With population growth and the ensuing suburban sprawl, the further our journey to work has become. It’s a fact, we love our cars. After all they’re an immediate option and sometimes our only one.
On the flip side, this convenience comes with its costs.
Fuel and vehicle maintenance are expensive but what’s also expensive is traffic-congestion stress, and the unavoidable impacts to our environment.
The climate council reports that Australia has the ninth-highest transport emissions per capita in the world. That’s nearly 50% higher than the OECD average.
The reasons Australia performs so poorly in the realm of energy efficiency include, but aren’t limited to the fact that:
- In the main, we choose and favour fuel hungry, energy-emitting personal vehicles
- The level of daily trips per person over longer distances (i.e. an average of 50km’s) is high
- Public transport is either not available or underutilised (accounting for only 12% of trips)
Travel choices – and their making
Obviously, the further we live from our travel destinations, the less likely we are to walk or cycle and instead rely on private vehicles to get where we need to go. This is almost certain to be the case in areas with poor, or non existent transit services.
It also holds true that higher the population density and work options within a particular location, the more viable (and likely) public transport to and from that area becomes.
Let’s face it, personal convenience is a key factor in making our transport choices.
After all, the easier it is to walk or cycle to get where you need to go the more likely it is that you, and others in the community, will do so on a regular basis.
It is also evident that the closer a development is to a central business and employment hub, the greater the availability of facilities and services, travel choices and overall ease of access in that space.
Railsmart takes on the question of traffic
With the right tools available, land use and transport planning can do much to help. The aim is to bring people living a distance away from urban activity centres, closer to their destinations – and lessen the need to get there by car.
RailSmart Planning Wanneroo endeavours to instigate a new, forward-thinking approach urban development and planning.
With the help of research and consultation with you, the community, RailSmart Planning Wanneroo project seeks answers to a range of important questions, including:
- How, when and why people are getting to and from their destinations currently
- How you and others in the community feel about alternative “new century” style transport options that are disrupting established systems (i.e. Uber, ride share, e-Bike alternatives, etc)
- What planning models and ideas have worked before and what has failed – and why these are so
- The catalysts likely to spark economic development and job growth in the City of Wanneroo’s outlying northern coastal corridor
The Metronet rail extension extends a key public transport choice to those in our City living in and around Alkimos, Eglinton and Yanchep.
The goal is that RailSmart insights and outcomes will help current and future residents:
- Avoid traffic congestion headaches
- Save on vehicle running costs
- Make the most of the train line
- Discover new transport options
- Walk or cycle to get where they’re going
- Find diverse work choices closer to home.
A sustainable transport and planning system which enhances the health of the community whilst simultaneously benefitting the environment is exactly WHY RailSmart Planning Wanneroo is putting traffic and planning – to the test.
