Article: Gridlock: Queensland roads filling up

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From the Brisbanetimes click here!

Gridlock: Queensland roads filling up

Gridlock: Queensland roads filling up
Tony Moore
August 13, 2009

The number of cars added to Queensland roads in the past two years would, when placed in a line, create a traffic jam that stretches from Tweed Heads to Mackay.

According to the latest Queensland Transport statistics, an extra 363,834 vehicles have been added to Queensland roads between 2006 and 2008.

Estimating conservatively that a vehicle is an average of three metres long, that's 1091 kilometres.

The figures show the total number of vehicle registrations in Queensland increased by 9 per cent; from 3.78 million in 2006 to 4.15 million in 2008.

Of those, 70 per cent - or an extra 254,684 vehicles - were registered to people living in South-East Queensland. Over the same period, there's also been an extra 19.5 million trips taken on public transport in the region.

And if you think rising petrol prices or environmental concerns may have curbed Queenslanders' appetite for eight-cylinder cars, think again.

Registrations for eight-cylinder cars increased faster than the overall rate, up 12.6 per cent since 2006.

However they still make up a minority of registrations.

Of the 4.15 million vehicles registered, 56.3 per cent - or 2.34 million - are passenger vehicles.

Of these:

- 1.41 million (60.6 per cent) are four-cylinder cars;

- 830,649 (35.5 per cent) are six-cylinder cars;

- and 91,108 (3.89 per cent)

Despite an increase in the number of hybrid vehicles being registered, the numbers really don't make much of an impact.

In 2006 there were just 196 petrol/electric hybrid cars in Queensland, or 0.005 per cent of registrations.

By 2008 the number had swollen to 1511, but they still make up just 0.03 per cent of registrations.

Queensland Conservation Council executive director Toby Hutcheon said the registration figures showed it was critical for the Queensland Government to encourage people - through car discount registrations - to take up hybrid cars.

"They must make it cheaper to have the hybrid, or more fuel efficient car and more expensive to have the larger car," he said.

"And that needs to be quite overtly stated."

Mr Hutcheon said Commonwealth Government figures showed Queensland's greenhouse gas emissions from the energy and transport sectors had increased by 89 per cent in the past decade.

He called for a fundamental change in the proportion of transport funding in Queensland, away from new roads and towards public transport.

The Queensland Government recently opened two new busways; to the Royal Brisbane Hospital and from the Green Bridge at University of Queensland to the Princess Alexandra Hospital at a cost of around $500 million.