By Kerry Nettle
1. Building roads invites more traffic. This is a well-researched phenomenon known as induced traffic. It exists in cities all around the world.
People think that new roads will make their journey faster, so people who do not usually drive vehicles in the area change to travel on the new road. The building of new roads generates traffic, and the new roads then become filled.
2. Building roads takes people off public transport. Believing, incorrectly, that a new road will make their journey faster, people who would usually use public transport choose to use the road.
Public transport operators then start charging higher prices and reducing the frequency of services. This in turn discourages and prohibits other people from using public transport and so a vicious cycle occurs.
3. Noise and air pollution increase. An increase in traffic leads to an increase in the amount of noise and air pollution caused by motor vehicles. Air pollution spreads to areas well away from the site of a road.
Dr Chris ONeil, coordinator of Melbournes inner suburbs district health service, has calculated that nearly 800 people die prematurely each year in Sydney as a result of air pollution, and more than 400 each year in Melbourne.
He also estimates that 20% of asthma admissions to hospital are triggered by air pollution. In our cities, 75% of air pollution is caused by vehicle emissions.
4. The greenhouse crisis is accelerated. Vehicles emit greenhouse gases. An increase in traffic leads to an increase in the amount of these harmful gases.
5. Fatalities and injuries from car accidents increase. Two thousand people die and 20,000 people are hospitalised each year in Australia as a result of motor vehicle accidents.
The construction of major roads with high speed limits adds to this problem because more damage is done to the person or object involved in an accident.
6. Public space may be sold to private companies. Sydney has become the world leader in the construction of private tollways, and Melbourne is following close behind. To construct these private tollways, state governments often sell public roads, parks and bush land to private companies.
7. Major roads divide communities. Communities are broken up and divided by tollway construction. Communities fragment initially in their views about development and are then fragmented by physical barriers.
The sale of public space for roads limits the ability of individuals to participate in community living. English examples have shown that the amount of social interaction within a community decreases with increasing road space.
The widening of roads and the destruction of parks and bush limits residents' ability to find safe areas to walk, play and exercise in.
8. New roads create a car-dependent culture. Building new roads generates traffic; governments and tollway companies use this build-up of traffic to justify more new roads. The new roads lock our cities into future car and fossil fuel dependence and move the focus of transport planning away from long-term options such as public transport.
The M2 in Sydneys north-west is a classic example: the Liberal state government signed a contract with a private tollway company stating that if any new public transport was built in the area surrounding the new tollway in the next 45 years, then the taxpayers would compensate the private tollway company for loss of revenue.
9. New roads perpetuate socially irresponsible industries. Bodies such as the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority require the continued construction of new roads and the generation of traffic to justify their existence; private tollway and road building companies require the same to make money.
10. Governments use new roads to divert attention from their failure to provide accessible public transport. Governments have a responsibility to provide accessible transport to all members of the community. A recognition of this responsibility by the community is gradually being eroded as new roads are thrust upon us.