All Australians Deserve Safe Roads

On the 9th of October, Queensland has delivered two blows to the safe roads last week. One blow was delivered by the Cairns local government and the other by the Liberal National Party’s Transport and Roads Minister Scott Emerson. Both decisions did not involve public consultation nor provided a public cost benefit analysis. Both involved the sacrifice of the safety of cyclists and pedestrians for the short term convenience of the car drivers.

Cairns council have voted 10 to 2 to remove 200 metres of dedicated bicycle lane so that they could provide street car parking. There was no public consultation. Indeed the motion was brought to the council without notice. Local residents, Cairn’s cyclists and the Councillor representing the area affected were all horrified. According to one proponent, Cr James, it makes no sense having a re-badge footpath (now called ‘a shared path’) and a dedicated bicycle lane next to each other. Cr James also complained that cyclists are riding too fast along the lane as a justification of forcing them on a re-badge footpath. This closure disregards the increase numbers of people who now feel safe to ride their bikes along Cairns award winning cycle way. It also ignores the safety of pedestrians. The RACQ is not considered one of the most bicycle friendly organisations. However, Michael Roth, RACQ’s manager of public policy questioned the decision: “Cyclist not only have conflicts with car drivers but also with pedestrians, so it is not necessarily a good decision to increase those conflicts”.

The Liberal National Party’s Transport and Roads Minister Scott Emerson announced he was removing urban bicycle infrastructure to provide four more lanes on Brisbane’s Centenary Highway. “As part of our review of all spending, we were able to remove Labor’s gold plating to deliver greater benefits to the community for the same money”, Emerson said. However, replacing “Labor’s gold plating” will cost another $90 million. Besides scrapping the bike ways, some of extra expenditure is being financed by depriving disadvantaged suburbs of a railway station. Some of the bike ways were designed to feed the new rail stations. However, no costing has been provided for the expanded car parks made necessary by forcing rail passengers back into their cars. Again, the Queensland government failed to consult the communities affected or provide any cost benefit analysis. Nor have they provided one example of widening roads that has successfully eased road congestion. History shows that it brings more cars onto the roads creating more congestion. Failure to provide separate road facilities for cars, cyclists and pedestrians simply makes the cyclists and pedestrians feel unsafe. What the Michael Roth, RACQ manager of public policy, said about conflicts applies here too. While commenting of the newspaper article, a Queensland voter said that in spite of the largest parliamentary majority in Australian history, “This Government is shaping up as a one term wonder”.

The problem is not just in Queensland. The problem is all over Australia. Government transport planners consider cars and trucks and have ignored public transport and bicycles. They have forgotten the long history of freight and passenger transport by trains, buses and bicycles. They have failed to plan for the integration of bicycles and public transport. Above all, Australian transport planners have not considered the safety and convenience of all road uses when planning and improving Australia’s transport systems.