Pricing is back on the agenda again.
Melbourne already has a congestion tax - a misnamed congestion levy which is really a tax on long stay car parking spots. But the Brumby government continues to oppose going further. There are, to be fair, considerable problems with a London style congestion tax for Melbourne. For instance not all congestion is CBD based as this map shows.
Nevertheless Australian political leaders are frightened of congestion taxes and other forms of road pricing. But eventually they will have no other option. No city, anywhere, has been able to build its way out of congestion via freeways/tollways/tunnels etc. The best you can hope for is to manage it.
The lack of a London style congestion tax does not mean that other demand management techniques have not been tried in Melbourne. For well over a decade inner city council’s have initiated supply side solutions to congestion by way of road closures, traffic calming, parking meters and road space reduction. It is now harder to drive into the CBD and get a free park then it was in the 1980s. So we are getting price signals, but under the radar.
Its not true to say that nothing has been done. Most people completely underestimate the chaos caused by the particular type of liberal government public transport privatisation in the 1990s. In essence public transport in Melbourne lost the better part of a decade to management disorder and uncertainty. But now we have real dollars being spent on infrastructure and major dollars been spent on upgrading Melbourne’s appalling bus system. But this money will run out in 2010-11 and sustainable transport advocates need to come to grips with this challenge pronto.
Thats the good news. The bad news is that in Melbourne the roads lobby is attempting a policy pushback though getting a designated Roads Minister (we used to have a Tranport Minister), and trying to harass the government into committing to a new PPP - a cross city tunnel.
The folly of this is palpable. For not only is there little demand (something like 10-15 percent of traffic coming off the Eastern freeway wants to go west of the CBD), but it is an immense project and would require massive public subsidies. This would be in the order of not only tolls, but shadow tolls or toll gantry’s on existing “free” roads like the eastern freeway or hoddle street.
Put simply we have congestion management strategies in Melbourne, but they are largely from the bottom up. What is needed is greater support at government level to make them work and to defend them from a business lobby which is desperately seeking a big, new infrastructure project.
2 comments:
Well written Chris. While it's great to see more spending on public transport there is a lot more than could and should be done. Better services for those forced out of the inner city by rising rents is one area worthy of priority.
I couldn't agree more David - hence the reference to what has been called by the likes of John Stanley (Bus Assoc)MOTC2.
But the real reform we need is not more train lines (but we do need them), nor more tram lines (but we need them as well), but real bus reform. That is positioning buses from the ugly stepchild of PT in Melbourne to our brightest and most precious jewell. That means tram like minimum service standards for orbital routes in the order of 10 minute frequency - 6am to 12 midnight or beyond (Smartbus should be 5-7 mins).
Buses are where we can make real inroads to addressing disadvantage and transport poverty.
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