Roads

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

City road tolls flagged

City road tolls flagged
September 8, 2012
Josh Gordon

A CONGESTION tax to discourage motorists from driving at peak times could be introduced under a controversial plan flagged by the federal government's chief infrastructure adviser.

Infrastructure Australia chairman Sir Rod Eddington said it was time for ''mature and dispassionate'' discussion over a new system of road charges to cut congestion and help pay for major transport projects.

''Transport shortfalls across the freight and passenger networks are imposing substantial productivity constraints on our nation,'' Sir Rod told the Infrastructure Partnerships Australia conference. ''Here in Melbourne, road congestion will probably shred something like $4 billion from this state's economy this year.''

He said roads were often treated as free goods because the ''current opaque charging structure'' clouded the actual cost of using them. ''The current approach does not and cannot adequately reflect the time and location of road use,'' he said.
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Only a handful of cities, including London, Singapore and Stockholm, impose so-called congestion taxes. The application varies, but in theory tolls are raised or lowered depending on the time of day, location and congestion.

Sir Rod said governments had historically responded to congestion by building more roads. Although this would remain an ''ongoing requirement,'' he said there were limits, with efforts also needed to manage demand. ''Australia's major cities are facing a situation where they can no longer only seek to build their way out of trouble,'' he said.

''Policymakers must begin to face up to the challenges and opportunities that are posed by road network congestion.''

He said introducing the new charging regime would be politically difficult. A new system for trucks that reflected the true cost they impose on roads would be a good first step.

''Now, with congestion hurting ... businesses and the amenity of households, it is time to bring a mature, dispassionate debate.''

Transurban chief executive Scott Charlton backed the proposal, saying the introduction of road network pricing was ''inevitable''. Mr Charlton urged governments to ''use every lever possible'', including road user charges, tolled express lanes and time-of-day pricing. He said that although the public was accustomed to peak and off-peak pricing for utilities, road pricing remained a political sensitive issue.

Meanwhile, Premier Ted Baillieu blamed a culture of construction union militancy for pushing up the cost of major infrastructure projects. ''This culture is contributing to escalating construction costs in this state and this country, and it's pricing us out of infrastructure in the future,'' he said. ''We

call again on federal Labor to show some leadership and immediately introduce legislation to address what most people in the business and wider community realise is an unacceptable situation.''

Mr Baillieu also stepped up demands for federal cash, saying he wanted money for six big projects, including an east-west freeway, a rail tunnel between South Kensington and South Yarra, the expansion of the Port of Hastings and an upgrade of the M80.

Mr Baillieu suggested the Commonwealth should go further into debt to fund such projects. ''Unlike the states, the Commonwealth has the borrowing capacity at its disposal that would not compromise a triple-A credit rating,'' he said.

Federal Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese said Mr Baillieu wasn't the only state leader asking the Commonwealth for money, and dismissed suggestions it should borrow to provide the funds. ''Ted Baillieu needs to get the support of his own party for such a proposition before he comes to us as a state leader and puts such a proposition,'' Mr Albanese said. ''He's not the only state leader who says, I want to build a particular project and I want someone else to pay for it.''

State opposition infrastructure spokesman Tim Pallas said the government was spending $100 million planning for projects, with no sign they would be built. ''Planning is important ... not confusing pipelines for pipe dreams, is critically important,'' he said.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/city-road-tolls-flagged-20120907-25k36.html#ixzz25o3K7CMd

...  ''Australia's major cities are facing a situation where they can no longer only seek to build their way out of trouble,'' he said ...

[#Metro]

Infrastructure spending and costs are out of control. A few billion here, a few billion there - it is totally ridiculous. Because the expense of building anything has now has gone through the roof and landed on Mars, we really are going to be forced to use more of Class B ROW. Now everyone doesn't like this because it means taking lanes away from cars and putting in bus lanes. Really politically unpopular. But it is the cheapest thing to do, and fast.

Oh, and I seriously doubt "union militancy" is behind spiralling costs. The reasons behind high costs are (a) the preference of politicians to choose class A ROW rather than take away lanes for Class B ROW, (b) the very high costs of house and land acquisition in Australia (overheated housing market), (c) very high environmental, social, engineering and safety standards, (d) a mining boom which means restricted labour supply in this area - have to compete with the mining company which pushes up labour $$$ and (e) high cost of materials (concrete, steel etc)

[huddo45]

Infrastructure spending and costs are out of control. A few billion here, a few billion there - it is totally ridiculous. Because the expense of building anything has now has gone through the roof and landed on Mars, we really are going to be forced to use more of Class B ROW. Now everyone doesn't like this because it means taking lanes away from cars and putting in bus lanes. Really politically unpopular. But it is the cheapest thing to do, and fast.

They prefer to provide for cars, even single occupancy. A look just now on Nearmap 2nd August shows the T2 transit lane from Bennetts rd Norman Pk, along Crown St, past Norman Pk railway station under the overpass and along Canara/Crown St to The level crossing at Stanley St East. I drove along there yesterday morning and guess what? It's no longer a transit lane. I wonder how many others have disappeared?
Good luck trying to get bus lanes put in on already overcrowded roads.

[Golliwog]

Infrastructure spending and costs are out of control. A few billion here, a few billion there - it is totally ridiculous. Because the expense of building anything has now has gone through the roof and landed on Mars, we really are going to be forced to use more of Class B ROW. Now everyone doesn't like this because it means taking lanes away from cars and putting in bus lanes. Really politically unpopular. But it is the cheapest thing to do, and fast.

They prefer to provide for cars, even single occupancy. A look just now on Nearmap 2nd August shows the T2 transit lane from Bennetts rd Norman Pk, along Crown St, past Norman Pk railway station under the overpass and along Canara/Crown St to The level crossing at Stanley St East. I drove along there yesterday morning and guess what? It's no longer a transit lane. I wonder how many others have disappeared?
Good luck trying to get bus lanes put in on already overcrowded roads.

Interesting. How well used was that one? I don't know if a small segment of T2 like that would be very useful, to have a real benefit you'd want to have it go in along Stanley St at least as far as the motorway. Otherwise all you'll do is have high occupancy vehicles easily go past the others, then line up again once they get to Stanley and their lane is fair game for everyone.

[Otto]

Infrastructure spending and costs are out of control. A few billion here, a few billion there - it is totally ridiculous. Because the expense of building anything has now has gone through the roof and landed on Mars, we really are going to be forced to use more of Class B ROW. Now everyone doesn't like this because it means taking lanes away from cars and putting in bus lanes. Really politically unpopular. But it is the cheapest thing to do, and fast.

They prefer to provide for cars, even single occupancy. A look just now on Nearmap 2nd August shows the T2 transit lane from Bennetts rd Norman Pk, along Crown St, past Norman Pk railway station under the overpass and along Canara/Crown St to The level crossing at Stanley St East. I drove along there yesterday morning and guess what? It's no longer a transit lane. I wonder how many others have disappeared?
Good luck trying to get bus lanes put in on already overcrowded roads.

Interesting. How well used was that one? I don't know if a small segment of T2 like that would be very useful, to have a real benefit you'd want to have it go in along Stanley St at least as far as the motorway. Otherwise all you'll do is have high occupancy vehicles easily go past the others, then line up again once they get to Stanley and their lane is fair game for everyone.

That was taken out about 3 weeks ago... To be honest, it really doesn't make a difference.. Was too short and never enforced..

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Eastern Freeway tolls loom

Eastern Freeway tolls loom

Tolls could be charged on ''new'' lanes on the Eastern Freeway, with a section of the rail reservation down its centre sacrificed for the lanes.

Work on the planned East-West Link from the Eastern Freeway to CityLink will include a ''widening within the existing Eastern Freeway road reservation to Yarra Bend Road to accommodate extra traffic lanes'', state government documents reveal. The documents were lodged with the federal government as part of the environmental approval process.

The state government has confirmed that part of the rail reservation down the freeway's centre - protected for more than 35 years for a train line to Doncaster - could be sacrificed for the new lanes.

''The reconfiguration of the lanes on the Eastern Freeway to join into the East-West Link would require some space in the median, but the East-West Link would not preclude the Doncaster rail project and both projects can work together,'' a government spokeswoman said.
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She said the engineers behind the Doncaster rail study had confirmed that the proposed rail alignment ''shifts to the south of the Eastern Freeway before there would be any conflict with an East-West Link''.

But the Doncaster study report released this month said the alignment would ''follow the Eastern Freeway corridor using the central median where possible''. A study map with the report shows the preferred rail alignment following the freeway all the way to Hoddle Street.

The new lanes created from the rail reservation may also be tolled. A government spokeswoman said the end of the freeway would ''need to be reconfigured so people can travel into the East-West road tunnel, which was a new road that the government had not ruled out tolling''.

She said drivers choosing ''to use the existing Eastern Freeway and its exits [e.g. Hoddle Street, Alexander Parade] will not pay a toll after the East-West tunnel is finished''.

Monash University transport expert Graham Currie said expanding roads would only encourage more people to drive. ''Increasing road capacity increases congestion. We don't have to look in theory, we don't have to be academic about this - go and have a look at the Monash Freeway,'' he said.

Professor Currie said governments were turning to toll roads because they did not have the money to fund other transport infrastructure projects.

''It is cheap from their point of view because they can get someone else to pay for it,'' he said. ''I think it is selling our future.''

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

City roads crowded with solo drivers

City roads crowded with solo drivers
April 15, 2013 Jason Dowling and Adam Carey

More people are driving solo in Melbourne's choked peak-hour traffic, with thousands of motorists being fined every year for driving in bus or transit lanes.

Yet the state government has scrapped a $5.4 million plan to set up 110 car pooling schemes, an internal document shows.

''Following a review of all the previous government's commitments, a decision was made to re-prioritise funding from the car pooling program,'' a VicRoads brief to Transport Minister Terry Mulder says.

Congestion is worsening on Melbourne's roads, with travel speeds in the afternoon peak down by 4km/h over a decade, and in the morning peak by almost 2km/h.
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Car occupancy rates have dropped by 3.7 per cent in the past decade to fewer than 1.2 people per car, meaning there is one fewer person travelling for every 22 cars on the road. This has slowed the number of people travelling along each lane of Melbourne's roads every hour, despite strong increases in tram and bus patronage on some of those roads.

It is not just roads that are getting squeezed, with an October 2012 survey showing almost one in 10 peak-hour train services exceeding the recommended load benchmark of 797 passengers. More than 14 per cent of commuters were travelling on overcrowded trains in the peak periods, the survey showed. The survey did not include trains that had breached their load because of train cancellations or network disruptions.

The crush on the roads, meanwhile, has led thousands of motorists to chance their luck in transit or bus lanes. The number of motorists receiving a $141 fine for driving in these lanes has increased by more than 60 per cent in one year, with 1405 motorists fined in 2010-11 and 2295 in 2011-12.

Police said the jump could be due to increased enforcement and industrial action in 2011 when fines were not issued.

Peak-hour congestion is spreading both in the morning and at night, VicRoads' 2010-11 traffic monitor report says.

''The largest volume growth on both freeways and arterials is occurring just prior to the morning peak, generally from 5am to 6.30am. This has the effect of making the peak period begin earlier and persist longer,'' the report says.

The slowest spots on Melbourne's freeways in the morning peak are at the city end of the Eastern Freeway and where the Western Ring Road joins the West Gate Freeway, where average travel speeds fall to 20km/h or below.

On Wednesday, the Auditor-General will table a report on how governments and transport agencies have tackled Melbourne's congestion problem since a state commission considered the issue in 2006.

The economic cost of the city's congestion is more than $3 billion a year, and is expected to hit $6 billion by 2020.

A VicRoads spokesman said traffic volumes had increased with population growth. ''Average delays due to congestion have only increased during daytime hours by 1 to 2 per cent per annum,'' he said.

A Department of Transport spokeswoman said some early work had been done on the car pooling scheme, ''but this did not reach the delivery stage''.

A spokeswoman for Public Transport Victoria said the number of peak-hour train services exceeding capacity had fallen from 60 to 48 between 2011 and 2012, and the percentage of passengers travelling on overcrowded trains had dropped from 18.1 per cent to 14.2.

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

The road to a standstill

The road to a standstill
April 15, 2013  Adam Carey and Jason Dowling

Melbourne's congestion is worsening but there is no easy solution.

Melbourne has a congestion problem. That's hardly news if you have been for a drive lately or tried to catch a peak-hour train or tram. But how bad is it and what is being done?

The Napthine government is strongly pushing the multibillion-dollar east-west link as a congestion silver bullet. But many argue, including the former government, that it is impossible to build enough roads to end congestion.

According to the state government, congestion has a significant impact on Victoria's ''productivity and liveability''. Indeed, the economic, social, and environmental costs of congestion have been calculated at more than $3 billion a year, which is expected to rise to $6.1 billion by 2020.

Seven years ago the Victorian government commissioned an inquiry into traffic congestion - which can be defined as any traffic that restricts the free flow of vehicles on the road - and how it should be managed. The Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission made more than 50 recommendations on what the government and transport authorities could do to tackle congestion in Melbourne.

On Wednesday, Victorian Auditor-General Peter Frost will table his report on how effectively the government and road authorities responded.

It is expected the report will say that many of the commission's recommendations have not been implemented, including introducing variable time-of-day charging on toll roads, looking at tolling existing roads, increasing clearways, cutting the cost of off-peak public transport fares and removing incentives for state government employees to drive to work.

The Napthine government is strongly pushing the multibillion-dollar east-west link as a congestion silver bullet. But many argue, including the former government, that it is impossible to build enough roads to end congestion.

Even the former government's response to the 2006 report by VCEC conceded this, noting: ''Experience from around the world demonstrates that is not possible to 'build' our way out of congestion and that the benefits of new, high-cost infrastructure projects may be transitory.''

In other words, build a road and vehicles will come in even greater numbers than before.

The improved traffic flow generated by the $1.39 billion upgrade of the M1 Monash/West Gate freeway is already evaporating less than three years after major works were completed; and the M80 Ring Road is already undergoing a $2.25 billion upgrade just a decade after completion.

New roads cost billions and their benefits are short-lived, which is why governments attempt to get maximum use out of existing transport infrastructure - by better connections and getting people to travel to work outside peak hours. The most obvious technique for achieving this on roads is tolling, whether it is a cordon around the central business district, such as in London, or some other form of road charging using GPS technology.

Some transport experts believe congestion charging is inevitable. Infrastructure Australia boss Sir Rod Eddington has been calling for a ''mature'' discussion on road pricing in Australia since 2008, and Transurban chief executive Scott Charlton told an infrastructure conference in Melbourne recently the public's attitude to road charging was changing.

But adding tolls to existing roads is something neither major party has been prepared to even flirt with for fear of a voter backlash.

When ConnectEast boss Dennis Cliche said recently the EastLink toll road operator wanted to buy the Eastern Freeway and toll it, Roads Minister Terry Mulder responded with ''Tell him he's dreaming.''

Labor's former roads minister Tim Pallas says congestion charges are inequitable. ''The transport-rich areas actually don't have to pay to use the facilities they have got and the transport-poor areas have to pay when they use their motor vehicles and enter those transport rich areas and it really just perpetuates disadvantage.''

The RACV, Victoria's peak motoring body, is willing to countenance road pricing provided other charges, including fuel taxes, are overhauled.

Melbourne does have a congestion levy - a tax on car parking spaces in the CBD that will net the state government $47 million this year - but it is more a revenue stream than a traffic management tool.

Charlton argues a wider tolling system on Melbourne roads should be introduced to fund infrastructure, manage demand and promote public transport alternatives.

He says roads are the last utility that does not charge according to how much you use it. He also says up to 40 per cent of travel in the afternoon peak is discretionary.

But Transurban has shown little appetite for one congestion-busting policy that could shift some of that discretionary afternoon travel - reduced off-peak tolls, recommended in VCEC's 2006 report.

Transurban could set variable tolls on CityLink. It does so in the United States. A network of 76 information signs inform drivers of real-time toll rates so they can make informed decisions on whether to enter tolled lanes.

But VicRoads says there is no provision for off-peak tolls for CityLink in the current concession agreements with toll road operators, and any change ''would likely require compensation from the state''.

Statistics back Pallas' assertion that those in the outer suburbs are forced to drive, and to drive further, for employment. The 2011 census found people living in the outer eastern municipality of Cardinia, for example, commute a median distance of 25 kilometres to get to work, the longest in Melbourne.

Selina Gilmour lives in Balnarring and works in Balwyn, where she runs a small business with her husband. She spends at least 2½ hours a day driving to and from work, - a trip of more than 80 kilometres each way. It's a commute she hates but is willing to accept to live by the sea on the Mornington Peninsula.

The Mornington Peninsula has the highest percentage of residents that drive to work of all municipalities in Melbourne - 89 per cent, according to recent analysis of the 2011 census by the Department of Transport. The proportion of car commuters even increased marginally between 2006 and 2011, a period in which public transport use increased significantly.

But Gilmour says that public transport is not a viable alternative for her. It would mean a drive to Bittern railway station on the Stony Point line - an irregular diesel service - then another train into the city and finally a bus out to Balwyn.

''There's no way I'd catch the train. It's so not worth it, it would take me hours to get to work,'' she says.

So she drives along Peninsula Link, the city's newest arterial road, along the length of EastLink and halfway down the Eastern Freeway to Bulleen Road. Peninsula Link has shaved 10 to 15 minutes off her commute, Gilmour says, although she is shocked at how busy it is just weeks after opening.

''It's like they need an extra third lane.''

Gilmour's 80-kilometre cross-city commute costs her some 15 hours in time and $200 in petrol each week, as well as the cost of servicing her car three or four times a year.

But many Melburnians do not endure a commute as arduous and expensive as hers. About one in four live and work in the same local area, according to a 2011 report by the federal Department of Infrastructure and Transport.

Transport planners view living and working in the same neighbourhood as a good thing because it cuts travel times and means job opportunities are not concentrated in the city centre.

However, in a sprawling city such as Melbourne, living and working in the same municipality does not always mean drivers won't be stuck in traffic.

In the booming city of Whittlesea on Melbourne's northern outskirts, 52 per cent of residents work in the municipality or a neighbouring one. Primary school teacher Darren Peters lives in Doreen and works in Mill Park, a journey of about 13 kilometres that takes him 40 minutes. Just 2½ years ago the drive took him 20 minutes, Peters says, but in that time Whittlesea's population has grown by about 15,000.

''It's a lot of stolen time and it's very frustrating,'' says Peters, who is also a spokesman for South Morang Mernda Rail Alliance, a community group pushing for the South Morang railway line to be extended to Mernda.

Yet, despite his public transport advocacy, Peters admits he gave up on Whittlesea's buses a long time ago. They are even slower and less reliable than driving, he says.

Whittlesea's main north-south arterial, Plenty Road, has recently been duplicated at a cost of almost $22 million, giving residents of Doreen and Mernda two lanes in each direction where before there was one.

But Peters says the project's main effect has been to push the traffic bottleneck further south.

VicRoads is already investigating building a third lane along part of Plenty Road.

Navigation company TomTom released a congestion report this week that placed Melbourne fourth on the list of Australian and New Zealand cities, behind Sydney, Perth and Auckland.

In the study, cities were indexed using travel times during non-congested periods, compared with travel in peak times, and the difference was expressed as a percentage increase in travel time. Melbourne scored 28 per cent.

But this simple method for measuring congestion was rejected by VCEC in its 2006 report.

''One problem with defining congestion in terms of free-flowing traffic is that it does not guide policymakers towards an appropriate policy response to address congestion,'' it said. ''Expanding the road network to the point where all traffic moves at 'free flow' speeds, for example, would incur costs far in excess of the benefits.''

Graham Currie, professor of public transport at Monash University, says some congestion is good - it signals a healthy economy.

But spending too much time stuck in traffic can be bad for people's mental wellbeing, as well as costing the economy, he says. However, the old method of fixing congestion - building a new road - is finished in big cities such as Melbourne, he says.

''The conventional way forward in the past has always been what we call 'predict and provide'. You predict future congestion, therefore you provide more road space. And that's been the way we've always gone.''

But Currie says there is a growing international consensus among transport experts that you can't keep on doing that.

VicRoads has begun or completed at least a dozen major road upgrades since the release of VCEC's congestion report in 2006.

But as traffic continues to grow - and it has by 16 per cent in the past decade - the authority has also begun to give priority to trams, buses and even bicycles on some roads as a way of moving more people without widening roads to fit more vehicles.

Meanwhile, traffic volumes continue to rise at a rapid rate on Melbourne's freeways and tollways. VicRoads traffic data shows average speeds on Melbourne's busiest road, the M1, vary from 20km/h to 60km/h in the morning peak - a modest speed for a major arterial that has just been widened at a cost of $1.39 billion. The upgrade improved flows by between 5 per cent and 20 per cent, VicRoads says.

But Graham Currie says all the upgrades to Melbourne's main road have ultimately generated more traffic, creating congestion that has eventually wiped out the initial time savings.

''Whenever we increase road space we increase traffic. We are not fundamentally solving the problem of congestion,'' he says.

[ozbob]

Melbourne Age --> Tolling existing freeways on wish list


http://images.theage.com.au/2013/05/06/4250811/art-353-wishlist-300x0.jpg

[Jonno]

It really feels like Austrslia is lost in time!   We seem oblivious to the learning from around the globe where the exact opposite of the Property Council's wish list is reaping economic and social benefits not seen in 50 years!

Yes actual positive ROI rather than their suggested approach which just pushes the financial burden onto the next generation whilst achieving little benefit for just a few!