22 Nov 2021: Half of Council of Mayors' (SEQ) Olympic Projects Guarantee ...

[ozbob]

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Half of Council of Mayors' (SEQ) Olympic Projects Guarantee More Congestion

22nd November 2021

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport passengers says half of the 32 Olympic Projects (1) identified by the Council of Mayors (SEQ) will just create more congestion from the existing population (2) and belong in last Century not in a city holding the 2032 Olympics.



No city in the world has reduced congestion by building more roads.  As Transportation for America, an advocacy organisation made up of US local, regional and state leaders, note in their recent report The Congestion Con, "In an expensive, decades-long effort to curb congestion in urban regions, our transportation agencies and elected leaders have overwhelmingly prioritized spending hundreds of billions of dollars to widen and build new highways. Yet this strategy has utterly failed to "solve" the problem at hand and...has actually made it worse."  In SEQ we are still throwing good money after bad doing just this.

Do we want visitors attending the games telling family and friends "Skip Brisbane. It's just one big ugly traffic jam"  Because this is exactly what these projects will deliver.  Guaranteed.

RAIL Back On Track calls on the Premier and the Minister for Tourism, Innovation and Sport and Minister Assisting the Premier on Olympics and Paralympics Sport and Engagement to throw these projects out of any Olympic planning and refocus the transport infrastructure spending on safe and accessible active/public transport including a A Fast Rail Vision for SEQ (3).  Lets leave a legacy similar to Vancouver's Multi-Modal Success Story (4) not LA's 20 lane freeways.

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track https://backontrack.org


References:

1. https://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/seq-olympics-2032/32-olympic-projects-to-transform-how-you-get-around-seq/news-story/c9974304bbb4ec1708ecd4916633cb32
2. The Congestion Con: How Bad Land Use and Transportation Decisions Go Hand-in-Hand
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/3/6/the-congestion-con-how-bad-land-use-and-transportation-decisions-go-hand-in-hand
3. A Fast Rail vision for SEQ
https://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=14462.0
4. Vancouver's Multi-Modal Success Story -

[ozbob]

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