17 Mar 2023: NWTC Corridor Planning - Same Old Approach Guarantees More Cong ...

[ozbob]

NWTC Corridor Planning - Same Old Approach Guarantees More Congestion

17th March 2023

Everyday the traffic reports call out that our roads are congested earlier and longer each day and it seems more often than not on the weekends too. A single crash now throws the whole road network into meltdown.

Why is it not getting better? Surely all the projects expanding roads should be making a difference. Why aren't they?

The answer lies in how the Brisbane City Council, other SEQ councils, the Queensland Government and Infrastructure Australia are planning our transport.  The recent arguing and political mud-slinging over the NWTC is actually hiding the fact that the planning itself will guarantee congestion gets worse not better.

The planning for the North West Transport Corridor (NWTC) whether by Brisbane City Council or the Queensland State Government and even the review by Infrastructure Australia, is based on the Predict and Provide (P&P) method for determining the infrastructure needed. Unfortunately, P&P has been debunked by many in the planning industry.

It is why roads are always planned and widened first with active/public transport delivered years, if not decades later ..."when the model says there is enough demand".  The end result is those annoying traffic reports saying is all gone 'belly up'.

Even in today's reported North Brisbane Moreton Bay Transport Sequencing Plan the Transport Minister said "The ongoing study will assess future travel demand, the role of key transport corridors, and identify potential new connections and networks requiring upgrade" (1). More Predict and Provide modelling.

Institute for Civil Engineering Fellow Jonathan Spruce outlined the following key messages in his address to the UK Transport Select Committee (2):

"The 'predict and provide' approach to transport that we have adopted previously does not always address the root causes of congestion. It induces traffic, and thereby increased carbon emissions from transport, resulting in it being the largest emitting sector of greenhouse gases in the UK".

Integrated Transport Planning (ITP), a multi-disciplinary team that researches, designs, implements, monitors and evaluates sustainable transport initiatives also noted (3):

Something needs to change. Transport and land-use planners have been creating the same car-dominated developments for way too long. ITP's approach to 'vision led transport planning' (often referred to as 'Decide and Provide' or 'Vision and Validate') allows us to shift away from this status quo, and create places for people, built around a healthy, safe, prosperous and carbon neutral vision for our new communities.

Until our governments and their transport planning bodies abandon the old debunked Predict and Provide modelling  and adopt the Vision and Validate approach they will guarantee SEQ becomes even more congested.

We need to stop doing the same old thing hoping for a different outcome.

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


1. The little-known plan to fix congestion in Brisbane's busy north
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/the-little-known-plan-to-fix-congestion-in-brisbane-s-busy-north-20230314-p5cs2s.html

2. 'Vision and validate': a third way in designing the roads of the future?
https://www.ice.org.uk/news-and-insight/the-infrastructure-blog/june-2021/vision-and-validate-smart-motorways

3. ITP News & Views
https://www.itpworld.net/news-and-views/2022/vision-and-validate-pg

[ozbob]

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