PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Despite arguably costing a fortune to build, public transport has benefits often overlooked.
Environmentalists appear to have long overlooked public transport, especially in big cities, as a useful way to reduce environmental pollution. Climate activists and climate-conscious politicians rarely talk vocally about the need for better public transport.
Smart upgrading and expanding of public transport links will entice people to leave the car at home.
This in turn reduces car dependency, reduces traffic gridlock, and reduces travel times for those who really need to be driving. It also gives people more freedom to relax while they commute.
And of course, it also reduces environmental pollution from vehicle exhaust fumes. Despite this fact, I have observed how, for inexplicable reasons, environmental activists have largely overlooked it as a means of reducing pollution.
But also overlooked is the benefit to economic productivity. However, it was arguably not until 2006 when somebody publicly spelled out how failing to invest in public transport was far more expensive than any short-term project costs, and I have never forgotten it.
In early 2006, a SYDNEY MORNING HERALD newspaper story highlighted that Sydney’s failure to build adequate public transport links was causing traffic gridlock which, in Sydney alone, was costing the economy $18 billion per annum in lost productivity – the equivalent of $1.5 billion per month.
In other words, traffic gridlock in Sydney alone was costing the economy almost as much in a single month as it would have cost to build some traffic-busting railways.
While politicians and commentators are often paranoid about the costs to taxpayers of spending billions of dollars on projects which cannot attract private investment, this was the first time that somebody had worked out the cost of refusing to spend on projects. I have never forgotten this.
I have also seen firsthand how important railway projects across Sydney have been derailed by protests from anti-development activists. Ironically, these same protests have rarely stopped road tunnels or motorways, which cause environmental damage and contribute to even more traffic congestion.
NSW needs to expand and improve public transport to reduce traffic gridlock, reduce travel times, reduce environmental pollution, and boost economic activity.