The Auditor General has released this report about the Bypass. Please take a look and use it as you take action against this debacle. If you need a reader for the PDF document, you can get it here. The Auditor General has slammed transport planning. An analysis follows.
* Government departments don’t talk to each other or co-ordinate with one another
* Departments don’t actually measure or report congestion
* Departments don’t report on performance of projects they undertake
* There is ranking or priorisiation of projects
* There hasn’t been a coordinated regional plan since 1997
* There isn’t enough focus on land use (makikng sure we have the services such as shopping, governmen services, etc)
* Whole new suburbs built without any supporting infrastructure, meaning people have to travel to do basic things
* Public transport planning is predicated on 6 per cent annual growth when actual growth has been 10 per cen per annum
* There is real potential to reduce demand for travel with active transport, better public transport and transport orientated developments, but there is no coordination or consistent Government framework in deploying these.
* Continuing on the current costly and ineffective approach will not solve the problem.
We can relate to this locally as we have seen:
* piecemeal planning - no integrated planning
* no attempt at demand management
* wrong priorities - Centenary Highway moving at 19 km/h in morning peak with over 50,000 people on it, and focus has been on Kilkivian Avenue to Marshall Lane section of Moggill road which has 4000 people on it travelling at 27 km/h.
* we lack services where people live (e.g. Karana downs needs a High School, we need community health in the area
* Developments occuring without supporting infrastructure and services
* We can see cheap and effective solutions, which could be delivered quickly, but DMR continue to have a “one track, one shot in the locker approach”.
To finish the analysis on a positive note, two of the agencies that can’t talk to each other have been put together, the issue is coming to light, and better planning and management might take hold. Queenslanders taxpayers, south east Queensland residents and our families need it.
In his own words:
Key concerns identified by the Auditor include:
- Leadership at State level for managing the transport network and urban congestion is “not coordinated effectively and makes it more difficult for government agencies to drive a strategic response in an integrated and coordinated manner”.
- “systemic weakness in integrated planning across entities” and there is “no certainty that the agreed responses will achieve the optimal mix’ between land use, transport infrastructure and demand management;
- Continued use of out of date key transport documents and plan may result in decisions based on obsolete data and assumptions and “not effectively address the current challenges”;
- Inconsistencies in data collection and reporting might have significant impact on ability to plan with accurate, complete and timely data.
Speak out today and take action against this misuse of our taxpayer funds and attack on our environment, in defiance of all we know about global climate change and the coming oil crisis.
