October, 2010

If I lived in Mernda I’d be pretty unhappy that the Brumby Government (here and here) is only going to give me a bus service rather than extend the Epping rail line beyond the new station at South Morang. Sure, it’s Bus Rapid Transit with its own dedicated 7.5 km busway (here and here). And [...]

Everyone knows that Australians build the largest new houses in the world. According to the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank, real expenditure on each new dwelling is now 60% higher than it was 15 years ago. Just why we need 85 m2 per person, on average, in our new suburban houses is an interesting [...]

A common argument is that households who settle on the fringe because housing is more affordable end up worse off because of higher transport costs. They are forced to buy a second or third car and they use more petrol because they have to travel further. Of course there’s an assumption here – that ordinary [...]

I’m not aware of anyone who disagrees seriously with the contention that car travel is underpriced. The consequence of this inefficiency is we drive more than we otherwise would and more than is socially optimal. The idea of road pricing is that drivers should pay the real costs they impose on others through traffic congestion, [...]

In my last post about the Green’s election manifesto, a Public transport plan for Melbourne’s east, I indicated I would take a closer look at the two new rail lines the party is proposing to finance – a line to Rowville and a line to Doncaster – with its nonexistent $6 billion. I discussed the shortcomings [...]

If you think the Greens provide a real alternative to the tired, cynical politics of Labor and the Liberals, then you might be very disappointed in the transport initiative the Green’s are promoting for the forthcoming Victorian election. The Green’s Public transport plan for Melbourne’s east proposes a massive $6 billion program of public transport [...]

Peter Garrett copped a lot of flak over the Rudd Government’s Home Insulation Program earlier this year. There was widespread rorting and mismanagement, four workers died installing insulation and, up to 18 October 2010, almost 200 house fires have been linked to the program. Did the program achieve anything positive? According to this report, Tony [...]

I’ve been thinking for some time that I should set down what I see as the key high-level actions that need to be taken to ensure Melbourne can remain liveable well into the future. Given that the State election is about six weeks away, this seems like a good time. I’m only going to look [...]

I noted yesterday that Melbourne @ 5 Million envisages just over half of all new dwellings constructed between now and 2030 – about 16,000 per year – will be located within the built-up area. The rest will be built in the fringe Growth Areas. This is a significant reduction compared to the 69% share Melbourne [...]

The Victorian Government set a target in its 2002 strategic plan, Melbourne 2030, that only 31% of new dwellings constructed between 2001 and 2030 would be located on outer suburban greenfield sites. In fact, it envisaged that by 2030, the proportion would have fallen to just 22%. This ambitious target reflected the conviction at the [...]