Wrong Way: Go Back

Over decades, state governments, both Labor and Liberal, have spent billions on new freeways while running down public transport. The result is a congested city that’s increasingly polluted and neighbourhoods that aren’t as liveable as they once were.

The city has sprawled and public transport hasn’t been expanded to serve these new suburbs. On the city fringe it’s common to run three, four or more cars out of sheer necessity.

Compared to ten years ago, there are half a million more cars on Victoria’s roads. A quarter of a million of them belong to the 110 000 new households on the suburban fringe - people with little or no public transport choice.

Recently, with the rocketing price of petrol, people have flooded back on to public transport. In fact there are now 50 million more trips on public transport than there were five years ago. This is not because of anything the government did, but simply because of the rising cost of running a car. Unbearable overcrowding on trains, trams and buses has resulted. Now petrol’s on the way up again.

Then there’s climate change. We know we have to make deep cuts to our greenhouse emissions. More and bigger road networks will only see them grow.

The government has no vision for how a city like Melbourne can and should work. They only act when congestion, (on roads or on public transport), becomes unbearable and then they just spend the minimum necessary.

They’re always one step behind the game.