[LINK] Why you may not own, or drive your vehicle in 10 years time

[Marghanita da Cruz]

OK I have scanned through this discussion and you all seem to be coming 
from a particular starting point which is the here and now which in my 
view is PEAK PRIVATE VEHICLE.

I had a brief glimmer of hope when a few people mentioned the laws of 
physics, but then the assumptions dashed them. The laws of physics say 
we cannot all get into a personal private car and expect to get to our 
destination and park it. So, unless the driverless cars become a micro 
one person vehicle, I do not see any significant benefit.

Here in the Inner west of Sydney (those in Inner Melbourne have already 
had their victory) we are fighting WestCONnex.

The reality is that people are not even bothering to get drivers 
licenses or purchase vehicles - though the argument is they need one if 
they are to get to their place of employment, recreation etc. In Sydney 
we have had several failed toll road projects including the lane cove 
tunnel and the cross city tunnel there is no evidence that Westconnex 
will be any different. Congestion on Victoria Road is evidence of people 
avoiding tolls.

I have just driven up to Brisbane and back which was a truly horrible 
experience (made worse by the realisation we could probably have done 
most of the trip via Narrabri on the train). Trees are being felled, 
bushland and farmland destroyed to construct massive roads. Towns 
through which the highway once passed are now a significant detour. 
Brisbane was this horrid experience of freeways on the foreshore of the 
city. This is also what has happened to construct the Motorway to the 
North West of Sydney through the Sydney Blue Gums.

Someone mention the M5 - from time to time I drive against the traffic 
on virtually my own private motorway - 3 unused lanes in the opposite 
direction. I observe the people sitting parked on the M5 - there is 
rarely more than one person in each car. Roads are taking up precious 
real estate and they are never going to get anyone anywhere faster!

I haven't even got onto the Social (time not spent at work, with family, 
or friends) health cost of accidents (sitting in cars for prolonged 
times, car accident victims who do not die) , the environmental costs of 
the fuel, air and noise pollution.

Shopping malls are designed for people to drive to them fill up their 
trolleys and drive home. They are also designed for very large trucks to 
make large scale deliveries - there are other models that are better for 
humanity and the environment!

We are asking all governments to prioritise public transport over the 
private vehicle (the poles and wires is about selling off the 
electricity assets to fund the building of the road!):

No WestConnex: Public transport not motorways
Stop 33km of motorway destruction planned for Sydney | Don’t swap
poles and wires for tolls and tyres..The total cost is now predicted to 
be $16.8 billion. When it was announced in October 2012, the original 
cost of WestConnex was $10 billion...
http://wp.westconnex.info/

The National Audit Office has just announced an Audit into federal 
funding of Westconnex (Due to table: January, 2017):
>
> The objective of this audit is to assess whether appropriate steps
> were taken to protect the Commonwealth's interests and obtain value
> for money in respect to the $3.5 billion in Commonwealth funding
> committed to the NSW Government for the WestConnex project.
>
https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/approval-and-administration-commonwealth-funding-westconnex-project

Further Reading:
05/01: Trends in travel in the Greater Sydney Region (2002/3 - 2012/3)
http://ramin.com.au/blog/category/sydney-transport/blog/1

01/04: Word Clouds of 10% of Westconnex Index to Non privileged Papers
http://ramin.com.au/blog/?itemid=327

10/04: Australia could have a high speed train by 2025!
http://ramin.com.au/blog/?itemid=340

Marghanita

-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
Telephone: 0414-869202
Email:  marghanita at ramin.com.au
Website: http://ramin.com.au