Friday, September 4, 2009

More roads do not bring faster travel times

A report recently (Sept 4, 2009) published by John Odgers, a transport analyst at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology has found that the billions of dollars spent building new motorways in Melbourne in the 1990s has failed to bring about the time savings promised by those people behind the new motorways’ construction.

I would strongly urge members of the Wellington Regional Land Transport Committee, New Zealand Transport Association as well as the Minister and officials at the Ministry of Transport to consider this report before setting in motion construction of a flyover at the Basin Reserve.

The recently released National Land Transport Programme (2009/12) has priced investigation, design and construction of the flyover at the Basin Reserve at $47 million. This is a hike from the $33 million price tag the project was given only one year ago!

Construction of a flyover at the Basin Reserve will inevitably lead to duplication of the Mt Victoria Tunnel which was priced at $175 million in 2008.

The $222 million that it would cost to see these two projects undertaken would have far greater (and more sustainable) impact on our region’s future if it were invested in public and active transport initiatives. It is time that we accepted the future will be very different from the present and it is time that we began investing to make this future a livable and sustainable reality.

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