Eliot Fishman is the Director of the Institute for Sensible Transport, an independent think-tank providing strategic advice on transport and oil vulnerability. Rooted asked Eliot to share his thoughts on Rudd’s infrastructure agenda and what it means for climate and getting around our cities.
As the global economic meltdown slows Australia’s commodity led economy, the Rudd Government has begun to talk up infrastructure spending. As we enter what Prime Minister Rudd describes as ‘the economic equivalent of a national security crises‘, the $20b Building Australia Fund is set to be used as a way of injecting life into an increasingly sluggish economy. The financial mess has become so dire that some are suggesting we put climate change on the back burner for the moment while we focus on spending our way back to what Alan Greenspan might call a period of irrational exuberance. Former Treasurer Peter Costello argues finance, not climate change, is the issue that is now of most concern to Australians. He may be right, but that’s not the point.
An important opportunity is being missed – to link the two issues and tackle them simultaneously. After all, it could be argued that both the economic and climate crisis we find ourselves in are caused by the same thing – over consumption. Aspiring to simplicity, efficiency and sustainability offers the possibility to lessen the burden posed by both these major issues.
The Rudd Government is right – stimulating the economy through public works is a good idea. It is not a good idea however to implement the same sort of projects that helped get us in this mess in the first place. Building large freeways to “solve” congestion and extending the outer suburbs to “solve” the housing crisis could prove counterproductive and increase an already vulnerable predicament. Encouraging outer suburban McMansions, connected by intra-urban freeways will only further our dependence on cheap credit and petrol. As both these resources begin to dry up, bold new transport solutions are required, directed from the Commonwealth, to create sustainable transport options that lower our emissions and exposure to a future of scarce, expensive petrol.
Australia’s transport system is highly dependent on motor vehicles. Transport emissions have soared 30% since 1990 and are expected to rise 67% by 2020. One third of household emissions are from transport and when you compare this to just 5% for lighting, it becomes clear transport has fallen off the back of the truck when it comes to tackling climate change.
Urban researchers Drs Jago Dodson and Neil Sipe have assessed Australian cities for their level of vulnerability to rising fuel prices and interest rates. It is clear from their work that outer suburbia is ill-equipped to deal with current and expected rises in the price of fuel. It is an unfortunate reality that the margins of our cities are home to communities with lower levels of income, less public transport opportunities and large mortgages relative to income. This means the suburban dream is fast becoming a nightmare. It may well become a political nightmare for the government, given that many of the electorates that showed the largest swing towards Labor in the 2007 federal election are in the very same outer suburban areas that are set to face the full brunt of the economic/petrol crisis.
When you consider that some 40% of car trips in Australian cities are under 3km and over half are less than 5km, one must begin asking questions about how 80% of trips are by car. This becomes more pertinent given the issues of climate change, soaring petrol costs and the financial collapse. Why are we still so dependent on this expensive, polluting form of transport?
A key reason why Australian cities are internationally among the most car dependent is that Australian cities have largely been planned upon the assumption that car travel ought to be the norm. Post WWII planning had the needs of the car as its central focus. It was understood that motor vehicles were to be the way of the future – with little attention given to the needs of pedestrians, cyclists or public transport. This is beginning to change, but with a 50 year history of car dependent city planning, it is going to take more than a few extra buses or a Ride to Work Day to reverse the sustainable transport deficient. It is encouraging to note that our transport behavior has not always been reliant on the car – in 1950, some 10% of trips to work in Melbourne were by bicycle.
To help future proof Australia from the converging challenges of oil depletion, climate change and the downturn in the economy, Australia needs to embark on the nation’s biggest public transport and cycling infrastructure program in the history of the country. In the immediate term, this will help stimulate the sluggish economy as Prime Minister Rudd hopes. Once implemented, it will help give Australians the choice to leave the car in the driveway and jump on the bike or the train – helping to cut emissions and beat the pain at the pump.
Visit the Institute for Sensible Transport. To read more ideas about Australia’s transport future, read this post by Tim Hollo.
