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Airport Link - traffic and pollution disaster on Stafford Road
There will be huge increases in traffic on Stafford Road as a result of the Airport Link tunnel.
Council’s own impact statement for the project shows that without Airport Link there will be an average of only 26700 cars per day on Stafford Road in 2012, while with Airport Link there will be 40300.
By 2026 it will be 29100 without Airport Link compared with 45500 with Airport Link.
“We are being told by government that Airport Link will reduce congestion, but the fact is that it will do the exact opposite,” said Tristan Peach, CAST spokesperson.
CAST are advising the public that Airport Link will lead to the following impacts on Stafford Road:
* On- and off-street parking for business and residents will become more dangerous and traffic accidents will increase
* Travel times for public transport users will blow out as they get stuck in congestion
* Residents, business and schools will suffer from more toxic fumes and noise pollution
* Safety and amenity for pedestrians and cyclists will be greatly reduced
Local, State and Federal Politicians for this area are failing their constituents if they support Airport Link.
Mr Peach stated, “We have a simple and effective solution to this problem - the money from Airport Link should be spent on additional public transport so that we can reduce traffic on Stafford Road, reduce accidents and reduce poisonous fumes in the air”.
Media contact: Tristan Peach 0416478615
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Media release 24 Jan
Stop the carnage on Ipswich Motorway – improve public transport
The most effective way of reducing accidents and fatalities on the Ipswich Motorway is to improve the public transport connections between Ipswich and Brisbane, making it a comparable alternative to the car for more people.
Community Action for Sustainable Transport (CAST) believe the problems on the motorway can be best solved by reducing the amount of vehicular traffic on the roads.
“Many people would not have to use this road if there was a public transport system in place which offered a comparable alternative to the car in peak and off-peak times,” said CAST spokesperson Tristan Peach
"We also need to move more heavy road freight to rail freight - which is a far safer way of moving goods," he said.
The group believes political leaders with vision and determination would be focusing on the following policies:
* Create more jobs in Ipswich so that more Ipswich people can work locally
* Improve the frequency of train services on the Ipswich line from 1 per 30minutes to 1 per 15 minutes
* Feeder buses to connect with all stations to meet all trains
* Improved safety and amenity around railway and bus stations
* Improve the horrendously slow passenger rail connection between Brisbane and Toowoomba
* Fast track railway duplications
* Fast track the rail extension linking Springfield and the rest of the western development corridor with Brisbane and Ipswich
* Improve the freight rail network
The group acknowledges that there will still be a demand for this motorway in the future (from tradespeople, couriers and other people who need to drive) but asserts that these strategies will take lots of cars off the motorway and get people into safer modes of transport.
“If we are to really reduce the carnage then we must make public transport a real option for more Ipswich people,” said Tristan Peach, CAST spokesperson.
“These strategies are safer, more cost-effective and more environmentally friendly than the government’s short-sighted upgrade schemes,” he said.
Media contact: Tristan Peach 0416478615
The most effective way of reducing accidents and fatalities on the Ipswich Motorway is to improve the public transport connections between Ipswich and Brisbane, making it a comparable alternative to the car for more people.
Community Action for Sustainable Transport (CAST) believe the problems on the motorway can be best solved by reducing the amount of vehicular traffic on the roads.
“Many people would not have to use this road if there was a public transport system in place which offered a comparable alternative to the car in peak and off-peak times,” said CAST spokesperson Tristan Peach
"We also need to move more heavy road freight to rail freight - which is a far safer way of moving goods," he said.
The group believes political leaders with vision and determination would be focusing on the following policies:
* Create more jobs in Ipswich so that more Ipswich people can work locally
* Improve the frequency of train services on the Ipswich line from 1 per 30minutes to 1 per 15 minutes
* Feeder buses to connect with all stations to meet all trains
* Improved safety and amenity around railway and bus stations
* Improve the horrendously slow passenger rail connection between Brisbane and Toowoomba
* Fast track railway duplications
* Fast track the rail extension linking Springfield and the rest of the western development corridor with Brisbane and Ipswich
* Improve the freight rail network
The group acknowledges that there will still be a demand for this motorway in the future (from tradespeople, couriers and other people who need to drive) but asserts that these strategies will take lots of cars off the motorway and get people into safer modes of transport.
“If we are to really reduce the carnage then we must make public transport a real option for more Ipswich people,” said Tristan Peach, CAST spokesperson.
“These strategies are safer, more cost-effective and more environmentally friendly than the government’s short-sighted upgrade schemes,” he said.
Media contact: Tristan Peach 0416478615
Monday, January 22, 2007
Media release 23 Jan
What the community needs from our public transport system
A survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics* has revealed key strategies required to improve southeast Queensland’s transport system.
The study showed that 80% of people drove to work or study, while in Queensland only 10% of people used public transport.
35% of Queenslanders surveyed reported that they did not use public transport because there simply was not a public transport service in their area.
“This shows that if we provided more public transport services then we could take tens of thousands of cars off the road each day,” said CAST spokesperson Tristan Peach.
25% reported they did not use public transport because the services were not available at a convenient time, and 14% said that travel times were too long.
“This could be easily fixed too,” said Mr. Peach “By increasing the frequency of services and speeding up services by doing simple things like providing more bus lanes on existing roads”.
“We think the State government’s commitment to extremely expensive busway tunnels is not the most cost-effective way to improve public transport – just put more bus lanes on existing roads.”
“This survey shows that government have failed to provide the people of Queensland with an adequate public transport system, and that’s why we’re experiencing these car congestion and pollution problems.”
“But this survey also shows just how easy it would be to get people out of their cars and into sustainable transport,” said Mr Peach.
CAST believes public transport funding in Brisbane City Council’s 2007/2008 budget must be increased to 35% of the transport budget (in 2006/2007 it was less than 20%), with the money invested into more bus services across the city.
The state government must speed up the delivery of additional train carriages to deal with over-crowding in peak hours which would also allow trains to run at higher frequencies throughout the week.
Media contact: Tristan Peach 0416478615
* Australian Bureau of Statistics, Environmental issues: people’s views and practices 4602.0 (released November 2006)
A survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics* has revealed key strategies required to improve southeast Queensland’s transport system.
The study showed that 80% of people drove to work or study, while in Queensland only 10% of people used public transport.
35% of Queenslanders surveyed reported that they did not use public transport because there simply was not a public transport service in their area.
“This shows that if we provided more public transport services then we could take tens of thousands of cars off the road each day,” said CAST spokesperson Tristan Peach.
25% reported they did not use public transport because the services were not available at a convenient time, and 14% said that travel times were too long.
“This could be easily fixed too,” said Mr. Peach “By increasing the frequency of services and speeding up services by doing simple things like providing more bus lanes on existing roads”.
“We think the State government’s commitment to extremely expensive busway tunnels is not the most cost-effective way to improve public transport – just put more bus lanes on existing roads.”
“This survey shows that government have failed to provide the people of Queensland with an adequate public transport system, and that’s why we’re experiencing these car congestion and pollution problems.”
“But this survey also shows just how easy it would be to get people out of their cars and into sustainable transport,” said Mr Peach.
CAST believes public transport funding in Brisbane City Council’s 2007/2008 budget must be increased to 35% of the transport budget (in 2006/2007 it was less than 20%), with the money invested into more bus services across the city.
The state government must speed up the delivery of additional train carriages to deal with over-crowding in peak hours which would also allow trains to run at higher frequencies throughout the week.
Media contact: Tristan Peach 0416478615
* Australian Bureau of Statistics, Environmental issues: people’s views and practices 4602.0 (released November 2006)
Friday, January 19, 2007
Media release 19 Jan
RiverCity Motorway misleading public on North-South Bypass Tunnel
Community Action for Sustainable Transport believes RiverCity Motorway (the consortium responsible for building, owning and operating the North-South Bypass Tunnel) is misleading the public through their advertising.
RiverCity Motorway’s advertisements claim that the North-South Bypass Tunnel is “designed to alleviate the high congestion on Brisbane ’s roads”.
But RiverCity Motorway's tunnel design is forecast to cause a 12% increase in traffic on surface connecting roads when compared with a No-tunnel option
And it leads to a 15% increase in traffic when compared with Council’s original NSBT design.
CAST believes RiverCity Motorway is likely to be satisfied with continued high levels of traffic congestion on surface roads, in order to encourage more drivers to use the tunnel.
“RiverCity Motorway is responsible to its shareholders, not the people of Brisbane , and the tunnel is designed to increase make a profit, not to reduce congestion on free surface roads,” said CAST spokesperson Tristan Peach.
[For more information refer table 1, page 5 of the Noise and Vibration report prepared for the NSBT www.nsbt-eis. com/assets/ downloads/ ChangeReport/ Heggies_Noise&Vibration_May06. pdf]
Media Contact: Tristan Peach 0416478615
Community Action for Sustainable Transport believes RiverCity Motorway (the consortium responsible for building, owning and operating the North-South Bypass Tunnel) is misleading the public through their advertising.
RiverCity Motorway’s advertisements claim that the North-South Bypass Tunnel is “designed to alleviate the high congestion on Brisbane ’s roads”.
But RiverCity Motorway's tunnel design is forecast to cause a 12% increase in traffic on surface connecting roads when compared with a No-tunnel option
And it leads to a 15% increase in traffic when compared with Council’s original NSBT design.
CAST believes RiverCity Motorway is likely to be satisfied with continued high levels of traffic congestion on surface roads, in order to encourage more drivers to use the tunnel.
“RiverCity Motorway is responsible to its shareholders, not the people of Brisbane , and the tunnel is designed to increase make a profit, not to reduce congestion on free surface roads,” said CAST spokesperson Tristan Peach.
[For more information refer table 1, page 5 of the Noise and Vibration report prepared for the NSBT www.nsbt-eis. com/assets/ downloads/ ChangeReport/ Heggies_Noise&Vibration_May06. pdf]
Media Contact: Tristan Peach 0416478615
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