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Car tunnel users and residents living in suburbs surrounding tunnel exhaust stacks can expect greater exposure to fine particle and air toxic pollution once the Clem Jones (North South Bypass) Tunnel comes online in Brisbane.
Tunnel users need to hold their breath and wind up their windows as they pay $4 to drive through the Clem Jones “Gas Chamber”.
And don’t expect it to be a quick ride in and out of the tunnel. Sydney commuters sit in stop start traffic in car tunnels everyday. Tunnels are just another four lane road, and like any other road they clog up with traffic.
The impact statements for the Brisbane tunnels also show that there will be greater congestion on arterial roads leading to the car tunnels, which will create even more air pollution.
It’s almost impossible to have a cigarette in a pub now, due to the dangers of passive smoking, but the exhaust chimneys emitting fumes from the tunnel will be like giant smoking cigarettes in our suburbs.
The solution is not even more roads, but to build a public transport system for Brisbane that offers people an effective alternative to the car.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Now we know that tunnels are the wrong way to go
Media release 26 August 2009
Three years ago today, construction commenced on what future historians will judge to be Brisbane’s biggest mistake since Clem Jones removed the trams – the North South Bypass Tunnel.
Campbell Newman’s road tunnels may have seemed feasible in 2004, but climate change, the global financial crisis, oil insecurity and changing travel behaviour now show that the community opposition to wasting more than $15 billion on TransApex was fully justified.
The community is coming to understand that new road infrastructure projects are not the path to future social, economic and financial sustainability. Public infrastructure companies that have built and operated tolled roads and tunnels are writing down their value and struggling financially. Tunnel construction and operation is a risky gamble in this new environment.
More and more commuters are now driving less, combining their trips, using public transport more, and avoiding peak hours by using technology to work from home.
Instead of building more roads, Governments must divert more public funds into public transport, and walking and cycling infrastructure to support rapidly changing travel behaviour.
In the past, tolled private tunnels were foolishly included in transport plans without an open and transparent public process of risk assessment, informed discussion of different transport planning choices and changes to transport behaviour.
Now the Lord Mayor is spending ratepayers’ funds to promote the commercial product of a private tollroad operator in a last-ditch attempt to prop up what was always going to fail. He continues to issue misleading information about the “benefits” of using the tunnel. He says NSBT users will avoid “up to 18 sets of traffic lights”. They can already use the Riverside Expressway and the ICB between Buranda and Bowen Hills without passing a single traffic light and he knows it.
He has continued to saddle our city with debt to fund more investment in private vehicle infrastructure projects when peak oil and climate change raised serious doubts about the viability of these projects.
Our elected representatives have failed to deal with rapidly changing transport needs and constraints. Brisbane is now falling behind by other cities which have sustainable transport systems and infrastructure. Residents were not allowed to make reasoned and informed choices about our city’s future prior to the NSBT’s approval. This must never happen again.
We urge all motorists to indicate that simplistic “fixes” like the NSBT are never going to be viable alternatives for sustainable long-term transport plans by BOYCOTTING THE NORTH SOUTH BYPASS TUNNEL.
Media contact: CAST President David White 0403 871 082
Three years ago today, construction commenced on what future historians will judge to be Brisbane’s biggest mistake since Clem Jones removed the trams – the North South Bypass Tunnel.
Campbell Newman’s road tunnels may have seemed feasible in 2004, but climate change, the global financial crisis, oil insecurity and changing travel behaviour now show that the community opposition to wasting more than $15 billion on TransApex was fully justified.
The community is coming to understand that new road infrastructure projects are not the path to future social, economic and financial sustainability. Public infrastructure companies that have built and operated tolled roads and tunnels are writing down their value and struggling financially. Tunnel construction and operation is a risky gamble in this new environment.
More and more commuters are now driving less, combining their trips, using public transport more, and avoiding peak hours by using technology to work from home.
Instead of building more roads, Governments must divert more public funds into public transport, and walking and cycling infrastructure to support rapidly changing travel behaviour.
In the past, tolled private tunnels were foolishly included in transport plans without an open and transparent public process of risk assessment, informed discussion of different transport planning choices and changes to transport behaviour.
Now the Lord Mayor is spending ratepayers’ funds to promote the commercial product of a private tollroad operator in a last-ditch attempt to prop up what was always going to fail. He continues to issue misleading information about the “benefits” of using the tunnel. He says NSBT users will avoid “up to 18 sets of traffic lights”. They can already use the Riverside Expressway and the ICB between Buranda and Bowen Hills without passing a single traffic light and he knows it.
He has continued to saddle our city with debt to fund more investment in private vehicle infrastructure projects when peak oil and climate change raised serious doubts about the viability of these projects.
Our elected representatives have failed to deal with rapidly changing transport needs and constraints. Brisbane is now falling behind by other cities which have sustainable transport systems and infrastructure. Residents were not allowed to make reasoned and informed choices about our city’s future prior to the NSBT’s approval. This must never happen again.
We urge all motorists to indicate that simplistic “fixes” like the NSBT are never going to be viable alternatives for sustainable long-term transport plans by BOYCOTTING THE NORTH SOUTH BYPASS TUNNEL.
Media contact: CAST President David White 0403 871 082
Friday, January 16, 2009
Bus service improvments for Brisbane
TransLink have announced a range of improvments to bus services which will begin on February 23. Check them out here and add a comment below to let us know what you think
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