Highway congestion is starting to bite. How do we get cars off the road?
Millions of Australians face the daily frustration of delayed commutes, particularly on busy motorways. But as governments spend billions continually upgrading roads, experts say that might not be the best solution.
Mass transportation and last mile transport from there to the end point!
If we updated the train network, subsidised electric bikes (along with more sensible regulation about speeds and wattages, 250 isn't enough to get peek hills without sweating - which sounds vain but is important for people replacing a car) and provided safe places to park them all around (lockers etc) I earnestly believe a lot of people would find they amount of times they earnestly need to drive its slashed considerably!
A solid bike or scooter is effectively a low impact range extender for the rest of our infrastructure - which means more people can access it more easily too!
I can only speak for myself but doing the same thing, I'm only really driving twice a week now to handle a ~80km round work commute. It's great - and I'm going out a lot more because I'm not worried about fuel or parking.
Bus retooling too - there's no reason why a lot of coverage buses need to continue into the CBD, gimping frequencies and contributing to issues like inner bus congestion
I commute into Brisbane from GC. My commute is amazingly easy. Drive 10 minutes to the train, park up, train and walk to work in the city. 10 minute difference compared to driving, which is negligible if you include the walk from the car park @ Roma or Turbot to work.
I constantly think about how when down in GC I'm driving around this massive 4 door sedan when I could be in something way smaller and lighter at least, or better yet something that doesn't run on fuel. The most I'm usually carrying is one bag.
If public transport actually worked for the places I need to go, or I could run a real ebike to get up the hills of Nerang area mountains I'd be golden.
The high cost of public transport is a strong barrier against increased public transport uptake.
Public transport takes longer and with a cost at parity (or slightly higher) than driving.
I would like to see public transport go fully free for a year and see how much we can save on road maintenance and upgrades.
The cost of train ride is ridiculous. I take trains because I’m only a 5min walk to the station, if I live any further theres no way I'm paying twice the petro cost to travel in a tuna can just to go to the city.
Get people on trains. Barely an excuse in some parts of Brisbane. Its not places like that who've got to worry though, it's places like GC where we've decided that a light rail system makes sense when just north there's a great cheaper and faster busway system.
Plus all the people who commute up and down and up and down the m1 day after day. Push them to WFH if possible. Better for people with kids as well and there's no reason we can't in a modern world, business just has too much money in real estate to let us.
With due respect, what about the light rail system doesn't bring people onto trains? To my understanding, it's a significant driver of positive induced demand and it's integration with the train system is pretty good
The integration is good but I think it's poor investment. Busways and lanes are much cheaper to implement and are in general faster than the light rail system. I like the rail to Southport and from Broadbeach in - it works well enough and is much better than the contracted bus system which isn't very reliable, but the extension to GC airport is ridiculous to travel at 40kmh or less avg speed.
WFH is one of the contributing factors to the current housing crisis as people sought more space to be able to do it.
Not saying your idea is wrong, but there is an effect.
The effect doesn't seem to correlate to an increase in these smaller houses though. If already housed individuals are seeking to put more money into a larger house that frees up smaller houses for those without the same investment opportunities. Rents and prices should naturally go down if a subset of well off people sought higher quality homes.
