The 2013-2014 Federal budget includes billions of dollars allocated to transport, including a new Melbourne rail tunnel. At the same time the Victorian State government has plans for a different tunnel…
Ah, the freedom of the open road!
Walter Parenteau
Although the national budget is now apparently $12 billion in debt, a welter of state governments are pressing the federal government for support to build new freeways. The Victorian Government has just…
Is this our transport future? If the regulatory and safety issues are ironed out, many more of us could be boarding personal mobility devices for short commutes.
Nelson Pavlosky
Whether we like it or not, there is a pecking order on the road. At the top, either high performance sports cars or the massive B-double freight trucks reign supreme. On the lower rungs, pedestrians and…
The European experience with high speed rail suggests there are trade-offs with aviation depending on the routes.
There is no doubt that the creation of a 1748-kilometre high-speed rail network connecting Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne is an exciting endeavour. But given the large capital costs – $114 billion…
So high speed rail might be a good investment, in future. It just might also be the worst of the possible rail projects to fund at this moment in time.
AAP
Transport Minister Anthony Albanese today released the second phase report for Australia’s High Speed Rail Study. The AECOM report plots out a preferred route from Brisbane to Melbourne, predicts how many…
Overprotective policies constrain kids and teach them to value risk assessment over opportunity.
Sim Dawdler/Flickr
We take an “efficiency” approach to childhood and child-rearing in Australia.
We want kids to grow up and become productive economic citizens without them deviating from identified pathways, and society…
Australia’s transport planners are better than most at dealing with disasters.
AAP Image/Supplied by SES, Samantha Cantwell
Transport access is essential for people to get to the goods and services they need in daily life. Never is that basic access more appreciated, and more desired, than when it’s taken away from us, such…
Almost 1.3 million people die each year on the world’s roads, making road accidents the ninth leading cause of death globally.
AAP/Joe Castro
We demand and expect our transport systems to to get us where we want, when we want to be there, and as fast as possible. We are, however, human beings with human bodies. And as with any other built system…
It’s time to take solar transport fuels a lot more seriously.
National Renewable Energy Lab
Many times in human history governments have tried to write policies based around future technologies and missed identifying the transformational keys. In the 1970s, for example, few if any horizon-scanning…
Cycling numbers are growing in the inner city, but falling on the outskirts.
yewenyi/Flickr
If you have heard comments from friends or colleagues that there seem to be a lot more cyclists these days, chances are that you live or work in the inner city of an Australian capital city.
A new report…
Even Los Angelenos are taking the train.
Thomas Hawk
There is a major rail revival around the world, including light rail, metro rail, heavy rail, and high speed rail. At the same time car use has peaked and is in decline in most cities. However transport…
If you don’t deal with road transport, you’re really not dealing with emissions.
Rachel Wray
Much of the recent debate over Australia’s new Energy White Paper deals with climate change, the planned growth of Australia’s coal and gas exports, and the future of electricity sector. And although when…
London bike share has proved more successful than schemes in Australia, but focusing on infrastructure could help improve sharing here.
cat1788/Flickr
Bike share programs in Melbourne and Brisbane were much heralded by the governments that installed them. But they’ve proved far less popular than schemes overseas. Is Australian bike share doomed?
Since…
Our lives and lifestyles depend on mobility of people and freight; are we ready to lose that?
Martin Wurt
Over the next 50 years the world will increasingly confront a dilemma. On the one hand, the global economy and local lifestyles depend on the mobility of people and goods. On the other, that mobility depends…
Australia must resolve numerous social, economic and environmental obstacles if it wants to reap the benefits of the Asian Century.
Image from www.shutterstock.com
Governments are forever immersed in the daily challenge of responding to what the former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan once knowingly described as “events.” It was he who coined the resounding…
Seatbelts have long been mandatory in cars, so why are there still school buses without them?
Seatbelt image from www.shutterstock.com
The NSW School Bus Safety Community Advisory Committee made a major recommendation in its report released this week that seatbelts should be installed on all rural school buses that operate outside lower…
Health and transport authorities should focus on helping older drivers to drive safely for longer.
Older driver image from shutterstock.com
When an older driver has a crash with tragic consequences, there are calls for stricter licensing controls to detect “unfit” drivers and take their licences away, typically focusing on those aged 75 or…
Ride2Work day makes a real difference in levels of cycling: let’s have it more often.
Fernando de Sousa
Australians are pretty enthusiastic about cycling for recreation. Cycling to work is another matter entirely. Arguably, cycle commuting is even more important than recreational riding: as well as the health…
Looking at the speedo won’t tell you which is travelling faster.
Cole Young
Are you addicted to speed? Has a “hurry virus” taken over your life?
Building faster roads or buying a fast car or a second car may seem appealing solutions to time pressure. Yet our obsession with speed…
Infrastructure lobbyists are pushing for more funding to fill the “infrastructure gap”, but the investment doesn’t make sense.
Indiana Public Media
Every Australian State and Territory has an ongoing roads program and a “wish list” which it brings to the Federal Government for funding. The current extent of the multi-billion dollar program can be…
NSW premier Barry O'Farrell’s government is under pressure to deliver on infrastructure projects.
AAP/Dean Lewins
The O'Farrell government’s new Transport Master Plan may be grounded in realism, but it is an election loser.
The plan, which has been brewing since the change of government, puts the construction of…
London’s Olympic Lanes are getting a lot of negative coverage, but they’re not a recent invention.
Joe Goldberg
The London Olympic Games open on July 27, but designating one lane on the M4 motorway between Heathrow Airport and Central London as an “Olympic Lane” for athletes, officials, sponsors and media has already…
Sydney’s Olympics transport couldn’t have been smoother; London’s has already ground to a halt.
Andy Rain/EPA
The London Olympics seems paralysed with problems. The latest is protests from taxi drivers – who say they need access to special “Olympics lanes” – which have brought traffic to a halt. Is London going…
Double the normal number of overseas visitors will hit Heathrow this year.
Department for Culture, Media & Sport
The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are just around the corner, and promise to be a great global spectacle. At the same time, the organising committee are promising the most sustainable Olympics…
Want value for public money? Build bike infrastructure.
Brisbane City Council
In the current climate of economic uncertainty and fiscal restraint, governments are quick to reassure us that they are making every effort to “do more with less”. Providing mobility for citizens in Australia…
Care and consideration make the road safer for everyone. Enforcing the law helps too.
Fernando de Sousa
Every year, more Australians – particularly in cities – are riding to work. More cyclists means fewer cars on the road, less congestion, less pollution and fewer health problems. But every year more people…
Cycling infrastructure gets people on their bikes, and the economic benefits are legion.
Janet Lackey
You might have heard that bike lanes are a waste of money. The Australian National Audit Office recently investigated the $40 million bike path scheme, announced in 2009 as part of the Federal Government…
Cycling in inner-city Sydney is up, thanks to better bike paths.
William Feuerman
Just outside my bedroom window a sliver of the Bourke Street Bicycle Route passes by; a slice of Sydney’s network of cycleways which is continuing to grow, branching, meandering and extending throughout…
Sydney needs sustainable solutions to keep its growing population happy and healthy.
Franklin Heijnen
Australia’s future population is again under the spotlight. The Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) has just released a new report on Australian population futures.
And focus has sharpened…
US Republicans are sick of urban ‘elites’ and want to take their public transport funds away.
Vittorio Sciosia
There is a high level of bipartisan support for public transport investment in Australian politics. Parties of all colours are willing to promise rail schemes and bus improvements (in marginal electorates…
Modern motorists have a pile of engine choices.
Flickr/ Joost J. Bakker IJmuiden
Like many countries, Australia is seeing a growth in the number of diesel vehicles on our roads. Since 2006 the number of registered diesel vehicles has increased by a remarkable 40%; diesel passenger…
“What is the value of zero?” asks the seductive commercial for the new Nissan Leaf (due to launch in Australia in April). Set against a montage of natural and man-made images of “0”, the Leaf advert asks…
Some jurisdictions are pushing for aviation emissions controls, but an international agreement seems far away.
Cardiff Friends of the Earth
Aviation is a growing source of emissions. Emissions from aviation are increasing against a background of decreasing emissions from many other industry sectors. Airlines – with their international reach…
Future freeways could be very different places.
johnsnape
Car travel is becoming a victim of its own success. If we in the West had only kept cars for ourselves, automobility could have survived much longer. But we shared them with the rest of the world, and…
Times have changed; the car industry needs to catch up.
aussiefordadverts/Flickr
The Australian Government has been bailing out automotive manufacturers since 1985. Both that year’s Button Plan and the 2008 Bracks Report recommended restructure and additional funding. But unless the…
Legislation would have less real effect than better manners.
Looking Glass
There’s nothing like a “bikes vs drivers” story to whip commentators into a frenzy, and this week’s stoush between Shane Warne and a Melbourne cyclist is no exception. Whenever this issue comes up, there…
The Pacific Highway has a long history of fatal truck accidents.
AAP
Articulated trucks such as semi-trailers and “B-Doubles” are involved in about 30% of fatal road accidents on the Pacific Highway. As the number of trucks carrying freight between Sydney and Brisbane increases…
To make roads flow better, we need traffic lights to be more efficient.
sinkdd
If you’ve ever been caught in a traffic jam – and who hasn’t? – you’ll know Australia’s urban road networks are fast approaching full capacity. With the holiday season not far away, traffic jams and road…
It’s time to abandon Australia’s “helmet experiment”.
Tejvan Photos
There’s little doubt Australia would have healthier communities if more of us chose to cycle for transport, exercise or even relaxation. But mandatory helmet laws, introduced in Australia in the 1990s…
How can we dispose of 20 million tyres a year while minimising our environmental impact?
ppip
Used tyres pose a major environmental risk around the world, with more than one billion tyres disposed of every year. Most of these tyres end up in landfill.
Estimates suggest more than 20 million passenger…
Is Australia going down the East Asian high-rise route?
eugene
How dense could we be? Very, if you follow much of the commentary in Australian debates about the way we should plan our cities.
High-rise residential developments have been springing up in all Australia…
Is the family car of our imagination the family car of the future?
blentley
Over the past ten years, total vehicle sales in Australia have increased by roughly 35%. But sales of the once-most-popular cars, the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon, have halved.
This fall in sales…
Qantas management have taken a risky approach to end their dispute with unions.
AFP/William West
Qantas planes are set to return to the air today after Fairwork Australia ruled to terminate an industrial dispute that grounded the airline over the weekend.
The extraordinary action on Saturday by…
Before the motorcar “owned” the road, cyclists weren’t seen as space-taking nuisance.
The ABC documentary Wide Open Road is a totally fascinating history of the car in Australia.
The characters who pioneered the car in the Australian bush 100 years ago are remarkable. The images of Australian…
It needs to be easier for cyclists to safely navigate our busy city streets.
H4NUM4N
CYCLING IN AUSTRALIA: Every year, dozens of cyclists are killed and thousands are injured while riding on Australian roads.
Statistics such as these, coupled with all-too-frequent horror stories about…
Sydney has a lot to learn when it comes to cycling culture.
Mikael Colville Andersen
By Emma Barnes, University of Technology, Sydney and Nicole Gardner, University of Technology, Sydney
CYCLING IN AUSTRALIA: There are many reasons cycling should be actively encouraged in our cities: increasing fuel prices, obesity levels and environmental concerns, just to name a few.
Yet in comparison…
Intelligent walls could soon help you navigate around public transport.
Infostructure/Vinh Nguyen
Can you imagine a public transport environment free from the complications of buying a ticket and validating it? What if fare evaders were automatically singled out for their faux pas? Or how about the…
European women love to get on their bikes.
kamshots/Flickr
Cycling for transport in Australia is characterised by several “missing” population groups: women, children, adolescents and older adults.
Women comprise about one-fifth of commuter cyclists in Australia…
The High Speed Rail Study, released last week, moves us just that little bit closer to fast trains on the east coast. But will HSR really get us out of aeroplanes?
A fresh tilt at HSR in a changed climate…
Would-be cyclists are deterred by mandatory helmet laws.
Jase Wong
Public bicycle hire schemes have the potential to generate the well-known health benefits that come with increased exercise.
But while Australia has bravely adopted such schemes, mandatory helmet laws…
Is it time for Australian rail to speed up?
yewenyi/Flickr
The Australian Government has released an “implementation” study for high speed rail (or HSR) on the east coast with a further study to follow.
The proposal looks at corridors between Melbourne, Sydney…
Counterintuitively, the carbon tax may make it harder to get a bus.
Dale Gillard/Flickr
Transport accounts for 14% of Australia’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and has one of the fastest emission growth rates. Cutting our national emissions might, therefore, be expected to shine a blowtorch…
Exempting petrol to protect rural families isn’t very forward thinking.
Sids1/Flickr
Full revelations of the Gillard government’s carbon tax are expected in the coming days, but the decision to spare the Australian motorist has just been announced. Picking that this might happen was a…
Investment in Australia’s ports is one obvious priority to enhance growth – but let’s broaden our outlook.
There has been much debate in the popular and political discourse on the state of our national infrastructure.
The general consensus, despite Victoria’s Baillieu government’s failure to put forth any…
Getting out of the car: easy for some.
Hunter Desportes/Flickr
In cities all over the industrial world, people are driving less. Changes to society and the structures of our cities have made jumping in the car less popular. But what does this mean for people who have…
For politicians, there’s no bright future in pushing up petrol prices.
Alcohol Gasoline/Flickr
Politically, increasing petrol prices is one of the least popular things a government can do. But is there any point to a carbon tax if it doesn’t cover petrol?
Vladimir Putin has just found how quickly…
Being paid to drive is becoming a thing of the past.
Daniel Dionne/flickr
After 25 years, one of the craziest taxation rules in Australia is about to be fixed.
The federal government is expected to announce a revamp of fringe benefits tax rules for company cars in Tuesday’s…
I don’t care what it is, I just want it to be on time.
Drown/Flickr
News of a new bus route will most likely be greeted with indifferent silence, but lobbying for a new train line can keep thousands of potential commuters busy for years on end. It seems that everyone loves…
Congestion charging will reduce Australian traffic loads.
Burning image/Flickr
As you sit in your usual morning traffic jam, increasingly agitated, blood pressure flying, do you continually wonder “Why can’t they fix this mess?” Widen some roads. Build some new links. Improve the…
At least three-quarters of city commuters travel by car.
AAP
Emissions trading is back in the news and in national political debate, as is the related question of how it will affect Australian motorists.
Fair enough. This should receive attention because greenhouse…
