.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Tolls would influence traffic flows, so a strategic approach should be taken to ensure the best outcome for the whole city, not just maximising toll revenues.</p>
<h2>What parts of the city could benefit?</h2>
<p>While WestConnex may be an outdated way of managing congestion, it can also be seen as an enormous window of opportunity to free up space in the heart of the city. Imagine what relief it could bring to parts of the city now under or along stretches of highway.</p>
<p>Possible benefits include:</p>
<p><strong>1) It makes it possible to minimise the bundle of infrastructure in between Kirribilli, North Sydney and Neutral Bay.</strong> </p>
<p>The areas on both sides of the current highway could be reconnected in the longer term. North Sydney would connect to Neutral Bay across a reduced highway corridor. This would create a new north shore focus, accessible for residents, workers, students and visitors (figure 2). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202048/original/file-20180116-53307-wi0ca4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202048/original/file-20180116-53307-wi0ca4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202048/original/file-20180116-53307-wi0ca4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202048/original/file-20180116-53307-wi0ca4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202048/original/file-20180116-53307-wi0ca4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202048/original/file-20180116-53307-wi0ca4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202048/original/file-20180116-53307-wi0ca4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figure 2: potential development space in North Sydney.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Roggema</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This new larger centre would face Sydney city centre, across the harbour, like Brooklyn faces Manhattan. It could easily accommodate 11,500 new residents, 780,000m<sup>2</sup> of commercial space and 78,000 jobs (6.5 times the size of <a href="http://www.barangaroo.com/">Barangaroo</a> at half its density).</p>
<p><strong>2) It opens up the possibility of removing the Western Distributor, the elevated highways along the western edge of the CBD, which separates the city from the water.</strong></p>
<p>In Pyrmont, bringing the Anzac Bridge off-ramp down to ground, and possibly linking to the Cross City Tunnel, could bring the city to the waterfront. Pyrmont could be reconnected to the old <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-nsw-government-wants-to-move-the-sydney-fish-market-and-sell-the-old-site-off-for-apartments-2016-11">fishmarket</a> and <a href="http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/explore/facilities/parks/major-parks/wentworth-park">Wentworth Park</a> (figure 3). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202049/original/file-20180116-53292-1tvpphf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202049/original/file-20180116-53292-1tvpphf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202049/original/file-20180116-53292-1tvpphf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202049/original/file-20180116-53292-1tvpphf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202049/original/file-20180116-53292-1tvpphf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202049/original/file-20180116-53292-1tvpphf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202049/original/file-20180116-53292-1tvpphf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figure 3: potential development space in Pyrmont.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Roggema</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It would be possible to remove the elevated highway separating Darling Harbour and the International Convention Centre from parkland and current car parks. The development potential of this large, north-facing area is huge – the space that could be freed up is three times Barangaroo’s present land area (figure 4).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202050/original/file-20180116-53295-n0fmuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202050/original/file-20180116-53295-n0fmuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202050/original/file-20180116-53295-n0fmuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202050/original/file-20180116-53295-n0fmuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202050/original/file-20180116-53295-n0fmuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202050/original/file-20180116-53295-n0fmuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202050/original/file-20180116-53295-n0fmuz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figure 4: potential development space in Darling Harbour.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Roggema</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It then becomes possible to reconnect old warehouses with each other and Tumbalong Park with the water to face Cockle Bay.</p>
<p>We could “complete” the renewal of the western edge of the city centre by connecting it with Circular Quay, and improve connectivity between Town Hall and George Street with the Darling Harbour waterfront (figure 5). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202051/original/file-20180116-53324-1idp0zy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202051/original/file-20180116-53324-1idp0zy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202051/original/file-20180116-53324-1idp0zy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202051/original/file-20180116-53324-1idp0zy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202051/original/file-20180116-53324-1idp0zy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202051/original/file-20180116-53324-1idp0zy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202051/original/file-20180116-53324-1idp0zy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figure 5: potential development space in the Harbour Bridge corridor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Roggema</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many heavily trafficked, fast-flowing one-way streets could become slow-moving two-way streets, as happened to Crown Street when the Eastern Distributor was completed. </p>
<p>Freeing up road space allows for the creation of more walkable and enjoyable public spaces. This would also increase the environmental and ecological quality of the urban environment, and reduce flash flooding. A greener city centre emerges that glues the eastern and western CBD together. </p>
<p>If traffic along the Harbour Bridge corridor is reduced, the Cahill Expressway could be repurposed or removed, realising the dream of generations of urban planners and designers (figure 6). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202052/original/file-20180116-53324-tm4qtf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202052/original/file-20180116-53324-tm4qtf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202052/original/file-20180116-53324-tm4qtf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202052/original/file-20180116-53324-tm4qtf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202052/original/file-20180116-53324-tm4qtf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202052/original/file-20180116-53324-tm4qtf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202052/original/file-20180116-53324-tm4qtf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figure 6: potential development space in Circular Quay.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Roggema</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This prime area facing Circular Quay could be redeveloped into a pedestrian-friendly boulevard, so people could easily cross from the CBD to the ferries. Circular Quay stop is the best possible way to arrive in Sydney, so the trains would remain, but the rail system should be redesigned as a lean piece of infrastructure, hardly noticed by people crossing underneath. The redevelopment space is mainly suited for retail and hospitality aimed at tourists.</p>
<p><strong>3) It makes it possible to give the Harbour Bridge back to Sydneysiders.</strong></p>
<p>With much less car traffic, some of the bridge’s eight lanes could be used for public transport (two lanes were added when tram services ceased in 1958), cycling and pedestrians, including a longitudinal park on top of the bridge.</p>
<p>In New York, Times Square was given back to residents of the city. Sydney Harbour Bridge, too, could become a place for people to linger and enjoy the views, rather than just drive across. </p>
<p>As a result of all this, the city centre, both north and south of Sydney Harbour, could be primarily devoted to pedestrians and cyclists. It would remain extremely well connected by public transport and accessible for vehicles delivering goods and people. </p>
<p>A frequent light rail service could connect the city centre to the northern beaches, just as you can travel by subway from Manhattan to Coney Island and by tram from the Melbourne CBD to St Kilda. It would run all the way from Manly, via North Sydney, Harbour Bridge and connecting to Wynyard Station (using the old tunnel). </p>
<p>Many oppose WestConnex, and for some good reasons, but what if it enabled central Sydney’s iconic spaces to be transformed for the better? The investments in WestConnex could be leveraged to create significant urban improvements in Pyrmont, connecting the western corridor of the city centre with Darling Harbour and Barangaroo, and reconnecting the great divide of North Sydney.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90171/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Andrew Allchin has consulted as part of teams bidding for elements of the WestConnex project, and has worked for all levels of Government on strategic land use and transport planning for Sydney .</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob Roggema does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One potential benefit of WestConnex, which remains untouched, is that it could relieve Sydney’s city centre from cars and make it more pedestrian-friendly.Rob Roggema, Professor of Sustainable Urban Environments, University of Technology SydneyCraig Allchin, Adjunct Professor of Architecture, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/886322017-12-05T04:06:22Z2017-12-05T04:06:22ZSydney’s stadiums debate shows sport might not be the political winner it once was<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197687/original/file-20171204-23018-162ucm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">NSW Sports Minister Stuart Ayres claims Sydney is falling behind other Australian cities in its big sporting event infrastructure.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Joel Carrett</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Less than two decades after Sydney <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/24/news/what-did-olympics-bring-sydney.html">hosted the Olympics</a>, its sports infrastructure is back in the national consciousness. </p>
<p>The New South Wales government has come in for heavy criticism over <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-23/olympic-and-sydney-football-stadiums-demolished-and-rebuilt/9182798">its plan</a> to knock down and rebuild the Olympic Stadium (currently branded ANZ) in Sydney’s west and the Sydney Football Stadium (currently branded Allianz), which sits in the east alongside the Sydney Cricket Ground.</p>
<p>The cost? Somewhere above A$2 billion.</p>
<p>Suddenly, the media-sport-politics machine cranked up in earnest.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xNmuyxlZ9Kk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Sydney’s Olympic Stadium has played host to many great sporting moments, including Cathy Freeman’s 400m win.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A debate beyond the field</h2>
<p>Sydney Morning Herald columnist and sport aficionado Peter FitzSimons <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/the-fitz-files/stadium-replacement-a-monument-to-excess-20171201-gzwthe.html">reported that</a> his article criticising the decision elicited the strongest reaction to anything that he’d written in the paper over three decades. There followed a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/premier-berejiklian-stop-nsw-government-wasting-2b-rebuilding-sfs-olympic-stadiums">change.org petition</a> and a welter of unfavourable publicity reaching well beyond Sydney.</p>
<p>Even the NSW opposition leader, Luke Foley, broke out of the state political freezer to <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/nsw-stadium-rebuild-an-outrageous-extravagance-foley/9226364">press his criticisms</a> on national radio.</p>
<p>This was, for Foley, a matter of west versus east, education and health versus big sport, and the state government pandering to its elite mates on the Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust. <a href="http://www.sydneycricketground.com.au/about-us/governance/trustees/">Its trustees</a> include the influential broadcaster Alan Jones and uber-conservative businessman Maurice Newman.</p>
<p>Sport Minister Stuart Ayres had, by then, rolled out the familiar justifications that Sydney was falling behind the likes of Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth in its big event infrastructure. This was not just a matter of civic pride, but of jobs in the event sector. And, in any case, <a href="http://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/sydney-is-well-behind-other-aussie-cities-for-major-events/news-story/96055fadd5d8dfe39322d93f4efc2e51">Ayres claimed</a> the cost was only 1% of planned five-year expenditure on health and education.</p>
<p>The sport-friendly local tabloid, The Daily Telegraph, editorially supported him <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/daily-telegraph-editorial-spending-2-billion-on-revamping-our-sports-stadiums-is-a-good-thing/news-story/d01c8e770a3fbca46cedb7fc7d770cea">with the unequivocal opinion</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Spending $2 billion on revamping our sports stadiums is a good thing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Judging by the amplified negative response, this riposte was finding the going hard.</p>
<h2>Is sport’s political power fading?</h2>
<p>What does all this claim and counter-claim over public investment in infrastructure tell us about sport, politics and economics?</p>
<p>First, it appears that sport does not have quite the privileged place at the front of the public trough queue it once occupied. </p>
<p>Whereas once there would have been a great deal of flowery language about sport’s unchallenged place in Australian hearts, the justification for the funding priority given to two large enclosed sport spaces has been almost entirely economic.</p>
<p>In Australia, as elsewhere in the world (especially North America), cities have been drawn into a place-marketing competition in which private sport concerns demand public subsidies. If governments don’t stump up the cash through building facilities, offering tax incentives and other inducements, sport franchises and signature events <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/1743.html">threaten to relocate</a>.</p>
<p>In Sydney’s case, <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/nrl/state-backflip-could-lose-grand-final-for-anz-stadium/news-story/ba311701a3b5cd28fa79c6861f625d35">one threat</a> is that it may lose major events like the NRL Grand Final if it does not do what is expected of it by those who run the game. That many locals seem prepared to run that risk suggests that sport cannot simply appeal to its intrinsic worth as a substitute for reasoned argument.</p>
<p>But, if there is some well-founded scepticism about sport being unimpeachably good for the soul, it also seems that many people have become wary of the case that it is beneficial for the wallet.</p>
<p>The seemingly hard-headed world of sport event economics has been <a href="http://www.e-elgar.com/shop/handbook-on-the-economics-of-sport">frequently exposed</a> as a fantasy island of rubbery figures, optimistic projections and misleading extrapolations.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading: <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-cities-hosting-major-sporting-events-is-a-double-edged-sword-76929">For cities, hosting major sporting events is a double-edged sword</a></strong></em></p>
<hr>
<p>Building sport infrastructure has become enmeshed with all the other contentious projects that are currently underway in Sydney. The best known of these is the $17 billion (and rising) <a href="https://www.westconnex.com.au/about">WestConnex road network expansion</a>. </p>
<p>The Australian auditor-general <a href="https://theconversation.com/westconnex-audit-offers-another-17b-lesson-in-how-not-to-fund-infrastructure-73206">has been highly critical</a> of the cavalier way in which public funds were committed at the behest of governments and interest groups. Public transport advocates <a href="http://www.westconnex.info/">have bemoaned</a> its lost opportunities.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading: <a href="https://theconversation.com/westconnex-audit-offers-another-17b-lesson-in-how-not-to-fund-infrastructure-73206">WestConnex audit offers another $17b lesson in how not to fund infrastructure</a></strong></em></p>
<hr>
<p>The information-light argument that has been made for the Sydney stadium rebuilds has, it appears, a similar level of substance to WestConnex. Substituting “sport and jobs” for the “roads and jobs” mantra has been met with much cynicism, especially when more imaginative, lower-key ways of spending $2 billion on sport and other socially beneficial areas are being canvassed.</p>
<p>Building up suburban, community-based sport facilities, reducing junior sport registration costs, advancing school classroom renovation timetables and restoring the embattled technical and further education system <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/researchpapers/Documents/Privatisation%20in%20NSW%20-%20a%20timeline%20and%20key%20sources.pdf">have all been suggested</a> as better ways of spending on the public good out of the proceeds of privatisation.</p>
<p>Working out who should benefit from public funding inevitably raises questions of need and privilege. The NSW Coalition government’s efforts to keep both sides of town happy across the east-west divide has left it uncomfortably astride the M4 motorway that it is widening in the name of WestConnex.</p>
<p>Sport stadium debates, like the contests they stage, can be unpredictable affairs. The fate of governments may stand or fall with the grandstands.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88632/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Rowe receives funding relevant to this article from the Australian Research Council for the following projects: 'A Nation of "Good Sports"? Cultural Citizenship and Sport in Contemporary Australia' (DP130104502) and 'Australian Cultural Fields: National and Transnational Dynamics' (with Tony Bennett et al, DP140101970).</span></em></p>The New South Wales government has come in for heavy criticism over its $2 billion plan to knock down and rebuild two of Sydney’s largest sports stadiums.David Rowe, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Research, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/777902017-07-24T20:10:43Z2017-07-24T20:10:43ZTransport access is good for new housing, but beware the pollution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178767/original/file-20170719-13593-1ty23sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Residents of high-density housing might value features such as balconies, but when roads get busy this increases exposure to pollution.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartment#/media/File:1St_Leonards,_New_South_wales.jpg">Adam J.W.C./Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many new housing developments are being sited along major traffic corridors. While it’s logical to put infill housing close to public transport, locating medium- and high-density housing along busy roads exposes more people to traffic pollution. These developments often lack the optimal design features to minimise their exposure.</p>
<p>This is especially the case with low, medium and high-density residential developments in Sydney. On <a href="http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/Plans-for-your-area/Sydney/A-Plan-for-Growing-Sydney">current projections</a>, Sydney will require 664,000 more homes by 2036 to house an extra 1.6 million people. </p>
<p>One <a href="https://slideblast.com/a-plan-for-growing-sydney-amazon-web-services_59617c8b1723dd765c9aca1b.html">explicit strategy</a> for achieving this is to increase housing stock along transport corridors and around railway hubs and to “accelerate new housing in designated infill areas”. Local councils seek to comply with the state’s urban renewal goals and, more generally, prioritise access to services, commercial precincts and transport corridors. </p>
<p>As a result, many redevelopment or renewal sites are on or near busy roads or around railway stations.</p>
<p>Many government planning documents also include the goal of healthier built environments. Planning agencies around Australia have identified air quality and noise as issues for developments along busy roads. </p>
<p>In New South Wales, various government planning documents refer to the former Department of Planning’s <a href="http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/documents/projects/guideto-infrastructure-development-near-rail-corridors-busy-roads.pdf">Development Near Rail Corridors and Busy Roads – Interim Guideline</a> (it’s still an interim document after nine years). The <a href="https://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/business-industry/Technical-standards-publications/Development-on-Land-Affected-by-Environmental-Emissions.aspx">Queensland</a>, <a href="http://www.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/21391/Design_Guidelines_Reducing_noise_and_air_impacts_from_road_rail_and_mixed_land_use.pdf">South Australian</a> and <a href="https://www.planning.wa.gov.au/publications/1197.aspx">Western Australian</a> governments have similar guidelines. </p>
<h2>Measures to limit exposure are hit and miss</h2>
<p>Suggested design measures include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>building setbacks;</p></li>
<li><p>articulation or “stepping” of building façades;</p></li>
<li><p>avoiding creation of street canyons; and</p></li>
<li><p>mitigation measures such as greening close to the road. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>The NSW document suggests:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The location of living areas, outdoor space and bedrooms … should be as far as practicable from the major source of air pollution.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It also states that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… it is preferable if residential uses are not carried out along a busy road unless it is part of a development which includes adequate noise and air quality mitigation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is comforting. In many cases, however, such guidelines aren’t followed. It appears that little thought is given to how placement, architecture or planting could reduce traffic-related exposures. </p>
<p>In Sydney you’ll see many new developments with balconies and large windows facing busy roads, or minimal setbacks with little greening. Australian architectural practice for medium- and high-density living could consider alternative designs such as internal courtyard areas facing away from roads, as found in many European cities. </p>
<p>The NSW guidelines even discuss what occupants should do where “windows must be kept closed”. A recent <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/westconnex-road-widening-triggers-need-to-insulate-apartments-in-inner-sydney-20170324-gv6aq5.html">media report</a> highlighted such a situation where a road is being expanded from four lanes to seven (and from 6,000 to 50,000 vehicle per day) for Sydney’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/westconnex-13809">WestConnex</a> project. The distance from apartment buildings to the road will be cut to 1.4 metres. </p>
<p>Contractors have been advising residents about work to mitigate the increased exposure to air pollution and noise. This includes installing air conditioning and noise insulation, and sealing air vents.</p>
<p>Building or modifying homes in a sub-tropical climate to specifications where windows must be kept closed and residents rely on mechanical ventilation is at odds with the principles of healthy built environments.</p>
<h2>How do we explain these planning decisions?</h2>
<p>We are in a situation where councils can refuse approval for a well-designed, aesthetically pleasing carport in front of a building line, while people’s health is put at risk due to new housing developments along main roads being prioritised. </p>
<p>How have we arrived at such incongruous decisions? Given the pace at which regeneration and major infrastructure projects are proceeding, this is a critical time to reconsider our design of urban spaces.</p>
<p>The Parramatta Road Corridor is one example of the current approach. This urban renewal project is <a href="http://www.urbangrowth.nsw.gov.au/projects/parramatta-road">highlighted</a> on the website of the state-owned Urban Growth NSW, which is setting the agenda for urban transformation in Sydney. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.urbangrowth.nsw.gov.au/assets/Projects/Parramatta-Road/Publications-161124/PROAD-0011-Land-Use-and-Design-Guidelines.pdf">Parramatta Road Corridor Planning and Design Guidelines</a> contain useful advice on building design to minimise exposure to rail and road air pollution and noise. While 21 pages are devoted to noise and vibration issues, only three pages refer to air quality near busy roads. Yet scientific evidence on the adverse health effects of air pollution is perhaps more robust than for noise effects.</p>
<h2>So what is the evidence of harm?</h2>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1971259/">solid</a> <a href="https://www.healtheffects.org/publication/traffic-related-air-pollution-critical-review-literature-emissions-exposure-and-health">evidence</a> that traffic-related air pollution is harmful to health. Concentrations of various pollutants are <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es100008x">greatest close to main roads</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178772/original/file-20170719-13534-b7j3j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178772/original/file-20170719-13534-b7j3j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178772/original/file-20170719-13534-b7j3j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178772/original/file-20170719-13534-b7j3j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178772/original/file-20170719-13534-b7j3j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178772/original/file-20170719-13534-b7j3j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=937&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178772/original/file-20170719-13534-b7j3j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=937&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178772/original/file-20170719-13534-b7j3j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=937&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Changes in traffic created by the Lane Cove Tunnel had significant impacts on air pollution within 100 metres of affected roads.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Westbound_entrance_and_eastbound_exit_of_the_Lane_Cove_Tunnel.jpg">Bidgee/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es202686r">We have shown</a> that levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO<sub>2</sub>), a good marker of traffic-related air pollution, changed following the building of the Lane Cove Tunnel in Sydney. </p>
<p>After the tunnel opened, air pollution along two major arterial roads dropped up to around 100 metres away in response to reduced traffic. At the same time, NO<sub>2</sub> levels along roads near the tunnel entrances rose in response to more traffic.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1890281/">Overseas studies</a> have shown levels of NO<sub>2</sub> and other pollutants decrease sharply with distance from roads. NO<sub>2</sub> pollution reaches urban background levels within 100-250 metres. The sharpest decreases are within 100 metres, although <a href="http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/environment-and-health/air-quality/publications/2013/review-of-evidence-on-health-aspects-of-air-pollution-revihaap-project-final-technical-report">some studies</a> have recorded the influence of major highways up to 500 metres away. </p>
<p>The NSW EPA’s <a href="http://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/resources/air/120255AEITR1NatHumanES.pdf">emissions inventory</a> estimated on-road vehicles contribute 61.8% of Sydney’s NOx concentrations. NOx is the primary pollutant or precursor of NO<sub>2</sub>, which forms when NOx reacts with oxygen in the air. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK361805/">adverse health effects</a> of NO<sub>2</sub> exposure include increases in all-cause, cardiovascular and respiratory mortality and hospital admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular disease, decreased lung function in children, and an <a href="http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/5/e006946">increased risk</a> of <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/all.12561/full">respiratory symptoms such as asthma</a>, <a href="http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h1295">stroke</a> and <a href="https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1408882/">lung cancer</a>.</p>
<p>Traffic – and diesel vehicles in particular – is also a major contributor to ultrafine particles in ambient air. <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231010003997">Counts along roads and in vehicles</a> reach extremely high levels. </p>
<p>While there is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK361805/">accumulating</a> <a href="https://www.healtheffects.org/publication/understanding-health-effects-ambient-ultrafine-particles">evidence</a> of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26040976">adverse respiratory and cardiovascular effects</a> of ultrafine particles from animal and human toxicological studies, epidemiological (population-based) studies are limited.</p>
<p>Studies of short-term exposure suggest effects similar to those seen for larger particles – increased mortality and morbidity for respiratory and cardiovascular outcomes. However, <a href="https://www.healtheffects.org/publication/understanding-health-effects-ambient-ultrafine-particles">results have been inconsistent</a>. </p>
<p>Vehicle emissions also <a href="http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/162535/e96541.pdf">contribute substantially to black carbon</a> air pollution. The World Health Organisation reported health effects similar to those of fine particulate matter and suggested black carbon might be used as an additional ambient air indicator. </p>
<p>The conundrum is that while adverse health effects have been attributed to black carbon and ultrafine particles, the expert position is that the evidence is insufficient to support new standards for these pollutants.</p>
<h2>Reducing pollution exposure should be a priority</h2>
<p>As a public health practitioner, one can argue that evidence of the harmful effects of traffic-related air pollution is substantive and increasing. We should be designing healthier built environments to avoid increased population exposure to traffic-related air pollution. </p>
<p>Additional options include Australia swiftly adopting more stringent fuel and vehicle emission standards. Ultimately, decreasing traffic congestion on busy and main roads will reduce exposures. In the long term, this depends on providing better options for public and active transport for work and personal trips. </p>
<p>If left unchecked or unevaluated, planning decisions that put new homes along busy roads are likely to undermine public health protection principles.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77790/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christine Cowie consults for NSW Health and the EPA on air pollution and health. She receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council. She is affiliated with the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, University of Sydney, the South Western Sydney Local Health District, University of NSW, Ingham Institute of Medical Research, and the Centre for Air quality and health Research and evaluation (CAR). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Guy Marks consults for NSW Health on air pollution and health. He receives funding from National Health and Medical Research Council. He is affiliated with the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, University of NSW, University of Sydney, South Western Sydney Local Health District, Ingham Institute of Medical Research, Centre of Air quality and health Research and Evaluation (CAR) and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. </span></em></p>Many new housing developments are being built along busy roads and rail lines, but lack design features that would reduce occupants’ exposure to harmful traffic pollution.Christine Cowie, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Air Quality & Health Research and Evaluation, Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, University of Sydney; Senior Research Fellow, South West Sydney Clinical School, UNSW SydneyGuy B. Marks, Professor of Respiratory Medicine, South Western Sydney Clinical School, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/771592017-05-09T14:16:17Z2017-05-09T14:16:17ZTo get the ‘good debt’ tick, infrastructure needs to be fit for the future<p>In distinguishing between “good” and “bad” debt, federal Treasurer Scott Morrison equates good debt with infrastructure investment. However, not all infrastructure investment announced in the budget is necessarily “good”. </p>
<p>We are now in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-anthropocene-belongs-to-earth-system-science-64105">Anthropocene</a> – a new geological age defined by the global scale of humanity’s impact on the Earth – which <a href="https://theconversation.com/stumbling-into-the-future-living-with-the-legacy-of-the-great-infrastructure-sell-off-73850">places new requirements on our infrastructures</a>. We need to move beyond the AAA ratings mindset, and instead aim for net-positive outcomes in social, economic and ecological terms from the outset.</p>
<p>Infrastructure (such as transport, water, energy, communications) underpins our ability to live in cities and our quality of life. And most infrastructure is very, very long-lived. Therefore, our infrastructure investment decisions matter enormously, <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-critical-about-critical-infrastructure-73849">especially for tomorrow</a>. </p>
<p>More than half of the world’s people <a href="https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2014-Highlights.pdf">live in cities</a>, and have just one planet’s worth of material resources <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-25-years-of-trying-why-arent-we-environmentally-sustainable-yet-73911">to share around</a>. This means we must define a new set of expectations and performance criteria for infrastructure. </p>
<p>Rather than settling for doing less bad, such as less environmental destruction or social disruption, we must aim from the outset to do more good. This net-positive approach requires us to restore, regenerate and increase social, cultural, natural and economic capital.</p>
<h2>What sort of change is needed?</h2>
<p>Examples of this kind of thinking are, as yet, rare or small. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.pub.gov.sg/abcwaters/explore/bishanangmokiopark">Bishan Park</a> on the Kallang River in Singapore gets close. Formerly a channelled stormwater drain, this collaboration between the national parks and public utility agencies has recreated significant habitat while providing flood protection and an exceptional recreational space. All this has been done in an <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.POP.DNST?locations=SG">extremely dense city</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/53314756" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Singapore’s Bishan Park is an example of a new approach to urban infrastructure.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Looking further into the future, in transport, a net-positive motorway might prioritise <a href="https://infrastructure.gov.au/infrastructure/pab/active_transport/">active transport</a> and make public transport central by design. It might send price signals based on the number of passengers, vehicle type (such as autonomous) and vehicle ownership (shared, for instance).</p>
<p>Net-positive thinking aligns with a groundbreaking <a href="http://www.apra.gov.au/Speeches/Pages/Australias-new-horizon.aspx">speech</a> by Geoff Summerhayes, executive board member of Australia’s Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), earlier this year. He identified climate change risk as a core fiduciary concern, and therefore central to directors’ duties. </p>
<p>This shift raises significant questions for the financial and operational validity of major infrastructure projects. </p>
<p>For example, in assessing the WestConnex motorway project, <a href="http://www.afr.com/business/infrastructure/roads/westconnex-what-could-go-wrong-20160919-grjtlo">Infrastructure Australia queried</a> why a broader set of (potentially less energy-intensive) transport options was not considered. Similar questions arise for the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund’s <a href="http://www.afr.com/business/mining/coal/northern-australia-fund-board-risks-legal-action-over-adani-loan-20170411-gvipjp">support for Adani’s giant Carmichael coal mine</a> and associated water and transport infrastructure.</p>
<p>A core part of the switch to net-positive infrastructure is the realisation that resilience and robustness are different things. Historically, robustness has been central to infrastructure planning. However, robustness relies on assuming that the future is more or less predictable. In the Anthropocene, that assumption no longer holds.</p>
<h2>How do we build in resilience?</h2>
<p>So, the best we can do is <a href="https://theconversation.com/building-climate-resilience-in-cities-lessons-from-new-york-52363">set ourselves up for a resilient future</a>. This is one where our infrastructure is at its core flexible and adaptable. </p>
<p>This could include, for example, phasing infrastructure investment and development over time. Current analysis is biased toward building big projects because we assume our projected demand is correct. Therefore, we expect to reduce the overall cost by building the big project now.</p>
<p>However, in a more uncertain future, investing incrementally reduces risk and builds resilience, while spreading the cost and impact over time. This approach allows us to monitor and amend our planning as appropriate. It has been shown to save water utilities in Melbourne <a href="http://www.inderscience.com/offer.php?id=65797">as much as A$2 billion</a>.</p>
<p>Maybe the fact that we can be criticised for not having enough capacity ready in time has influenced our decision-making. We should really be challenged over investing too much, too soon, thereby eliminating the opportunity to adapt our thinking.</p>
<p>Or maybe we are so concerned about the need to build certainty into our planning that we are missing the opportunity to build learning through feedback loops into our strategies.</p>
<p>Surely there is a balance to be struck between providing enough certainty for investment without pretending we know with absolute certainty what we need to invest for the next 30 years.</p>
<p>We need long-term plans alongside learning and adaptation to respond to the imminent <a href="https://www.ice.org.uk/eventarchive/unwin-lecture-2016-london">challenges facing infrastructure</a> everywhere. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>major unregulated growth in interdependencies between infrastructures;</p></li>
<li><p>lack of systems thinking in planning and design;</p></li>
<li><p>radical shifts in the structure of cities and how we live and work;</p></li>
<li><p>increasingly fragmented provision;</p></li>
<li><p>no central governance of infrastructure as a system; and</p></li>
<li><p>much existing infrastructure approaching or past its end of life.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Regulatory reform is part of what’s required to enable public and private investment in better outcomes. Here too we need to learn our way forward. </p>
<p>Sydney’s emerging, world-leading <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652617301968">market in recycled water</a> is an example of a successful niche development that delivers more liveable and productive pockets in our cities through innovative <a href="https://network.wsp-pb.com/article/central-park-sustainable-liveable-resilient-and-future-ready">integrated</a> infrastructure.</p>
<p>Ultimately, doing infrastructure differently will also require investment in research on infrastructure. The UK is investing £280 million in this through the <a href="http://www.ukcric.com">Collaboratium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities</a>. But in Australia’s recent <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/42216">draft roadmap</a> for major research investment, infrastructure is largely absent. We overlook infrastructure research at our peril.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77159/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cynthia Mitchell is Chair of Sydney's Local Water Solutions Forum, and a Member of the NSW Government's Independent Water Advisory Panel. She consults widely to the water sector.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Singleton is Chair of the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia and a Swinburne University Council member. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jim Bentley is Managing Director of Hunter Water Corporation.</span></em></p>If infrastructure is to meet the needs and challenges of an uncertain future, we need to move beyond the AAA ratings mindset and aim for net-positive social and ecological outcomes as well.Cynthia Mitchell, Professor of Sustainability, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology SydneyDavid Singleton, Chair, Smart Cities Research Institute, Swinburne University of TechnologyJim Bentley, Honorary Director, Centre for Infrastructure Research, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata RauLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/732062017-02-20T19:13:27Z2017-02-20T19:13:27ZWestConnex audit offers another $17b lesson in how not to fund infrastructure<p>The way we throw money at major transport projects almost guarantees billions of Australian taxpayers’ dollars are wasted. Australian Auditor-General Grant Hehir has released yet another <a href="https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/approval-and-administration-commonwealth-funding-westconnex-project">damning report</a> on the process behind the A$16.8 billion investment in Sydney’s WestConnex motorway, Australia’s biggest infrastructure project since the Sydney Harbour Bridge.</p>
<p>WestConnex joins the long list of big, bungled transport investment decisions by Australian governments, both federal and state. </p>
<p><a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/cost-overruns-in-transport-infrastructure/">Analysis</a> by the Grattan Institute shows these blunders are more than unfortunate accidents. They’re symptoms of a reckless infrastructure investment process, which has been showing up in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/spectacular-cost-blowouts-show-need-to-keep-governments-honest-on-transport-66394">pattern of cost blowouts</a>.</p>
<h2>What did the audit reveal?</h2>
<p>Both the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-27/sydney-westconnex-promise-check/5505696">Coalition</a> and the then <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-12/westconnex-funding-promise-erupts-into-political-row/4684486">Labor</a> government went to the 2013 federal election promising to spend at least A$1.5 billion on WestConnex – before any business case had been completed. Voters were not informed of the project’s investment merits until 2014, when Infrastructure Australia first published the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-state-election-2015/westconnex-infrastructure-australia-gives-thumbs-up-to-motorways-business-case-20150226-13qc8j.html">business case</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157452/original/image-20170220-15914-pyaxwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157452/original/image-20170220-15914-pyaxwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157452/original/image-20170220-15914-pyaxwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157452/original/image-20170220-15914-pyaxwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157452/original/image-20170220-15914-pyaxwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157452/original/image-20170220-15914-pyaxwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157452/original/image-20170220-15914-pyaxwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157452/original/image-20170220-15914-pyaxwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Auditor-General Grant Hehir has found the main reason initial WestConnex funding was set up as a concessional loan was to make the federal budget look better.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.anao.gov.au/about">ANAO</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The primary justification for funding early expenses with a concessional loan – the first of its kind – rather than a grant was flimsy. The audit report found the decision was made because this approach would have “a smaller impact on the presentation of the Australian Government Budget”. In other words, it would look better on the books.</p>
<p>Sadly, recklessness of this magnitude is not new, or unique to mega-projects. Grattan analysis of the Deloitte Investment Monitor shows that between 2000 and 2015 more than one-third of transport infrastructure projects were committed to them before a formal funding commitment had been made.</p>
<p>This matters, because poorly planned projects cost more than they should.</p>
<p>The audit of WestConnex found that the hasty early investment in the project was structured in a way that did not deliver value for money to Australian taxpayers. The A$2 billion concessional loan was made at below market rates, structured in a way that minimised the tax paid on the interest, and the time before interest is due to be paid to the government on the loan was set to be four times longer than major lenders traditionally provide.</p>
<h2>Poor process is the norm</h2>
<p>WestConnex is not unique in this way. The Grattan analysis of the projects built between 2000 and 2015 found that if a project was promised before a formal funding commitment had been made, it was more likely than not to run over budget. And when these overruns occurred, they were massive – project costs doubled, on average.</p>
<p>But committing to projects before checking if their investment merits stack up is not the only problem with how our governments invest in transport infrastructure. When business cases are completed, these are not done using comparable methodologies across jurisdictions. They are also rarely made available for the public to scrutinise.</p>
<p>When projects are opened, politicians use the phrase “finished on budget” very loosely. For instance, <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/cost-overruns-in-transport-infrastructure/">Perth’s Peel Deviation project</a> was declared “on budget” despite costing five times the initial estimate. Why? Because at one point close to project completion, another estimate put the cost even higher.</p>
<p>Sometimes, projects are backed for base political reasons, rather than on their investment merits. For instance, the Princess Highway Duplication project in Victoria’s western district was found to offer only <a href="http://infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/projects/files/Vic-Princes-Highway-West-Duplication.pdf">eight cents of benefit</a> for every dollar spent. But it runs through the highly marginal federal seat of Corangamite – so it was built anyway.</p>
<h2>Key steps to better spending</h2>
<p>So, what should be done to ensure public money is better spent? </p>
<p>A good place to start would be to make infrastructure spending decisions more transparent. This could be done by publishing the full details of a project’s estimated and realised costs and return on investment on <a href="http://data.gov.au/">data.gov.au</a>. Infrastructure spending should also be included in the Productivity Commission’s annual <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/report-on-government-services">Report on Government Services</a>.</p>
<p>Second, the quality of business cases needs to be lifted, substantially and quickly. The Commonwealth should ensure one agreed method is used to measure and manage project risk. The Productivity Commission should assign “reliability ratings” to infrastructure business cases, which should be published on Infrastructure Australia’s website for all to see.</p>
<p>Finally, taxpayers should demand that politicians fully evaluate a project’s investment merits before they commit to funding it.</p>
<p>The auditor-general has found politicians committed A$17 billion to WestConnex as if it were pocket change. This happy-go-lucky approach is fine for kids deciding to buy a treat on the way home from school. But when it comes to spending billions of dollars of public money on projects designed to last for generations, we need to insist on something better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73206/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments, $4 million from BHP Billiton, and $1 million from NAB. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and Grattan uses the income to pursue its activities.</span></em></p>Reckless government investment decisions are sadly the norm when it comes to transport infrastructure. Three key checks on the decision-making process can help ensure taxpayers get value for money.Marion Terrill, Transport Program Director, Grattan InstituteLucille Danks, Associate, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/683262016-11-17T05:26:41Z2016-11-17T05:26:41ZWhy transport projects aren’t as good for your health as they could be<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146057/original/image-20161115-31144-zjrn5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The two NSW motorway projects were unable to consider the issue of access to a mix of transport options, which is a key factor in public health impacts.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dylanpassmore/10583179513/in/photolist-h8cyyi-a7uvhn-6g27Tf-4Dkaj5-h7KS4T-j4VCQQ-nRbJuv-a7xmmC-hTVpXU-dNi1sv-9GJ74J-h8cFdT-bmhhvj-bnkzrm-7ZxNGs-4dhgze-bAfyDa-4dmgyj-4dmfEN-5bfEqX-h8csbD-bnkCJ1-8BBMXe-HWHBx-bAfy78-mYDjbK-9xjwAM-ihnrzB-bnkLRE-uGV3h-8sMMoe-8XTL75-bAfCUB-bAfv3a-75Eejm-bzcawF-4dfhpx-9oWXUX-bzbCtV-bmh62m-4dmmxY-GBHpUC-bnkFo3-h7KWcH-2DEyGB-e8HviQ-nksfJi-NkGnG7-MyfVCL-MyfUP1">Dylan Passmore/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Large transport infrastructure projects, which can cost billions of dollars, are major drivers of the economy, and political flagships. They have significant impacts on health and wellbeing. Yet our research finds these impacts are not as well considered in the project assessment phase as they should be.</p>
<p>A recent <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/series/urban-design">Lancet</a> series is the culmination of knowledge linking transport and health. For example, it recommends reducing reliance on private cars and enhancing opportunities for walking, cycling and public transport use. It argues this will improve health both by reducing air and noise pollution, and by promoting physical activity, community connectedness and better access to goods and services, particularly for the socio-economically disadvantaged.</p>
<p>Each transport project’s environmental assessment thus presents a crucial opportunity within the mandated planning process to consider health. This is also when the wider community can engage with the design of projects. The main output of this process, the environmental impact statement (EIS), is available for public scrutiny and comment prior to final project approval. </p>
<h2>A health check on assessments</h2>
<p><a href="http://sydney.edu.au/halloran/resources/index.shtml">We recently compared</a> the inclusion of health issues in four major transport project assessments. Three involved motorways (<a href="http://majorprojects.planning.nsw.gov.au/index.pl?action=view_job&job_id=6307">WestConnex M4 East</a> and <a href="http://majorprojects.planning.nsw.gov.au/index.pl?action=view_job&job_id=6136">NorthConnex</a> in New South Wales and the 2010 <a href="http://www.infrastructure.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/54304/DTS_Exec_Summary_for_Web.pdf">Darlington Upgrade</a> in South Australia) and the fourth the Sydney <a href="http://majorprojects.planning.nsw.gov.au/index.pl?action=view_job&job_id=6042">CBD and South East Light Rail</a>. We did this by first applying a “health audit” to each EIS, then interviewing a range of stakeholders. </p>
<p>The road assessments emphasised risks from air quality and noise, concluding these were minimal. Indeed, each project was predicted to improve air quality and, by extension, health. </p>
<p>When health was assessed, human health risk assessment was the method used, which we judged to be of good quality. The 2010 Darlington upgrade was the only road project not to include health data explicitly in its calculations. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146059/original/image-20161115-31144-cnx165.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146059/original/image-20161115-31144-cnx165.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146059/original/image-20161115-31144-cnx165.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146059/original/image-20161115-31144-cnx165.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146059/original/image-20161115-31144-cnx165.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146059/original/image-20161115-31144-cnx165.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146059/original/image-20161115-31144-cnx165.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146059/original/image-20161115-31144-cnx165.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The light rail EIS considers wider health benefits, which perhaps suggests this was part of the project’s preceding business case.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/beaugiles/22273607416/in/photolist-zWf4u5-kcVEuA-pSFsY-pSFxj-zFXnRL-aEwCBe-kdw5mK-fjTfZd-fAaYES-azUYcX-oao46A-8u3unx-7Tsxt9-2zchX-di3FwW-btw2M4-3P5xwh-gmKTRz-B58r5d-zczzL9-9JRhtk-ebUhNk-pCijVc-aYJrkg-4uZm68-A9r3ex-DkZopm-8PqfSf-bqfZqE-5yDjgJ-8d8HuM-BVNGPv-p2eP7-dKTeqN-A9hQA9-fC8YfE-dKTep7-prCdED-dfhjRd-dKMK1P-bBhKAS-dTwsVp-6GoPuo-nuQ1L7-5Wc7o7-8DsxyP-xPtMDF-dTkyQv-r5LT2x-86K5EX">Beau Giles/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The light rail EIS referred mainly to the connection of the project to health facilities, with some reference to noise and dust in construction. This statement’s chapter on social impacts, in which health featured strongly, reflects the tone of the recent Lancet report, albeit with less detail. It considered wider health benefits of the project, including better access to health facilities and employment opportunities, improved road safety, opportunities for walking and cycling, better air quality and enhanced social interaction. </p>
<p>Of the four environmental impact statements, WestConnex M4 East had the most detailed coverage of mental health issues, mostly related to property acquisition. Despite this, there was limited detail in the health chapter when compared to other issues like air and noise risks. Mitigation measures were limited to the provision of phone counselling services. </p>
<p>The EIS for each of the other projects lacked assessment of mental health impacts due to construction and operation. </p>
<p>As outlined above, evidence that links transport and health advocates for access to a mix of transport options, giving people opportunities to walk, cycle and use public transport. The importance of this mix was excluded from the project and parameters set for the two NSW motorway projects. </p>
<p>While the EIS for each of NorthConnex and WestConnex acknowledged the need for multi-modal transport options, their provision was described as being outside the project’s parameters. It wasn’t clear how or when this was being done elsewhere, only that it was not the proponent’s responsibility and not within the scope of the EIS.</p>
<p>This mix of options was minimal in the 2010 Darlington report we analysed. However, the most recent 2016 iteration of this project design appears to emphasise walking and cycling facilities, with a recent <a href="http://www.infrastructure.sa.gov.au/nsc/darlington_upgrade_project">announcement of a rail link</a> adjacent to the motorway.</p>
<h2>Why were health impacts neglected?</h2>
<p>Stakeholder interviews were held with project co-ordinators, consultants, the health department and affected community members for the NSW-based projects. We were unable to conduct interviews for the Darlington case due to changing and uncertain project parameters at the time of the research. </p>
<p>Informants stressed the importance of the requirements issued to proponents by the state Department of Planning and Infrastructure. Health featured in these requirements, largely on the advice of the state Ministry of Health. </p>
<p>These requirements focused on environmental health risks, particularly concerning air quality. This corresponded to historical community concerns about motorway impacts. </p>
<p>Despite an overall consensus that health was an important issue, there was little appetite for comprehensive consideration of broader health impacts, such as those advocated by evidence-based research. Crucially, as reported in the environmental impact statements and confirmed through stakeholder interviews, the design of each project reflects prior financial and strategic decisions. The purpose of the EIS is focused on minimising these risks within those existing design parameters. </p>
<p>Supporting the considerations behind the light rail, there was reference to the cost savings from the health benefits associated with public transport use. This suggests that health was part of that project’s preceding business case. For the motorway projects, however, our research suggests these early decision points failed to comprehensively consider health impacts. </p>
<p>If health is to be comprehensively included in the environmental impact statement, it is clear that it needs to be considered much earlier on when the decisions are made on the parameters of the project. Our findings suggest the design of these projects – from business case to assessment – lags well behind the evidence surrounding transport and health. </p>
<p>The community can be confident that these assessment processes were conducted thoroughly within their set purpose. But the bar for considering the full range of health impacts needs to be raised. This will ensure communities are aware of the long-term impacts of infrastructure provision, and that opportunities to promote and protect health through transport are maximised.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68326/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Harris has acted as an (unpaid) expert witness for the NSW Environmental Defenders Office. Patrick receives funding from the Australian Commonwealth National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council. The research this article was based on was funded by the Henry Halloran Trust at the University of Sydney.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Riley and Jennifer L. Kent do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Transport infrastructure projects are conceived, planned and assessed in a way that makes it difficult to properly consider their major public health impacts.Patrick Harris, Senior research fellow, University of SydneyEmily Riley, Research Assistant , University of SydneyJennifer L. Kent, Research Fellow, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/636032016-08-14T20:16:10Z2016-08-14T20:16:10ZModelling for major road projects is at odds with driver behaviour<p>Transport modelling for major road projects like Sydney’s WestConnex and Melbourne’s Western Distributor is at odds with what is known about motorists’ behaviour. </p>
<p>A big part of the benefits claimed for new major roads in Australian cities is travel time savings. Evidence shows, however, that instead of saving travel time, these roads encourage us to travel further and often increase car dependency. </p>
<p>Travel time savings (calculated by transport models) have been used in transport project assessment since the 1960s and are often the main justification for projects. These models assume people try to <a href="http://www.rciti.unsw.edu.au/sites/rciti/files/u48/2.CAITR%202015%20Paper%20-%20Robson%20and%20Dixit.pdf">minimise the “generalised cost”</a> of travel (a combination of money cost and the dollar value of time). UK transport researcher David Metz <a href="http://transportblog.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Metz_2008-2.pdf">notes that</a> this assumption “is consistent with the idea that travellers take advantage of improved infrastructure to save time”.</p>
<p>Standard economic theory assumes people are motivated to obtain the maximum satisfaction (economists call it “utility”) from the consumption of the goods or services they can afford. This implies they are also motivated to keep the costs associated with that consumption to a minimum. </p>
<p>Where travel is concerned, motorists are assumed to minimise the generalised cost of that travel. Transport models use this approach to calculate travel time savings from new transport infrastructure.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01441647.2014.946460">recent review of research</a>, however, shows that people have a certain amount of time they are prepared to spend travelling each day. This means they don’t take advantage of added infrastructure to save time.</p>
<p>While new roads may reduce travel time for a period on some routes, in the longer run, these savings are spent on travelling further. This means the travel time savings put forward by proponents for these plans are not backed up by real world evidence. </p>
<p>As a result, these assumptions should not be relied upon for the assessment of road projects like WestConnex and the Western Distributor. For WestConnex, the value of calculated travel time savings is <a href="http://infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/projects/files/Final_WestConnex_Project_Evaluation_Summary.pdf">A$13 billion</a>, or about half the claimed benefits for the project. Without these time savings, the costs of the project exceed the benefits.</p>
<p>Melbourne researchers <a href="http://www.wctrs.leeds.ac.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/abstracts/lisbon/general/01403.pdf">John Odgers and Nicholas Low found that</a> the forecast time savings for Melbourne’s CityLink project did not eventuate. They suggest that, rather than being based on evidence, transport policy is probably driven by political momentum to build more roads, because that’s what Australia has been doing for a long time.</p>
<p>Governments and their technical advisers also have strong incentives to find benefits to justify what politicians want to do.</p>
<p>Partly in recognition of the problems with transport modelling, some European cities have changed the way the problem is framed – from meeting forecast travel demand, to achieving a number of social and economic objectives through transport investment. Through <a href="http://www.civitas.eu/sites/default/files/tom_rye_sumps.pdf">sustainable urban mobility plans</a>, different types of projects are favoured. These include: better integrated bus networks, more bus lanes, safer cycling and walking routes, improved park and ride facilities, and traffic calming measures that redesign streetscapes and reduce speed limits to improve mobility for all road users. </p>
<p>Rather than facilitating the movement of motor vehicles, this process emphasises creating safe, reliable and affordable access with less travel and a reduced environmental footprint. It also requires that engineers, urban planners, economists and other specialists sit down with the business and community sectors to build a consensus on what needs to be done. This is in contrast to current engineering-dominated methods. </p>
<p>In Australia, the <a href="http://www.acola.org.au/index.php/projects/securing-australia-s-future/8-sustainable-urban-mobility">Delivering Sustainable Urban Mobility report</a> prepared for the federal government emphasises “putting people first” in urban transport. The report recommends a three-part approach: less travel, shifting away from trips by car, and improving vehicle fuel efficiency. </p>
<p>While this is somewhat encouraging, there is no recognition in the report that current methods of calculating the benefits of roads projects are unreliable because of the way time savings are calculated. </p>
<p>Despite a lack of evidence, the use of travel time savings calculated in transport models is deeply entrenched in government and professional practice. Until this flawed approach is replaced by something like sustainable urban mobility plans, government road spending will continue to encourage sprawl and car dependency, rather than save us time.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Urban planner Brian Feeney substantially contributed to this piece.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63603/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cameron Murray does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Projects like Sydney’s WestConnex and Melbourne’s Western Distributor don’t account for real world evidence of driver behaviour in estimating travel time savings.Cameron Murray, Economist, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/591612016-05-24T00:54:35Z2016-05-24T00:54:35Z‘30-minute city’? Not in my backyard! Smart Cities Plan must let people have their say<p>The federal government’s <a href="https://cities.dpmc.gov.au/smart-cities-plan">Smart Cities Plan</a> is framed around the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-30-minute-city-how-do-we-put-the-political-rhetoric-into-practice-56136">30-minute city</a>”. In this city, journeys will <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/malcolm-turnbull-to-borrow-big-in-multibilliondollar-smart-cities-plan-20160428-gohbym.html">take no more than half an hour</a>, regardless of your location.</p>
<p>The recently released plan has significant implications for population, transport provision and land-use intensity in neighbourhoods – the places where people live and how they get around. The realisation of its goals will require ongoing densification of Australian suburbs.</p>
<h2>Cities with more houses, more people, more NIMBYs</h2>
<p>The doubling of the population in some Australian cities by 2045 is likely to generate fierce opposition to housing and transport projects.</p>
<p>Many medium-density housing projects prompt residents <a href="http://www.ahuri.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/2238/AHURI_Final_Report_No197_Resident_third_party_objections_and_appeals_against_planning_applications.pdf">to act strategically to protect their neighbourhoods</a>, even when these projects improve housing affordability and access to jobs and services.</p>
<p>Resistance is also directed at major infrastructure. Fierce campaigns are being (or have been) waged against Melbourne’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sky-rail-saga-can-big-new-transport-projects-ever-run-smoothly-54383">“sky rail” project</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/east-west-link-shows-miserable-failure-of-planning-process-40232">East West Link</a>, Sydney’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/trees-versus-light-rail-we-need-to-rethink-skewed-urban-planning-values-57206">ANZAC Parade light rail</a> and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/opposition-to-westconnex-grows-as-council-blocks-contractors-from-streets-20160407-go0j3i.html">Westconnex</a> projects, and the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-23/shorten-to-commit-to-1bn-metronet-rail-in-wa-if-elected/7436062">Perth Freight Link</a>.</p>
<p>Such opposition is not only felt through the planning system. Residents also <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08111146.2015.1081845">use political channels</a> to stop projects, <a href="http://usj.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/08/27/0042098015602649.abstract">as with the East West Link</a>.</p>
<h2>How should government respond to community resistance?</h2>
<p>Contestation over city planning should not be shut down. Rather, we need to think about citizen opposition as a constructive process for working through difference. Here are five points to consider when including people in the delivery of the 30-minute city.</p>
<p><strong>Point 1: We need active governments and active citizens</strong></p>
<p>Private-sector lobbyists argue government is poorly placed to deliver small- and large-scale infrastructure. But think about a city with no roads, sewers, hospitals or schools. Without government-led planning, our cities would be dysfunctional places to live.</p>
<p>However, governments are not benevolent institutions. Active citizenries have long scrutinised the efficacy of government decisions. </p>
<p>The introduction of private and non-government infrastructure providers <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-uneasy-marriage-planners-public-and-the-market-struggle-to-work-well-together-54405">further complicates</a> the relationship between citizens and governments. Whose interests does urban development then serve – a local community, regional community, or developers?</p>
<p>Governments need to be ready to answer questions about the role of the private sector and to change their plans following <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07293682.2015.1135816">community input</a>. </p>
<p><strong>Point 2: More than finding better participation tools</strong></p>
<p>Urban planning systems play important roles in engaging residents. However, community consultation has been sporadic. Neighbourhood meetings and letterbox notifications often fail to ignite engagement. </p>
<p>Then there is the question of representation. Community consultations attract the “usual suspects”. Time-poor working-age households and young professionals find it difficult to fit engagement with planning into their busy lives. Even more rarely does planning engage with youth and children about their visions and hopes for cities.</p>
<p>Local and state governments are aware of the need for new ways to bring citizens into decision-making. Infrastructure Victoria’s <a href="http://yoursay.infrastructurevictoria.com.au/citizen-jury">citizen jury panels</a> are meeting mid-2016. Social media is also being considered as a way to <a href="http://participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au/future">engage a broader public about city futures</a>. </p>
<p>However, when planning departments use social media the uptake by communities is poor. Our research suggests <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07293682.2015.1019755">opponents to planned projects</a>, rather than planning departments, are more likely to use social media.</p>
<p>The problem with current participation tools is their failure to account for conversations, debates and protests that <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08111146.2015.1077804">take place outside</a> the formal planning process. We need ways to include these discussions.</p>
<p><strong>Point 3: Moving beyond NIMBYism</strong></p>
<p>Not all community campaigns are the same. The dominant narrative around community participation in urban planning centres on the pejorative idea of “the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-5871.2012.00751.x/abstract">NIMBY</a>” (not in my backyard). </p>
<p>The term NIMBY is frequently used to delegitimise the claims of citizens opposing planned developments. They are characterised as self-interested residents who resist the inclusion of new social groups in their neighbourhoods, or any change to the built or natural environment.</p>
<p>Deliberately labelling these residents as self-interested fails to recognise the positive roles they can play. Local resident campaigns can focus on city-wide or local issues. They can range from <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07293682.2013.776982">unwavering opposition to more flexible and reflexive engagement</a> in an urban discussion. </p>
<p>Some community campaigns might be viewed as vital forms of urban citizenship. Others are seen as “protecting their patch” against the best interests of the broader citizenry. Both views should be part of our discussion about city planning.</p>
<p><strong>Point 4: The conversation never stops</strong></p>
<p>An active citizenry is involved in short-term “one-off” planning and long-term strategic planning. Too often, public participation roles are confined to one end of this spectrum. For example, the NSW government recently attempted to <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07293682.2014.889183">limit public participation</a> to high-level strategic planning documents, reducing community input into individual developments.</p>
<p>Most people have little knowledge of the urban planning system. A <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837714000301">recent study</a> found only 24% of Sydney residents surveyed were aware of the <a href="http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/Plans-for-Your-Area/Sydney/A-Plan-for-Growing-Sydney">Sydney metropolitan plan</a>. Confining participation to upfront strategic consultation limits community involvement.</p>
<p>For most people, engagement with planning and development issues will be reactionary. People engage with the planning system when a development is proposed for their area.</p>
<p>However, a recent national survey revealed that 65% of responses believed urban residents should be involved in each stage of the strategy-making process. Most will not be involved, but options for participation should not be confined to upfront consultation.</p>
<p>By engaging the community in an ongoing discussion we can listen and respond to local interests without compromising the broader strategic and long-term vision for our cities.</p>
<p><strong>Point 5: Metropolitan-wide but locally situated debate</strong></p>
<p>There will be winners and losers in the 30-minute city. Houses will be acquired, buildings will be demolished and sections of the natural environment will make way for new infrastructure.</p>
<p>Over the last decade, the idea of consensus has dominated participatory approaches. However, consensus-seeking is not always the best way to work through community disagreement. In some cases, consensus can be manipulative, or useful for mobilising resident opposition. </p>
<p>We need to recognise that cities are home to many different people who hold diverse views and values, and who will not always agree. Rather than aiming for consensus, we should set our sights on metropolitan-wide, locally situated debate, which supports an active citizenry. </p>
<p>In the end, the difference between no action and implementation may be in “agreeing to disagree” through open discussion about the planning of the city.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article draws on research by the authors and recent discussions about a possible crisis of participation in Australian cities at a <a href="http://cur.org.au/events/urban-theory-symposium-series/">symposium in Sydney in April 2016</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59161/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Crystal Legacy receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dallas Rogers receives funding from the Henry Halloran Trust.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristian Ruming receives funding from the Australian Research Council and UrbanGrowth NSW.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Cook does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Cities are home to many different people who will not always agree. We need to learn to embrace public debate as an ongoing, constructive process for working through diverse views and values.Crystal Legacy, Australian Research Council (DECRA) Fellow and Vice Chancellor's Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT UniversityDallas Rogers, Lecturer in Urban Studies, Western Sydney UniversityKristian Ruming, Associate Professor in Urban Geography, Macquarie UniversityNicole Cook, Researcher, School of Geography, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/557542016-04-08T04:04:56Z2016-04-08T04:04:56ZSuburbanising the centre: the Baird government’s anti-urban agenda for Sydney<p>The New South Wales government is imposing an anti-urban legislative and development agenda on Sydney. This agenda conceptualises Sydney as centre – a privileged social, cultural and geographic core – and elsewhere. </p>
<p>Policies like building the multi-billion-dollar <a href="http://www.westconnex.com.au/">WestConnex</a> roads system, increasing penalties and restrictions <a href="https://theconversation.com/getting-bike-laws-right-means-balancing-rights-of-cyclists-and-motorists-55244">for cyclists</a>, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-22/millers-point-residents-meet-government-minister/6490120">privatising public housing</a> in inner-city suburbs and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/anger-as-1-billion-redevelopment-lures-commonwealth-bank-away-from-western-sydney-20151112-gkxjvs.html">selling public assets</a> have direct impacts on the existence of “the urban” in Sydney.</p>
<p>This agenda limits the capacity of Sydneysiders to engage with their city in diverse, improvised or alternative ways. This is despite government claims that it addresses imbalances and inequities between the centre and the rest of the city in terms of spatial advantage, job opportunities, public spending and services. </p>
<h2>The suburbanisation of the city</h2>
<p>One of sociologist Henri Lefebvre’s enduring contributions to urban theory and practice is the notion of the <a href="http://au.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0631191887.html">“right to the city”</a>. Lefebvre was not merely advocating access to space in the city or its resources, but the right to be urban.</p>
<p>By urban, Lefebvre meant the phenomenon that emerges from the complexity, collaboration and improvisation that are possible in cities. The urban is not the product of a privileged core. Rather, it is a decentralised network of diverse communities, practices and places that give rise to cities’ convivial and inclusive potential.</p>
<p>While the government’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2016/s4425229.htm">lockout laws</a> have attracted <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2016/march/1456750800/richard-cooke/boomer-supremacy">national</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/may/28/australia-dumbest-nation-tyler-brule-nanny-state">international</a> attention for their deleterious effect on urban areas, they are merely the <a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-lockouts-sydney-needs-to-become-a-more-inclusive-city-55821">most visible</a> of a raft of anti-urban policies. The privatisation of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=552&v=KsKkBId2_gQ">public housing in Millers Point</a> and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/waterloo-chosen-over-sydney-university-as-site-for-new-metro-train-station-20151215-gloiu2.html">urban renewal plans for Waterloo</a>, which include demolishing public housing and relocating 4000 tenants, are detrimental to the <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/the-point-with-stan-grant/article/2016/03/09/inner-sydneys-aboriginal-community-fear-they-are-being-pushed-out-white-hipsters">social and cultural mix of the urban</a>. </p>
<p>Globally, the pattern is a familiar one. Redeveloped or new housing and commerce are targeted at more affluent investors and consumers. Areas that were urban in their social and cultural mix become increasingly homogeneous.</p>
<p>Some commentators refer to these outcomes as gentrification. However, inner-city areas have already undergone varying degrees of gentrification. Usually this is triggered by first-wave gentrifiers, such as artists, who value urban attributes. </p>
<p>One pleasure of the urban is spontaneous encounters and experiences with difference. The sociologist Zygmunt Bauman has called this “mixophilia”.</p>
<p>Historically, the suburbs have offered a refuge for the “mixophobic”. In these places, monoculturalism is a retreat from difference. The current urban development and transformation, at the behest of state government bodies such as Urban Growth, is the suburbanisation of urban areas.</p>
<h2>Regulating flows in the city</h2>
<p>City governance, design and planning are largely concerned with regulating the movement of people, goods, ideas and capital. Globally, this increasingly involves the facilitation of flows that support neoliberal state and corporate agendas, and the blocking of flows that do not.</p>
<p>One stated rationale for WestConnex, a project involving an unprecedented transfer of public funds (<a href="https://theconversation.com/big-road-projects-dont-really-save-time-or-boost-productivity-21560">A$18 billion and rising</a>) to the private sector, is increased flows to and from the city centre. </p>
<p>In response to the project’s critics, the Baird government has relied on crude rhetoric which insists it is tackling the geographic and social division between an inner city populated by “cultural elites” and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/roads-minister-duncan-gay-chattering-classes-are-more-of-a-pollution-risk-than-trucks-20150519-gh51w3.html">“chattering classes”</a> and an <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/fairgowest/fair-go-for-the-west-the-daily-telegraphs-campaign-leads-to-big-commitments-from-premier-mike-baird/news-story/a771a7e3453527263696e1e3f72e55b1">under-served wider populace</a>.</p>
<p>Postcode should not determine access to resources in the city. Yet Westconnex is the product of an anti-urban imagination that re-iterates the single central core, rather than multiple localised urban centres. Government support for the Commonwealth Bank’s move to the newly privatised <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/mike-bairds-lightrail-boost-for-western-sydney-parramatta-cbd/news-story/5820f37e7c986e1ec96d93e260cc3fb2">Australian Technology Park in Redfern</a>, instead of to Parramatta as previously planned, reinforces that view.</p>
<p>Combined with restrictive and punitive measures that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/mar/11/i-am-terrified-of-riding-on-sydney-roads-nsw-cyclists-on-new-road-rules">deter cycling</a> and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/proposed-opal-fare-increases-to-hit-longdistance-commuters-hardest-20160210-gmqolv.html">proposed steep rises in public transport fares</a>, WestConnex limits Sydneysiders’ choices for mobility around the city. It consolidates the car as a dominant mode of transportation. </p>
<p>Unlike public transport and cycling, the car seals us off from encounters with others. It is the least urban form of transport.</p>
<p>The Baird government’s policy agenda for Sydney denies the right to the city, both as the right to be urban and the right to a city that is urban. It confirms Lefebvre’s position that those who manage cities devise and implement regulatory frameworks and infrastructure that are frequently – and paradoxically – detrimental to the emergence of the urban.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55754/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsten Seale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The NSW government agenda would deny the ‘right to the city’, that network of diverse communities, practices and places which give rise to the convivial and inclusive potential of cities.Kirsten Seale, Adjunct Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/464092015-08-27T19:59:01Z2015-08-27T19:59:01ZSpeaking with: Crystal Legacy on the politics of transport infrastructure<p>As anyone who travels to work would probably realise, Australia’s transport infrastructure needs urgent upgrades. </p>
<p>As our cities continue to grow, it is virtually impossible to escape the tangle of peak-hour congestion. But with governments focused on reducing deficits, only one or two transport infrastructure projects are likely to be implemented.</p>
<p>So how are decisions about which infrastructure to build made? And how much of a say do the people who actually use the transport system have in which projects are prioritised?</p>
<p>Dallas Rogers spoke with Crystal Legacy about the politics of transport infrastructure, and the role urban planning can play in democratising the process of funding and implementing projects.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/speaking-with.../id934267338">Subscribe</a> to The Conversation’s Speaking With podcasts on iTunes, or <a href="http://tunein.com/radio/Speaking-with---The-Conversation-Podcast-p671452/">follow</a> on Tunein Radio.</em></p>
<p>Music: Free Music Archive/<a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Blue_Dot_Sessions/Union_Hall">Blue Dot Sessions: Union Hall</a>,
<a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Anitek/Luna/32_Transfusion">Transfusion by Anitek</a>, <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Asthmatic_Astronaut/BLM50_RAISE_THE_BLACK_LANTERN/Black_Lantern_Music_-_BLM-50_RAISE_THE_BLACK_LANTERN_-_01_Run_The_Tape">Run the Tape by Asthmatic Astronaut</a> (CC BY-NC)</p>
<p>Additional audio:
The Today Show (Channel 9), Channel 10 News, ABC News, Nine News, Channel 7 News, GreenLeftTV (Sydney Protests Against the WestConnex Project)</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46409/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dallas Rogers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia's transport infrastructure needs urgent upgrades. But with governments willing to fund only one or two major projects, how do we decide which infrastructure project to prioritise?Dallas Rogers, Urban Studies Lecturer, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/382862015-03-15T19:31:01Z2015-03-15T19:31:01ZWhy fewer drivers are likely to use WestConnex than predicted<p>Road infrastructure is very expensive to build, with projects like <a href="http://www.westconnex.com.au/">WestConnex</a> in Sydney costing many billions of dollars and often causing political headaches. Governments therefore need to carefully assess the costs and benefits of proposed roads, and be confident they have a realistic picture of how many drivers will actually use them.</p>
<p>But a glance through the sad history of inflated toll road user projections in Australia shows that governments often get these numbers badly wrong. </p>
<p>Let’s look at the example of the WestConnex Stage 3 development, a toll road shaping up to be a hot button issue in the upcoming New South Wales election.</p>
<p>The NSW government <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/roads-minister-duncan-gay-predicts-newtown-nirvana-if-third-stage-of-westconnex-is-built-20150225-13ohcy.html">predicts</a> that the WestConnex Stage 3, which links the M4 with the M5, will carry 120,000 vehicles each day by 2031 and will save each driver from Haberfield to St Peters 20 minutes travel time. So how does the government come up with these numbers? And are they realistic?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73912/original/image-20150305-7488-1rhyhe0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73912/original/image-20150305-7488-1rhyhe0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73912/original/image-20150305-7488-1rhyhe0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73912/original/image-20150305-7488-1rhyhe0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73912/original/image-20150305-7488-1rhyhe0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73912/original/image-20150305-7488-1rhyhe0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73912/original/image-20150305-7488-1rhyhe0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73912/original/image-20150305-7488-1rhyhe0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Where the WestConnex Stage 3 development is in Sydney.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.westconnex.com.au/explore_the_route/interactive_map.html">WestConnex</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Australia’s history of getting traffic numbers wrong</h2>
<p>A spokesperson for the WestConnex Delivery Authority told The Conversation that the projected figure of 120,000 cars a day came from WestConnex strategic traffic modelling – but that the modelling is not publicly available because it’s commercial-in-confidence.</p>
<p>Clearly, predicting the number of cars on a new road in the future is not an easy task, which is why governments all around the world rely on complex mathematical models to make such forecasts. These models consist of two main components, namely a travel demand model and a traffic model.</p>
<p>The travel demand model describes travel behaviour derived from household travel surveys and predicts the total number of cars from each origin to each destination in a future year, taking urban development and demographics into account.</p>
<p>The traffic model predicts how many of these cars will use each specific road segment, taking existing and newly proposed road infrastructure (and possible tolls) into account. </p>
<p>Australia has a history of over-predicting the usage of toll roads. </p>
<p>For example, the patronage of the Sydney Cross City tunnel was estimated to be almost 90,000 cars per day by June 2006. The actual number of cars using this tunnel was only <a href="http://www.audit.nsw.gov.au/ArticleDocuments/138/152_Cross_City_Tunnel.pdf.aspx?Embed=Y">34,000 per day</a>. Toll revenues were therefore much lower than predicted, leading to a bankruptcy after 16 months. </p>
<p>Similar over-optimistic predictions were made for the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/lane-cove-tunnel-forecasts-based-on-very-large-number-of-unknowns-20140813-103kth.html">Lane Cove tunnel </a> in Sydney, and for Brisbane’s <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/business/clem7-would-never-have-been-built/story-e6freqmx-1226000426935">Clem7 tunnel</a> and the <a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/airport-link-in-administration-20130219-2eope.html">Airport Link</a>, which also had financial problems.</p>
<h2>Outdated models</h2>
<p>So why do traffic projections in most cases turn out to be too optimistic? There are several reasons. </p>
<p>The first reason has to do with the travel demand model and their inputs. Since the future is uncertain, model inputs (such as population growth and willingness to pay the toll) are also uncertain, hence travel demand is uncertain.</p>
<p>Instead of choosing conservative inputs, often optimistic values are used due to pressures from parties who would like to see the infrastructure built. Those parties might include governments, banks and investors. </p>
<p>The second reason is that the most common traffic model still being used all around the world, including Australia, is based on mathematical methods from the 1950s, which are not really suitable for our heavily congested roads. </p>
<p>The difference between such traffic models and the real world is that these models assume that as many cars that need to can use the road, without forming any queues – even though this is not physically possible. This leads to severe over-predictions of the amount of traffic that could use each road. </p>
<h2>Billions of dollars on the line</h2>
<p>So how about the predicted 120,000 vehicles per day on a three-lane WestConnex Stage 3? Under ideal circumstances – which from a transport planner’s perspective is a high traffic flow without that flow breaking down –– the physically possible maximum traffic flow is around 2000 vehicles per hour per lane that can pass a road segment. This means around 12,000 vehicles per hour for a three lane road in both directions.</p>
<p>A traffic flow of 120,000 vehicles per day would therefore mean optimal flow conditions from 8am to 6pm. However, such optimal conditions are very unlikely, as on-ramps onto the motorway disturb traffic, leading to traffic breakdown and significantly lower traffic flows.</p>
<p>WestConnex is proposed to be a smart motorway with ramp metering: having a traffic light at the on-ramp that only allows a limited number of vehicles onto the motorway, which aims to avoid or delay traffic flow breakdown. </p>
<p>However, although a flow of 120,000 vehicles per day is theoretically possible, it is physically unlikely. </p>
<p>Perfect predictions of future traffic flows are not possible, but predictions of flows can be significantly improved. This means generating a more realistic travel demand using less optimistic scenarios and using more sophisticated traffic models that take physical flow constraints into account. Such more advanced models already exist and are only slightly more difficult to apply.</p>
<p>Given that investment decisions regarding several billions of dollars are being made, it is well worth the effort to move away from the traditional methods developed in the 1950s and adopt more contemporary methods available to governments and consultants.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38286/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michiel Bliemer receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Australia has a history of over-predicting the usage of roads, a fact worth remembering when you hear the NSW government say 120,000 cars a day will use Stage 3 of the WestConnex.Michiel Bliemer, Professor in Transport and Logistics Network Modelling, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/349142014-12-02T19:22:36Z2014-12-02T19:22:36ZThe East-West Link is dead – a victory for 21st-century thinking<p>Labor’s state election victory in Victoria has fatally undermined Melbourne’s most controversial tunnel, the now-doomed <a href="http://www.linkingmelbourne.vic.gov.au/east-west-link">East-West Link</a>, with new Premier Daniel Andrews pledging to rip up the contracts for the project.</p>
<p>His decision is a victory for anyone who values 21st-century urban thinking over the outdated car-first mentality. </p>
<p>It’s also a financial relief, because – as the project’s back story shows – the East-West Link was always more about politics than economics.</p>
<h2>Courting cars</h2>
<p>For many years, the only groups calling for a tunnel to link Melbourne’s Eastern and Citylink freeways were the <a href="http://www.racv.com.au/wps/wcm/connect/racv/Internet/Primary/home">RAC of Victoria</a> and <a href="https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/">VicRoads</a>. The problem was that the tunnel never made economic sense when it was just a freight project, yet most attention in the transport planning system was on public transport, where demand was growing rapidly. The East-West tunnel needed a large dose of cars to justify it. </p>
<p>Enter Tony Abbott, who <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/tollfree-eastwest-link-preferable-tony-abbott-20130902-2t0ff.html">pledged A$1.5 billion</a> before last year’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/federal-election-2013">federal election</a> for the East-West plan, arguing that Australians love their cars and public transport was not in his federal knitting. </p>
<p>The East-West project grew in concept and soon became a massive capital cost, with the price tag for the whole plan, including the western extension to Melbourne’s port, threatening to <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/state-budget-2014-major-road-and-rail-projects-worth-24b-to-transform-melbourne-20140506-zr5mj.html">hit A$10 billion</a> and swamp the transport budget. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the waning days of the first <a href="http://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au">Infrastructure Australia</a> (on which I was privileged to serve for four years), it became obvious that the East-West tunnel and Sydney’s <a href="http://www.westconnex.com.au">WestConnex</a> would never be subject to the scrutiny of our process. They were to be seen as purely political projects and the case for their going ahead would depend on their popularity, not on value for money. </p>
<h2>Why tunnelling Melbourne was a bad idea</h2>
<p>The old shibboleth that building roads is vital for improving the economy is no longer true. Economic growth has divorced itself from car dependence (my new book with <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jeff-kenworthy-15708">Jeff Kenworthy</a>, <a href="http://www.bibliovault.org/BV.book.epl?ISBN=9781610914635">The End of Automobile Dependence</a>, traces the fall of the empire of car-based planning). </p>
<p>Growth in the Victorian and Australian economies now depends on the growth in “knowledge economy” jobs. These jobs at the creative, productive, innovative edge of our economy are now firmly enmeshed in the dense centres of our cities. </p>
<p>As the US urban economists Ed Glaeser and Richard Florida have <a href="blog.ted.com/2012/02/29/cities-ed-glaeser-at-ted2012">shown</a>, the knowledge economy depends on close interactions between creative people and those who can deliver projects. This work requires intensive spaces in cities, which in turn need intensive modes of transport to enable them. This means that rail, cycling and walking are critical to the knowledge economy. Although heavily into digital communications, knowledge economy workers need face-to-face contact and are now shifting back into central and inner city locations to optimise this process. </p>
<p>In contrast, cars and trucks are dispersive modes of transport, and are needed for the consumption economy. These jobs are important too, but are essentially based in the dispersed spaces of the suburbs. These jobs are not the ones we are seeking as much as those in the knowledge economy, because they do not drive productivity growth as effectively. </p>
<p>It is no wonder that around the world, we are seeing <a href="http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=38472#.VH1FI2SUdgA">declining car use per capita and growing public transport use</a>, as well as a widespread return to formerly neglected inner cities.</p>
<p>The six most walkable US cities have <a href="http://urbanful.org/2014/06/20/walkable-cities/">38% higher gross domestic product than the national average</a>. Cities now compete on new measures such as <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/opinion/sunday/now-coveted-a-walkable-convenient-place.html?_r=0">walkability</a> and <a href="http://www.livablecities.org/blog/value-rankings-and-meaning-livability">livability</a>. Governments everywhere are aiming to build quality rail projects and make city centres more human in scale. Even <a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberras-780m-light-rail-line-gets-final-go-ahead-business-case-to-be-released-20140915-10gzr3.html">Canberra</a> and <a href="http://www.parracity.nsw.gov.au/work/business_in_parramatta/strategy/solving_transport_problems/light_rail_for_western_sydney">Paramatta</a> are joining in, as they work out how to build light rail. </p>
<p>Melbourne has one of the most attractive city centres in the world for knowledge economy jobs. It needs to ensure that this is not lost by tipping more cars into its walkable centre. Instead it needs to encourage commuting by rail, bike and on foot. </p>
<h2>Change in the air</h2>
<p>Victoria’s people have now spoken. The East-West Link will be scrapped, and should be replaced by more sensible transport planning. Melbourne does need to improve east-west access for people and freight, but it should not be beyond us to find some solutions that do not break the bank. </p>
<p>Clearly there are plans for upgrading rail access through several proposed rail projects, including the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-19/melbourne-rail-a-better-deal-than-east-west-toll-planners-say/5902268">original Melbourne Metro plan</a>, and the <a href="http://ptv.vic.gov.au/assets/PTV/PTV%20docs/Melbourne-Airport/Melbourne-Airport-Rail-Link-Study-Overview.pdf">Airport Rail Link</a>. <a href="http://ptv.vic.gov.au/projects/rail-projects/doncaster-rail-study">Doncaster Rail</a> should remain on the table, hopefully not for another 100 years, as it is a simple and direct way to move passengers east-west. </p>
<p>The freight system seems to be amenable to much simpler concepts than the East-West Tunnel, like those <a href="http://habitattrustmelbourne.org.au">presented by the Habitat Trust</a>, using several inland rail interchange facilities.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.thefifthestate.com.au/spinifex/bays-precinct-five-principles-emerge-from-summit/69895">same principles</a> should lead New South Wales to modify the Connex West project, especially where it spills traffic into Sydney’s central and inner areas. Such traffic “solutions” actually harm the economy of inner urban areas, burying investment opportunities under bitumen for parking and road-widening, and congesting areas that already have too many cars. </p>
<p>The public can sense that we have to update the way we travel and how we build cities so they are not car-dependent. The road-building brigade needs to take a deep breath and see that their plans are old-fashioned. Perhaps the legacy of the East-West Tunnel will be that such projects will never again be foisted on the Australian public.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34914/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Newman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Labor’s state election victory in Victoria has fatally undermined Melbourne’s most controversial tunnel, the now-doomed East-West Link, with new Premier Daniel Andrews pledging to rip up the contracts…Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.