Good luck with us getting any bike infrastructure in a hurry given the current amounts of car related infrastructure currently underway.
Widening of the Wardell Street/Samford Road intersection.
Widening of Beckett Road which will ultimately mean an upgrade of the Rode Road roundabout due to the increased traffic flows from Beckett Road.
And now a push for a bypass through Flockton Street joining Old Northern Road and Stafford Road by Murray Watt (probably because he knows that the upgrade of Beckett Road is going to mean even greater pressure on the Old Northern Road/Stafford Road intersection).
http://murraywattmp.com/01_cms/details.asp?ID=68
http://murraywattmp.com/01_cms/details.asp?ID=65
everton@parliament.qld.gov.au
mander@lnpqld.org.au
If you are like me and think that this continued motor vehicle infrastructure is a poor solution to the traffic problem then I suggest that you write to both Murray Watt and Tim Mander to voice your displeasure.
I did this just this week:
Tim
I have just sent the below email to Murray Watt but felt that I should also send this same correspondence to your office for a response.
This “rant†has arisen from the article that I have read today in the Northern Times along with the articles on Murray’s website.
I want my 3 boys to be able to live in a city that they and their children can be proud to live in. Not some tunnelled, overpassed LA style mess.
I have copied my email to Murray word for word.
I am sorry Murray but the proposed bypass and all of the other traffic infrastructure “solves†nothing.
It is time to make a hard decision and actually do something that will be in the interests of our suburbs rather than take the easy route and continue to band aid the real problem which is that we have far too many people using our roads and far too few workable alternative options.
The tunnels and bypasses that we are seeing spring up all over Brisbane will give us a temporary fix but it has been proven in the past that these “fixes†ultimately end up just as crowded as the previous problem.
Yes it is the popular choice by your voters who refuse to entertain alternatives but I do not believe it should be your job to take the popular option (although I do recognise that if you don’t stay popular, you don’t stay).
When will it be time to say enough is enough with roads?
How many suburbs do we need to destroy?
Kedron is almost there, along with large sections along Lutwyche Road.
Wooloowin is suffering too.
Enoggera and now Everton Park?
Out further we have major widening of Becketts Road that ultimately will funnel into the Rode Roundabout.
I can see the next project being a rebuild of this roundabout as it will not cope with the extra traffic flows that will come.
Not so much your area but the upgrade of Gap Creek Road has led to substantial increases to traffic via that route and through The Gap.
Hamilton Road from Old Northern Road through to Chermside has seen likewise.
I cannot think of a single time when additional vehicle infrastructure has seen an ongoing improvement to traffic flow.
The problem is not roads.
It is traffic.
It is the people that use these roads.
And it is these people that need to be re-educated about their actions and “actively encouraged†to use the alternatives.
Providing free and improved access to the CBD does nothing to this end.
Not sure if you have ever seen this video and information, but perhaps it is time for our governments (local, State and Federal) to start thinking about this.
It worked in San Francisco, Portland Oregon and in Seoul Korea so there is absolutely no reason it cannot work here.
Jeffery Kenworthy, from our Curtin University and who was involved in the Korean Cheonggyecheon project effectively says in the attached video, that traffic behaves like a gas and will expand across all infrastructure until it is clogged regardless of how much infrastructure is provided. So ultimately you are trying to “solve†a puzzle that cannot be solved by adding more roadways.
http://daily.sightline.org/2011/04/01/g ... -in-seoul/
http://www.infrastructurist.com/2009/07 ... ve-a-city/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtV1M0Cv ... r_embedded
More public transport at the expense of car lanes is what is needed along with improved cycling infrastructure (up from basically none in our Northern suburbs despite the much talked about bikeway program).
I hope that you actually spend the time to read and watch the links provided and then spend some time thinking about what is being said and how similar our current situation is to these cases.
Then take the time to work out how you (and others in power) can actually FIX the problem rather than taking the popular option.
Don’t be one of our politicians who are remembered for creating more ugly LA style fly overs.
I look forward to your response
