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I
am happy to write an introduction to this KMFA submission. I am aware of
the issue since I was first asked to help in the evaluation of options
in this corridor about ten years ago.
My
research in the area of traffic and cities convinces me that the proposed
highway will fail as a way of coping with the growth of traffic. The Texas
Transportation Institute has monitored traffic in US cities for over 30
cities. A recent study using their data shows that there is no difference
in congestion levels between cities which have invested heavily in roads
and those that have not. The reality of traffic is that like a gas it will
expand to fill every available space.
Unfortunately
in the process the highway in this valley (like all highways) will have
significant other impacts. This submission outlines many of these impacts.
The work we have done at Murdoch University on cities around the world
shows that the fundamental impact of such roads is to shift economic development
rather than create new benefits. It also shows that, overall, cities which
build the most roads have the biggest costs in their transport system as
a proportion of their city’s wealth.
The
key problem in this issue is that the other option of a good rail link
down the corridor has not received the level of serious analysis that it
deserves. The reason is that the funds for such an option are less available
than funds for a new road. In the US where the system for funding transport
is now more oriented to allowing other options and where communities have
a greater say, they are moving increasingly to rail options. In the past
year, the most car-oriented cities in the US—namely Houston, Phoenix and
Denver—have all moved to build substantial rail options for their cities.
In the case of Phoenix they voted two to one in March 2000 to have a sales
tax that will build a US$2 billion rail-based transit system upgrade. The
reason is that politically they can no longer provide new highway capacity,
as they know it no longer works for more than a few short years before
they are back where they started.
The KMFA will be able to say in the future that of course they were right. The traffic filled the new road space, the impacts were worse and some irretrievable damage was done. I’m sure they would forego this pleasure of “gloating” to have a visionary government step in and override the decision to build the road and look again at the other options. We all live in hope.
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