User:Catch.communications

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[edit] CATCH stands for Communities Advocating Transport Corridor Harmony

CATCH was formed as a response to the Queensland Government's proposed transport solution for the suburbs that sit between Brisbane's South East Freeway and the Cleveland railway line (known by Translink as the "Eastern Busway")

CATCH has members from the directly affected suburbs (Woolloongabba, Buranda, Stones Corner, Coorparoo, Camp Hill and Carina)

CATCH also has members from many surrounding suburbs which are indirectly affected (members from 20 suburbs so far) Our position on the bus freeway proposal is that it is wrong to attempt such a high impact development through established suburbs and that neither option presented by the government is acceptable to our membership

CATCH will continue to raise awareness about the proposal in the community

CATCH will continue to raise concerns about aspects of the proposal

CATCH will examine alternative solutions the government proposes

CATCH is not a radical group - it's members are hard working people who just don't want to see their suburbs destroyed

CATCH operates a mailing list as well as a website - to stay up to date, join the mailing list

CATCH has set up an online discussion group

[edit] CATCH wants everyone to think about transport from a wider perspective

To understand what the Eastern Busway is all about, we need think about how cities work, why transport problems arise and how planners react. This discussion is a 'primer' about transport planning that sets out how CATCH is starting to see some of these issues. We think Translink needs to see things our way too.

What is Transport Planning?

Planning involves making decisions about responses to likely future challenges. Transport planning is no different. But who gets to decide what the problems are and what the response will be?

The best planning involves the public having a full say in what the decisions are to be and being given the opportunity to participate in and guide the decision making process. The role of non-elected technical officials and consultants should be to assist this process, otherwise we risk getting solutions that reflect the wishes and preferences of the transport planners, but not the public. The technical officials shouldn't be the ones making the decisions. So far the Translink officials and consultants have been the ones making decisions in the Eastern Busway planning process. While they have begun to include the public, they need to begin relinquishing control over the decisions to CATCH, other groups and the broader community. Otherwise the Eastern Busway investigation risks imposing a fait accompli plan on a highly skeptical community. Broadening the decision-making role broadens the possibility for a sensible consensual outcome. But to make good decisions we have to understand what the issues are that we’re dealing with.

What problem is a busway the solution to?

The Eastern Busway is essentially a solution to the problems caused by car use. This discussion explains why. In the 20th Century, cities in most western nations began planning to ensure high levels of mobility for their citizens. Initially this involved providing rail and tram networks. These were very successful. Australian cities expanded along the tram and rail lines. We can still see the effect of this process along Old Cleveland Road the main suburban shopping areas are located where the major tram stops used to be – at Stones Corner, Coorparoo, Camp Hill and Carina. In the past, most people walked to their local tram stop and then travelled either to the city or other suburbs along the same or connecting lines. After World War II traffic on suburban roads increased - more cars meant slower travel both for drivers and for those on public transport. Transport planners responded by adopting US ideas about freeways. Transport planning was handed to the road engineers and the freeway became the main new form of transport infrastructure. On streets like Old Cleveland road, the trams were removed and replaced by buses, which offer a lower level of comfort. Public transport was largely neglected after the 1960s. The result has been a massive shift to private motor cars. But continued traffic growth means increasing congestion which makes getting around slower while also bringing noise and air pollution. Now the public is reluctant to accept new freeways through suburban areas and public transport is seen as something to be supported. But the support for cars makes transport planners and road engineers reluctant to do anything that might take road space away from cars. Improving bus services is made difficult because road engineers see buses as adding to congestion while the buses have to compete with cars for road space. The transport planners and road engineers now want to make a special 'freeway' for buses to take buses away from Old Cleveland Road so they neither cause congestion for cars nor suffer from congestion from cars. At first a freeway-style busway might seem a feasible technical solution. But in Brisbane's eastern suburbs, this would inevitably involve the destruction of creeks, parks, schools, shops and homes. Because Translink is scared of interfering with traffic on Old Cleveland road we are being thus told to accept destruction of our suburbs. This seems like a really bad outcome. Perhaps we need to make some decisions about what we’d prefer to see happen. But this also means making some choices about what sort of travel we want to see more of.

Can we do better? Translink has proposed an expensive and destructive freeway-style busway through homes, parks, creeks and shops in Brisbane's easter suburbs. Can we come up with a better solution that not only provides us with high quality public transport but also improves our local areas? The answer is yes, but requires a re-think of some of our priorities. We already have a busway through the eastern suburbs - it's called Old Cleveland road, we just don’t recognise it as such. At peak times Old Cleveland road is congested with cars and buses. The problem is that we seem to think that the space on this busway is primarily for cars. This is no surprise - most people currently rely on cars to get around. Translink wants more people to travel by bus rather than by car and most of the public supports better public transport. Buses reduce congestion because they allow people to choose not to drive. In fact so many people are choosing to use buses on Old Cleveland Road that the services are overcrowded and passengers are being left at bus stops! So why not start by improving bus services on Old Cleveland Road? Indeed. This could be as simple as running many more buses, especially at peak hour, but could be extended easily to providing buses with priority at traffic lights or with dedicated lanes. This approach would have three results: First it would reward bus users by showing them that Translink is serious about upgrading services both in terms of frequency and travel time. Second it would give car drivers an incentive to leave their car at home and catch the bus, thus reducing car traffic. Third it would remove the need to build an expensive destructive freeway style busway. Given the projected cost of Translink's Eastern Busway is $536 million, a lot of savings could be made by opting for a simpler solution on the existing surface of Old Cleveland Road. So what could we do with the savings? The money saved could go towards more buses, or even be spent on more useful government services, like schools or hospitals, or making the shopping areas along Old Cleveland Road more pleasant for pedestrians, cyclists and shoppers. Why isn’t Translink thinking this way? We don’t know but it is confusing given Translink’s formal planning documents. Translink’s 2005 Network Plan doesn’t mention construction of an Eastern Busway. It does however mention ‘staged upgrades’ along Old Cleveland Road, involving more frequent bus services, priority at intersections for buses and other measures to increase the quality of service. We can’t figure out why Translink suddenly wants to build an expensive and destructive freeway-style Eastern Busway without having already starting on the existing commitments it has made.

Wouldn’t a freeway-style busway be good for traffic congestion?

Unfortunately no. But to understand why we need to understand some basic principles of transport planning. The “Downs-Thomson” theory explains how traffic works and how successful attempts to improve transport services are likely to be. Anthony Downs, a transport economist found that as traffic congestion increases drivers start to reduce their trips, find quicker alternative routes, travel at different times, or catch public transport. Conversely, gains from attempts to relieve congestion by building new roads often only last a short time. As more major road space is made available, drivers make more trips, switch back to the quickest main route, travel closer to peak hour and use public transport less.

But isn’t more people traveling more often a good thing?

Certainly it can be. But simply providing for travel by car by building road space without seriously considering alternatives that might provide better outcomes for our communities and environment seems a bit foolish. Building road space encourages more car use, which sets us on a spiral of more road building, more car use and so on. We always end up back where we’ve started but usually destroy a lot of our urban environment along the way.

So what has this got to do with busways? Well, John Thomson, another transport economist found that when public transport is improved some drivers switch to this mode thus freeing up road space. But then some public transport users switch to driving cars, to take advantage of the reduced congestion! The result is an equilibrium or balance between car use and public transport use. This effect is called the “Downs-Thompson” paradox. It means that attempts to solve traffic problems by increasing road space don't solve congestion but nor do improvements to public transport! A freeway-style busway would take some buses off Old Cleveland Road, and motivate some car users to use public transport, but this new road space would be taken up by people switching back from the buses to cars!

So public transport improvements can’t solve road congestion?

No. Public transport improvements can only be used to improve services for public transport users. The ‘solution’ to congestion it seems to be to allow it to build up and not reward car users by providing more road space, or making travel quicker. But at the same time public transport has to be improved so it becomes quicker and more frequent. This won't prevent congestion but will mean more and more people use public transport. This seems inherently sensible - rewarding public transport users for making positive choices in traveling on this mode, but not rewarding car drivers. This also means the public needs to make a decision about what it wants to see happen, and tell the planners what to do. The city of Vancouver is an example of this approach.

Ok, but wouldn’t a freeway type busway improve public transport services? The answer is only partly and at great cost. The main justification for building a freeway-style Eastern Busway is to avoid buses causing or getting caught in congestion on Old Cleveland Road. But all of Translink’s plans so far show that this requires massive destruction of our local neighbourhoods. And it won't relieve congestion on Old Cleveland Road for long – population and traffic growth in the outer eastern suburbs will continue to increase congestion anyway. We'll end up with the same levels of road congestion but will have destroyed much of our community to build a busway. There are plenty of examples where improvements to bus services on existing roads have improved service levels, without the expense and destruction of a freeway-style busway. Old Cleveland Road is even an example of this. The BUZ to Carindale is now so popular that buses are often overcrowded and forced to leave passengers at bus stops! This amazing success has happened without a busway.

So, what's the alternative to a destructive freeway-style busway? Well, we already have a busway, it's called Old Cleveland Road. All we need to do is make it easier for buses to travel quickly and frequently along it so that the speed of travel becomes as fast as or faster than travel by car. We can do this quite easily by running more frequent buses, especially at peak hour, and by instituting bus lanes and priority at critical intersections. This won’t relieve congestion for car drivers, but it probably won’t make it much worse. And it will reward those drivers who choose to leave their car at home and catch the bus. Nobody’s shop or house needs to be destroyed.

So how do we make this happen? The first step is to accept that a community can’t fix congestion by building new road space whether for cars or for buses. But we can put in place measures that help people make better choices. Once we realize this situation we’re then faced with some decisions about what kind of travel we want to support the most and how can we best support this type of travel at the lowest cost and impact to our community. The best type of travel is walking or cycling. Neither requires much road space and has little impact on our environment or neighourhood. But walking and cycling aren’t feasible for long trips so we need to make another choice between supporting car travel or supporting travel on public transport. This is especially so on a road like Old Cleveland Road which has limited space for bus or car traffic.

Cars give us individual freedom and we can carry many things in our car but added together everyone using cars means our roads get clogged up. Public transport takes up less space than cars, is easier for old people and young children to use, has fewer environmental effects, and planned well can move larger numbers of people more quickly than if those people traveled by car. This doesn’t mean that everyone has to use public transport – many journeys will continue to be by car. But public transport gives people the option of not driving a car which means drivers face less traffic on the roads. This can mean fewer trips by car. For example the kids could take the bus to sports practice, rather than relying on ‘mum’s taxi’ which in turn means two less car trips along the road. In the Old Cleveland Road context supporting public transport ahead of cars seems the most sensible option as it will enable us to get the high quality public transport we want but without wrecking our local residential and community environment. We need to get the effect of a freeway style busway in terms of service quality, but without the destruction and expense to our community of a freeway-style busway. But if we are to make this choice, we have to do it carefully, deliberately, and openly so that everyone has a say and so we are aware of the implications. So far Translink refuses to consider this option. We think it’s time they started to listen.

Isn't congestion bad for local businesses?

There has been a lot of fear about the impacts on local businesses of a busway running along Old Cleveland Road. By slowing cars down the argument goes, shoppers will be tempted to go elsewhere. This view is misguided, and the history of Brisbane's transport planning helps explain why. Old Cleveland used to have trams running along it all the way to Belmont, before cars took over the road. Vibrant shopping strips were located around the places where the major tram stops used to be, such as Stones Corner, Coorparoo, Camp Hill and Carina. Locals would walk to the tram and do their shopping on the way. The shopping strips along Old Cleveland road have declined since the trams were removed, partly because public transport services have declined and partly because regional shopping malls have lured car drivers with cheap parking. Some of the shop proprietors now think that high volumes of fast-moving traffic along Old Cleveland Road are the only way they will attract customers, but this view is not supported by evidence from elsewhere. Around the world retailers find that the slower customers travel past shops, the more likely they are decide to go in and spend money. Brisbane's Queen Street pedestrian mall is a good example. A pleasant street environment and walking pace gives customers time to see the store, be attracted by its wares and make an easy decision to enter. A car driver is unlikely to stop when whizzing past at high speed - even if they've seen what's for sale they've already gone past. Slower traffic provides greater opportunities for customers to see what's on offer and to decide to stop and browse. Slower traffic also means a more pleasant street environment, which attracts people. The more people on a street the more will be attracted and eventually you have a vibrant shopping area. Brisbane City Council has recognized this effect in its Shopping Center Improvement Program. Stones Corner is an example of the success of this scheme. Once the shopping strip is vibrant, people choose to live closer to the shops so they can walk there rather than driving, or catch public transport. This is the kind of effect we should be looking for, not making cars and buses go faster through our shopping strips. So if car traffic slowed down on Old Cleveland Road, would the fortunes of local shops improve? Probably yes.

But what about parking? This is where the quality of public transport is crucial. If the public transport service is so fast, frequent and reliable that shoppers can leave their cars at home, many will choose to travel this way to get to local shops. It also means people will start wanting to live within walking distance of the shops and public transport. Again, this means providing high frequency buses traveling along Old Cleveland Road, which in turn means giving buses priority over cars at key points. It also means providing high quality bus services in local suburbs that connect to the main routes where the shops are located. The bus stops at Stones Corner, Coorparoo, Carina and Camp Hill would need to be of high quality and well integrated with the shopping areas so people can get around easily and quickly. Providing for bus priority on the existing space of Old Cleveland Road would be less of a risk than destroying homes and shops with an expensive freeway-style busway. It would likely save money that could then be spent on improving the quality of the local shopping street environment – like BCC has already done with Stones Corner.