PRESENTATION TO. CEDA Transport Overview: connecting road, rail, air & sea

Transcription

1 PRESENTATION TO CEDA Transport Overview: connecting road, rail, air & sea

2 WORKING TOGETHER TO ACHIEVE TRANSPORT OBJECTIVES Sharon Hanlon General Manager Public Affairs Royal Automobile Association (RAA) of South Australia Inc BACKGROUND The Royal Automobile Association of SA Inc (RAA), is the State s principal advocate for motorists on a broad range of motoring-related issues and represents the views of more than 560,000 South Australians. While the majority of our members are private motorists we acknowledge that many use their vehicle for work purposes, rather than just to and from work, and they catch public transport, and they walk and they cycle. Key issues and priorities for our members are their mobility, safety, motoring costs in particular fuel costs and taxes and, increasingly, the impact of their vehicle on the environment. With such a significant membership base, our primary responsibility is to ensure that issues affecting our members are addressed by governments of the day. Similarly, our members entrust us with the responsibility to ensure that any negative impacts on their mobility are mitigated and, where possible, eliminated. RAA s advocacy efforts focus on our members priorities and, based on what our members report back to us, we are achieving successful outcomes on their behalf in most areas. The challenge for the RAA is to ensure that a greater proportion of the $900 million of motoring-related taxes and charges that motorists in South Australia pay annually translate into a safe and efficient transport system. To be most effective, we need to ensure that we can forge working relationships with a variety of stakeholder groups including governments. As is the case for any organisation that has a desire to have its views addressed by politicians, it is imperative to understand what motivates those who make the decisions and when they are most likely to be attentive. An election is obviously the most heightened time but it s important not to wait three or four years between campaigns. Today, I m going to focus on transport infrastructure in South Australia from the RAA members perspective. Where we see the road infrastructure network is at now. How we feel it should be changed to accommodate the existing and future demands of road users in South Australia. And, how we are working towards promoting these objectives and delivering on them for our members. WHERE ARE WE NOW? In 2005, RAA produced its vision for South Australian roads Backwater to Benchmark; which articulated a broad strategic plan for South Australia s critical transport corridors and the investment required along these. Page 1 of 11

3 The routes were determined based on the Class 1 strategic rural arterial road network, together with major tourist routes. Why include tourist routes? Well, these networks take similar traffic volumes indeed, sometimes greater volumes than the Class 1 rural arterials but are assigned lower strategic priority because they don t play a key role in the major transport of freight. Without doubt, the movement of freight plays an integral role in ensuring a vibrant economy. However, the RAA believes that a singular focus on investment primarily along freight routes is short-sighted and will result in a significant degradation of parallel commuter routes. The inevitable result of this investment strategy is that commuter traffic will shift to the freight routes, impacting adversely on the efficiency of these corridors. RAA s document identified a range of road infrastructure objectives. Most importantly, it stressed the RAA s long held concern about a lack of maintenance and the need for a significant increase in spend to address the enormous backlog and the deterioration of pavements along the rural road network. In the metropolitan area, our number one priority was and remains the establishment of an efficient north-south corridor. While we are not at the congestion levels of Sydney or Melbourne, our rate of increase in congestion is much higher than these two cities. Adelaide s urban population is spreading north and south, at the same time jobs are increasing in the North and decreasing in the South. And urban regeneration has meant that suburbs closer to the city are becoming increasingly more dense plus the proposed expansion of the urban growth boundaries, all lead to the need for a greater investment in moving people efficiently in, around and across metropolitan Adelaide. We also identified a number of other long-standing deficiencies that we believe should be included as strategic transport objectives for South Australia. These include the need for an upgrade of the inner city ring route, including the Britannia intersection and the Park Terrace Railway crossing; duplication of the Victor Harbor Road; bypass needs at Port Wakefield, Renmark, Penola and Mount Gambier; together with longer term objectives including the ultimate duplication of both the Dukes Highway and Highway 1 to Port Augusta. Pleasingly, a number of these issues mirror the priorities of other major transport stakeholders and have resulted in the opportunity to forge important and productive relationships with councils, community groups, industry groups and government. NORTH-SOUTH CORRIDOR In terms of how we progress the priority for a north-south corridor, the RAA for over 20 years has been compiling information on the performance and ongoing degradation of service levels on north-south routes across metropolitan Adelaide. Our annual travel time surveys that we report on regularly paint a picture of a network that is struggling to keep up with the expanding urban, residential and industrial developments to the north and south of the City. Results from these surveys illustrate how key routes, particularly the south-eastern corridors such as Goodwood, Unley, Fullarton but also Marion roads, are no longer able to deliver an acceptable level of service for commuters in either the am or pm peak. Page 2 of 11

4 The following map shows the network that RAA surveys and the coloured bars demonstrate how the average speed reduces between nodes along the corridors. (NOTE: green is an acceptable level, while red and black are below acceptable levels of service.) The following graph then illustrates how, over the five-year period , almost all the surveyed routes have experienced average speeds below the acceptable level of service measure of greater than 30km/h. Page 3 of 11

5 Coupled with the fact that the major intersections along Greenhill Road, where most of these roads ultimately deliver commuters heading for the CBD, are at saturation for most of the peak period, it is no wonder that drivers are starting their trips earlier or later to avoid the congestion and, therefore, generating an overall extension of the peak periods. Throughout this 20-year period, we have seen investment along these corridors mainly in an effort to address interruptions to the flow of traffic. These improvements have taken the form of the provision of right turn lanes, the banning of parking and turns during peak periods, bus lanes, traffic signal optimisation and some minor use of ITS technologies. But, by far, the two largest road infrastructure investments have been the Southern Expressway and the upgrade of the Adelaide to Crafers Highway and Portrush Road. Unfortunately, neither of these two projects were linked to any ongoing infrastructure upgrade, thereby limiting the significant economic and social benefits that could have been derived from extending the South Road upgrade from Bedford Park to Wingfield and upgrading the inner city ring route through Britannia intersection. In stark comparison, the more recent investment by both State and Federal governments in the Port River Expressway and South Road Connector, along with the rejuvenation of the Port of Adelaide, deepening of the Harbour, and development of the techport commercial/education precinct, has demonstrated how a fully integrated infrastructure investment strategy can deliver significant economic benefits to the local community, industry, and the State. The RAA remains support of investment in the Northern Expressway and acknowledges the significant benefit to be derived from a more direct connection to the Port of Adelaide and the industrial precincts north-west of Adelaide. We remain cautious about how Port Wakefield road will be impacted by the proposed modifications and the additional traffic flow from the Northern Expressway but welcome the rationalisation of some of the existing at-grade intersections and formalisation of turning movements at other locations on this highway. Our desire is to see stricter restrictions on right turn movements at the intersections further north along the Port Wakefield road. WHAT IS PLANNED FOR THE FUTURE? RAA welcomed the inclusion of the upgrading of South Road in the State Government s own Strategic Infrastructure Plan. The Infrastructure plan finally provided formal recognition of the need for an efficient free-flowing north-south corridor. Whether the choice of South Road was the correct one, is not the real issue. The fact remains that this much neglected and much needed project for South Australia has finally made it onto a government s priority list and has been backed up with funding. Unfortunately, the scale of the project means that delivering this priority using State funds alone would result in many more years of putting up with an inefficient transport network, north and south of Adelaide. RAA is a strident advocate of the project and, believing that there was a need to accelerate the construction timeline, we looked to engage other partners with a similar desire to mount a campaign to take to Federal Parliament to assist State Government deliver this project. Page 4 of 11

6 Developing and maintaining effective partnerships is integral to any organisation, regardless of how large or small. The importance of an effective collaboration or partnership is to have consensus on the issues to ensure that a consistent message is delivered to both the community and decision makers. RAA had previously worked with SARTA, SA Freight Council and Committee for Adelaide Roads and was pleased to reform this partnership to take the following messages to Canberra. The priorities agreed by our four organisations were: 1. That the AusLink network be extended along South Road from Sir Donald Bradman Drive to the commencement of the Southern Expressway ensuring that the Federal Government, under the AusLink funding criteria, would be required to contribute at least 50% of the funds for the upgrade and maintenance thereafter of the route. 2. That significant funding in AusLink 2 be allocated to achieve the State Government s objective for a free-flowing corridor along South Road; and 3. That both sides of the Federal Parliament recognised the need to allocate an increased share of AusLink 2 to address the significant backlog of maintenance on the AusLink road network in South Australia. As a result, these three key objectives became the focus of delegations from our organisations, both collectively and individually to Federal and State politicians as well as senior Federal advisers and bureaucrats. Earlier this year, as a group, we co-signed a letter with the State Minister for Transport Patrick Conlon to Deputy Prime Minister and Federal Minister for Transport Mark Vaile reiterating these priorities. Additional signatories included Business SA and SA Farmers Federation. When we met with politicians we were able to demonstrate the robust nature of the business case for investing in the South Road upgrade and how the State Government was taking a lead and investing in the project ahead of any Federal funding commitments, even though elements of the upgrade were to occur on the existing AusLink defined corridor. The following map was used to illustrate where investment had or was about to be undertaken and shows how the proposed South Road upgrade links neatly in with the existing AusLink funding for the Port River Expressway and Northern Expressway. It also demonstrates that the State is prepared to fund projects along this route, further reinforcing the importance of the corridor. I am pleased to say that this collaborative effort has been successful in securing announcements from both the Federal Government and Federal Opposition that the AusLink corridor will be extended to the entrance/exit of the South Expressway at Bedford Park. The Federal Government has also indicated that it will allocate $1 billion between 2009 and 2020 towards the upgrade of South Road. It has also committed to an increase in South Australia s allocation for road maintenance in the second tranche of AusLink but is yet to confirm just what the quantum of this increase will be. Page 5 of 11

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8 Federal Labor is yet to commit a dollar amount to increased investment in either maintenance funding or the South Road upgrade under AusLink 2 but we would hope that an announcement is imminent! To date, there have been promising signs in our private discussions with Federal Shadow Transport Minister, Martin Ferguson, and publicly in his response to the Federal Government s funding announcements when he stated, Federal Labor will be focussed on genuine funding announcements that turn important projects like the overpasses at Grand Junction and Cormack roads into reality long before Our partnership still has work to do to ensure that the announcements made during this current election period are translated into commitments and that the proposed timeline of 2020 for the completion of the South Road upgrade is accelerated. RAA maintains that a project of such enormity should offer significant economies of scale if packaged as one single project, rather than the piecemeal approach that has been necessary to date because of funding limitations. TOLLS We acknowledge that an investment of this magnitude will be subject to scrutiny as a potential public private partnership (PPP), as per the AusLink funding criteria. That said; RAA remains opposed to motorists having to pay a toll for long overdue investment. Given the very large amounts of revenue collected by governments from road users, the RAA sees the imposition of tolls as, essentially, an option of last resort for financing major improvements to the road system. Motorists already pay considerable motoring-related taxes and charges and, proportionally, very little is invested back in the road network. In terms of fuel tax, of the 38cpl that motorists pay just 6cpl is directed back to the road network. Under the recently announced funding increase for AusLink 2, we are pleased to see that this figure will increase to just over 11c by the end of I expect that our partnership would probably not reach a consensus as easily in relation to the acceptability of a toll facility along this route, primarily because for those representing commercial operators, there is a mechanism for which this charge can be costed back to the freight forwarder, while such an imposition cannot be defrayed by private motorists. However, as is the case for any investment, the imperative is that a return be achieved within an acceptable timeframe and it is unlikely that a toll would only apply to commercial vehicles. We know from experiences interstate that drivers are prepared to pay for improvements in travel time and that there is a net economic benefit to be derived from improvements in travel time, even for drivers of private vehicles. However, we also know drivers are not tolerant of physical restrictions being imposed on adjacent networks to restrict access to free parallel routes. RAA would only consider supporting a tolled facility in South Australia if a number of key considerations were met including that genuine consideration had been given to shadow tolling, that a viable free alternative route alongside or in close proximity was retained and adequately maintained, toll charges for trucks should at least reflect the costs associated with pavement wear and tear and should, therefore, be Page 7 of 11

9 correspondingly higher than the charge for passenger cars, and that the toll facility must be of a high standard of design and provide demonstrable long-term benefits to road users in the form of reduced congestion levels, improved traffic flow and safety, savings in road users time, a reduction in crashes and running costs, which provides environmental benefits all being greater than the toll paid. WHAT HAVEN T WE YET CONSIDERED? RAA believes that there are two areas where there needs to be a greater strategic focus from transport planners. With the environment a major issue worldwide, it is imperative that the transport sector understands the role that it needs to play in addressing the environmental footprint that we leave behind. For individuals, second to our homes, our motor vehicles are the next largest contributors to greenhouse gases. In this context, by taking appropriate actions each individual can play a significant role in reducing GHG emissions. That said, we must not lose sight of the fact that, in total, private vehicles contribute just under 8% (7.8%), of all GHG emissions so even if we took every car off of the road we would still be faced with 92% of the problem. A recent national opinion poll, conducted for the RAA by the Australian Automobile Association, reported that 80% of drivers were in some way concerned about the effect of their vehicle on the environment. When asked how much they believed their vehicle contributed to GHG emissions, the vast majority (84%) significantly overestimated this contribution. And when asked for a realistic solution, (unprompted) 45% of respondents cited alternative cars and 36% of respondents referred to alternative fuels, while 25% nominated public transport and 11% suggested driving less. At a time when there is a heightened awareness and concern about the impact of the vehicle on the environment, it is clear that drivers are not yet ready to give up their mobility and want greater investment in alternative vehicles and alternative fuels to maintain this mobility. RAA sees its role in this critical issue as providing information to our members on how to choose more efficient and greener vehicles, and how to modify their travel patterns and driving behaviours to minimise their personal impact on the environment. While public transport provides an alternative mode of transport, it is important that the cost to provide these facilities are economically justifiable, taking into consideration the entire impact on the environment of delivering the infrastructure to support the services and the resultant net benefit to be derived by this investment. More environmentally conscious use of the roads can also deliver reductions in the cost of motoring on the environment, largely through reduced fuel consumption. This is particularly important in the context of carbon emissions trading which will make emitting carbon more expensive. We would caution governments that are looking to use the heightened level of concern about the environment to apply additional taxes and charges on road users. As Page 8 of 11

10 previously stated, motorists already pay more than their share, with the 38cpl levied on fuel seen as an overcharging of motorists for the vehicle kilometres travelled and wear and tear inflicted on the road network. RAA and motoring clubs nationally want to see fuel taxation reformed and the implementation of a fairer road-pricing regime, before the introduction of a carbon emissions trading scheme. DESIGNING SAFER ROADS The RAA is a keen supporter of the Safe System Design that, fundamentally, looks at designing a road system that will not harm the users of that system. Through the Australian Automobile Association, RAA participates in the Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP) which rates the existing safety of the road network by looking at where crashes are actually occurring and also rating the inherent safety of a road s features and design and how these contribute to the severity of a crash at a specific location. While road safety is front-of-mind for most drivers and designers, it is important that both recognise how much more they can do to contribute to a safer road network. Simple fixes such as protecting roadsides, minimising conflicts on high speed rural roads, upgrading delineation and addressing the inconsistency and lack of knowledge about speeding and speed limits have a significant role to play in reducing road trauma. It is also important to shift our thinking away from just treating locations where crashes are occurring and start looking at investing in road safety countermeasures at locations where, if a crash were to occur, there would be a high risk of injury or death. This is a proactive program which focuses on making roadsides safer, improving the separation between flows of traffic, rationalising or improving rural intersections and improving delineation of the road way. A 2004 New Zealand research paper found that over 50% of fatal crashes occurred at sites that did not have a history of crashes for the previous four years. This means, if we only focus on treating locations where crashes are occurring, we are only addressing half of the problem. Of course we are all constrained by financial pressures but there are low cost measures line marking, barrier systems, sealing shoulders and restricting movements at intersections can all deliver significant reductions in risk to road users. Wide lanes, sealed shoulders, good line marking are all treatments that improve the safety rating of the road network. The following picture illustrates how simple treatments can affect the risk posed to drivers on the rural road network. This location is on the Pacific Highway in New South Wales and is one of a handful of locations in Australia where the centre line has been treated with a wire rope barrier. We understand that, at this location, there has been a significant reduction in serious and casualty crashes since the treatment. Page 9 of 11

11 WHERE TO FROM HERE? The RAA sees the future as being very positive for road users. We are seeing unprecedented levels of investment in infrastructure delivery and also a greater awareness of the need to address road safety and the environment at both State and Federal level. In a climate of strong economies, it is important that those charged with providing counsel to decision-makers and policy-makers start thinking about long-term solutions for the benefit of the transport network for future generations. We need to ensure that we don t have at-grade interfaces with railway crossings designed into modern day projects. Unfortunately, we bear the legacy of these previous decisions at a number of locations in the metropolitan area, which have resulted in loss of life and are now costly to address. In relation to encouraging drivers to use other modes of transport, it is important that we ensure new designs incorporate bus lanes. Nothing motivates people more than seeing first hand the benefits of being on a bus as it rolls past and you re sitting in a car stuck in a queue of slow moving traffic. Retrofitting these facilities should also continue where possible, but, unfortunately, due to the major routes operating at or near capacity at peak times, there is little scope to be able to remove traffic lanes to provide bus services without catastrophic consequences on other users. Of course, it must be remembered that private vehicle usage still represents 80% of all trips, and that bus services cannot be expected to provide the flexibility of the private vehicle and adequately accommodate multiple-destination trips in today s timeconstrained society. Page 10 of 11

12 CONCLUSION In conclusion, RAA remains optimistic that South Australia will have a major focus on infrastructure upgrades over the next ten years. We believe that there is opportunity for industry and stakeholders to play an effective role in providing decision-makers and governments with information on what is needed and when. Those who want to ensure that their messages are listened to should consider building partnerships with like-minded communities or organisations to strengthen their messages and objectives. Above all, the RAA maintains that using the road network should not be a compromise in either safety or efficiency; both of these should be able to be delivered effectively for the long-term benefit of future users rather than focusing on short-term economic rationale and providing a burden for future generations to remediate. Page 11 of 11