Hell on WheelsNo.7 • 2 November 2000 TRANSPORT & LIFESTYLE SOLUTIONS FOR SYDNEY
○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Southern Sydney’s transport crisis Too many cars, not enough public transport It’s a problem that has an obvious solution and yet everything comes to public transport—would governments have done in recent years has only made it worse. see direct rail access provided to The problem is transport—the some areas. many new districts for the first time. Many short and medium wrong kind. The problem is too The solution is to build viable distance trips, currently many cars, counter-productive alternatives to the car. This means undertaken by car, would be motorway construction and too restoring high capacity public shifted to public transport. New few public transport alternatives. transport to Sydney’s inner light rail would provide a sound The problem is governments, of suburbs and building new services foundation for the revitalisation of all kinds and persuasions, who to those areas yet to see quality rail commercial centres like have focussed on road building access. and allowed the public transport Caringbah. Light rail could also Outer districts like Rockdale and system to run down. give high quality public transport Sutherland Shire need to have Sydney’s roads are congested access to the beaches of Bate Bay. fixed-track public transport Many of these spectacular and long delays are an everyday services introduced. Residential feature. In many inner and eastern foreshore areas are threatened development along the Botany with the prospect of multi-storey suburbs, the bus network is Bay foreshore in Rockdale has grossly over crowded. Public car-parking constructions. Solving low levels of public transport use accessibility problems by giving transport is overwhelmed by its by comparison with districts own popularity. Commuters are people real alternatives to the car located along the heavy rail line. will eliminate this threat. often left abandoned by the side Light rail through the centre of this of the road. Buses go past without None of this is possible if densely populated area would see emphasis remains on freeway stopping, because there’s no room a massive shift to public transport, on board. building. Comprehensive public removing thousands of cars from transport options should be at the In outer areas like Sutherland the roads. Shire, the problem is poor services centre of all discussions on The Sutherland Shire—which has regional transport development at low frequencies. Public been grossly neglected when it transport is almost nonexistent in for Southern Sydney. A light rail solution for Southern Sydney’s transport crisis Need more information? The Bay Light Express n Sutherland Shire Council Lunch-Time extensions to new areas denied rail commercial, special event and would take just twenty minutes by All transport solutions start with Seminar a line on the map. And the light access for too long. industrial sites. They would light rail. The same journeys by On 6 December (Wednesday) rail line EcoTransit Sydney has The proposal consists of two provide a service faster than cars. car take almost an hour, and they clog General Holmes Drive. 12am-1pm, Sutherland Shire put down on the map is the Bay links—Bay Light East and Bay Stretching for 27km, Bay Light Council will be hosting a seminar Light Express—a new proposal Light West. The two would skirt East would provide a fast and The Bay Light West is a 25.5km presentation on the Bay Light that would see the reintroduction the neighbourhoods of the Botany frequent service between the CBD link beginning at Central Station Express. This seminar is open to of modern high capacity trams to Bay Region, linking residential and the suburbs of Darlinghurst, and following an on-street the public! the inner regions of Sydney, and districts, universities, retail, Kensington, Randwick, alignment down Broadway before Kingsford, Maroubra, Matraville, turning onto City Road and King n Information night for Malabar, Chifley, Little Bay and Street Newtown. From St Peters your street or community La Perouse. It would provide a railway station, the route would group much-needed high-capacity link pass through disused industrial EcoTransit Sydney is happy to to the University of NSW, Sydney areas before connecting with the present a slide show and Cricket Ground, Fox Studios and International Airport Terminal. It discussion for people in your Randwick Racecourse. A tunnel to would then continue through to street or community group. Ring Kurnell under the heads of Botany Rockdale, servicing a large, Sutherland Shire Environment Bay would then carry the line densely populated residential Centre on 9545-3077 for more direct to Cronulla via Captain area—currently without direct rail details on . Cook Drive and Elouera Road. access—along Crawford Road This section would give and Chuter Avenue. The line n Visit the EcoTransit unprecedented access between the would then proceed over Captain Sydney website at CBD, the Eastern suburbs and Cook Bridge, passing light www.ecotransit.org.au Sutherland Shire. A typical trip industrial areas along Taren Point from Cronulla to the University of Road before feeding into n Come on a tour of the This is the class of vehicle we could see on the Bay Light Express routes: air NSW or the big entertainment Caringbah’s commercial and M6 motorway corridor conditioned, wheelchair and bicycle accessible, these modern Variotrams provide a venues in the Eastern Suburbs residential areas. Come and see first hand the comfortable and ‘jolt-free’ ride. hundreds of homes that would be bulldozed. Ring 9545 3077 to For information on the Motorway, turn overM6 ☞ book your place.
Hell on Wheels No.7 • 2 November 2000
○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ We will never see an era of cheap oil again and it’s time to begin the conversion of our transport systems to modes like electrically- The M6 Motorway powered light rail that are independent of it. The fundamental problem is that the rate of world oil consumption has outpaced the rate at which it can be supplied. This is exacerbated by the fact The M6 would see around that world production has peaked and 120 homes bulldozed in can only decline steadily from now on. Gymea and Kirrawee. Respected oil industry experts Thousands more would be accurately predicted the current crisis adversely affected. years ago. The oil now being discovered is in small fields that are expensive to exploit, and world geology is now so well understood that surprise discoveries of Port Hacking High School large fields are unlikely. would have to be shrouded The upshot of this is that the current in noise barriers to protect squeeze in supply is here to stay and class rooms from noise. the only way to deal with it is to slowly reduce our consumption. If we don’t, the global economy faces a future of destructive volatility. Urban transport is the hungriest consumer of oil, but it is also the area where we can expect to replace it most Parts of the Royal easily, and with the greatest economic National Park effect. With the value of the Aussie dollar would be concreted. dropping and global oil prices rising, freeway building will not sustain the future transport needs of our region. Light rail will. It’s cheaper to construct, so we get more ‘bang for our buck’. This cutting the Shire and Rockdale in half makes good economic sense! ■ What would another freeway achieve?
Urban freeway building is counter-productive and self- The M2 has not removed heavy traffic volumes from perpetuating. As soon as a new freeway is opened, traffic the parallel arterial Epping Road, and entry to the volumes quickly grow to fill the available road space. tollbooths is often jammed with traffic. The Eastern Bottlenecks and congested choke-points that the original ANALYSISANALYSIS Distributor is regularly jammed. Whenever special freeway was intended to remove, are simply moved to events at Fox Studios, the Cricket Ground and Randwick another part of the network and the process is repeated. Racecourse are scheduled for the same day, the system After each turn in the freeway building cycle, the scale ANALYSISANALYSIS can’t cope. of the problems become bigger as more traffic is There have been no less than three commissions of funnelled onto the road network. Traffic engineers call inquiry into Sydney freeways—the F1, F5 and F2. All this ‘induced traffic growth’ or ‘system feedback’*. ANALYSISANALYSIS three inquiries concluded the freeways should not be This has been the case with many freeway and tollways built and that public transport and rail freight in Sydney and will certainly be the case with the M5East. development should be given priority. Removing vehicles from congestion hot spots by providing It is no secret that when the M5East is opened a The 1980 Kirby Inquiry was ahead of its time when it comprehensive alternatives to the car is the real solution. minimum of 60,000 vehicles per day will be dumped on opposed construction of the F5 (now the M5East), The Bay Light Express and other public transport upgrades Princes Hwy at Arncliffe and General Holmes Drive. through Wolli Creek. The inquiry concluded: (that are long overdue) do hold out the prospect of real This will be a disaster! General Holmes Drive is already “The provision of greater capacity within the south- solutions. These solutions would not involve the destruction choked with traffic. Widening the road is not possible western corridor … will in our opinion, simply of entire neighbourhoods as the M6 would. because of the runway tunnels. encourage commuter traffic to travel in a direction in If built, the M6 will see residents lose their homes as the In anticipation, the freeway pundits are out in force which it aught to be discouraged. Very soon the freeway is bulldozed through Rockdale, Monteray, Sans talking up the M6—the next freeway, intended to solve congestion eliminated by the route will re-appear, as Souci and Dolls Point. In the Sutherland Shire, parts of all the problems that the M5East freeway will create. traffic seeks to take advantage of the spare capacity Miranda, Gymea, Kirrawee and Grays Point would be within the system. There will be more traffic, more A second option that has been talked about inside the utterly devastated. Hundreds of homes would be pollution, more noise and less parks, and all for a very RTA, but not released to the public, is to redirect the demolished and thousands more would be left to suffer the short reprieve from congestion which will quickly northern end of the freeway from Miranda through to traffic noise and exhaust fumes. Sections of the Royal reappear.” Caringbah and onto Captain Cook Drive. It would then National Park will be lost under asphalt and many of the Local residents and businesses who oppose the M6 enter a tunnel section and go under the heads of Botany playing fields in Rockdale will be destroyed. And to what because they want to save their neighbourhoods, will Bay before hooking into Anzac Parade at La Perouse, purpose? To shift a bottleneck to a new part of the network? directing traffic from the south and into the CBD via the not be called NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard). They For several decades, “Let’s build another freeway to take Eastern Suburbs. will be seen as sensible people who were prepared to the traffic away”, has been the standard response of the think outside the square and look for real solutions to This option has been held in reserve because there will RTA, but no one believes this anymore. The M4 Motorway the regions transport problems. The public transport always be problems with the traffic that an M6 would is often referred to as a slow moving car park during peak options will not destroy people’s homes and they will dump in the middle of the Central Industrial Area. The hour. The last round of widenings, which saw the tollway RTA is also frightened of a massive community backlash. remove cars from our roads. grow from 4 lanes to 6 was meant to free up congestion. * For detailed information about Induced Traffic In exactly the same way the M5East has created a crisis The reality is that congestion is still a problem but on a even before its opening, so too will the M6. Growth, visit the EcoTransit website at bigger scale of 6 to 8 lanes instead of 4 to 6. www.ecotransit.org.au and check out some of the back The M6 is not a ‘solution’ to the transport crisis. issues of Hell on Wheels.