http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/29309

The chattering classes of the inner city produce more air pollution over Sydney than heavy vehicles, according to the NSW Roads Minister, Duncan Gay.

In one of his most strident defences of his government's motorway agenda, Mr Gay used a lunch-time presentation on Tuesday to outline his concerns about what he sees as Sydney's "anti-roads zealots".

"I am increasingly concerned by a local anti-road movement in Sydney and elsewhere which reveres dogma over reality," said Mr Gay who, as minister, is presiding over the development of two major multi-billion dollar motorways in Sydney, the NorthConnex and WestConnex toll-roads.

"They conveniently forget that thousands of commuters each day need to drive to rail and bus stations, ferry wharves, hospitals, schools, shopping centres and sporting grounds," Mr Gay said.

"I'm yet to see a freight train back into a shop in Newtown, or someone hitch a ride on light rail with their newly purchased ... fridge," he said.

"It is one thing to sit in your cafe, sipping your latte, and complain about cars and roads. It's another thing to wonder how the grease trap in that coffee lounge actually gets removed."

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/roads-minister-duncan-gay-chattering-classes-are-more-of-a-pollution-risk-than-trucks-20150519-gh51w3.html

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Can someone tell this minister for Grand Traffic Jam inc. that "his" WestCONnex won't solve the problem of the grease traps in Newtown, unless one destroys the place, including the cafe-latte outlet? To the contrary, his WestCONnex, as presently designed, will increase the traffic jams in many places approaching Sydney. Any ordinary moron would see that. Only the super completely moronic dictator in charge of building motorways won't see that. Bring more cars to King Street via a St Peters interchange and the whole place gets completely flooded with cars and trucks into a gridlock.

"They conveniently forget that thousands of commuters each day need to drive to rail and bus stations, ferry wharves, hospitals, schools, shopping centres and sporting grounds..." Hello? Where are ferry wharves, shopping centres and sporting grounds in Newtown? Why drive from Mount Druit to take a train to the city from Newtown station? There is no parking there either... Sure, there is the RPA hospital in Newtown but already there is also very limited car parking for existing traffic. Most visitors to the RPA can be accommodated by buses and trains. More traffic going to to the RPA? Traffic jam up to airport. Shoppin centre? which one? The one the AMP wants to build (extend the Marrickville Metro) to accommodate the extra 10 of thousands of people brought in by the construction of high-rise building next to the exit and entrance of "his" WestCONnex... all destroying the character of the place as well as creating more choked traffic jam there on top of destroying the place some more? 

Duncan Gay talks idiotic bombastic narrow-minded CONservative crap... People like Mr Gay would be prepared to bulldoze a city like Firenze, Italy, to improve traffic conditions... Idiots...

"Without action road travel times in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Canberra are expected to increase by at least 20 per cent in the most congested corridors by 2031."

This warning is a stern warning indeed. Well not really... Say you spend 30 minutes to go to work in your car today, by 2031 you will have to spend 36 minute to do the same caper. But by then your car might be an electric gizmo that drives itself, giving you extra time to comb your hair and apply lipstick, or you might work from home due to a very efficient Labor revived NBN or you might be dead. And you might not have the leisure to park your car anywhere near your chosen destination. Or you might be unemployed.

Does this mean we need to increase the roads surface by 50 per cent in order to get back to the 1970s flow of traffic in Sydney which to say the least was quite appalling? Is everyone driving to get to the same spot?

What does such an increase of traffic mean? Destruction of old suburbs, replaced with high rise which to say the least would contribute ten times the amount of traffic, with increase population? Destroying the character of the villages? Tunnels pouring more traffic near already saturated exits and entry points?

In Sydney like in Melbourne should there be a slow truck or an accident on the network, there is likely to be massive traffic jam domino-ing. A blockage somewher is likely to slow the traffic network everywhere. Compoundation of stop-start-locked intersections.

Is increasing the number of roads, expressways in a congested city such as Sydney going to relieve the pain? Is increasing the number of roads going into the city or near the city going to destroy the place and increase the traffic in already congested areas by people flocking to these areas, such as beaches? Is the traffic on most Sydney roads due to lone persons going to work in the comfort of their car, between 7 and 9 AM and between 4 and 7 PM? Could transporting containers be more efficient with rail to depot? Would it be better to transport SMALLER loads, thus getting rid of "containers" by emptying them at ports?

For example presently there is basically no way for a truck to leave Botany Bay Port without having to go around the Sydney Airport, join Canal Road, go onto the Princes Highway, then feed back into a bottleneck of five converging major roads that takes an hour to move 50 metres in order to enter a single lane feeder to the M5 Tunnel so the truck can go to Melbourne, Canberra or Goulburn (where it rains spiders). This tends to slow traffic somewhat.

Or do we think smarter? What about reducing traffic using some incentive, like better public transport?

I know the RTA — or whatever they call themselves these days (with the word "Maritime" attached to it, which does not inspire confidence when it rains heavily and the roads look more like water channels)— had done some studies of "road traffic" with little wires on the road counting cars... But this is iffy. The simpleton solution would be "there is more car on the road, we need more roads and bigger wider road" demolishing everything on the project's path...

When you have too many cars trying to cross already loaded traffic, one can see that no matter the increased surface of roads, the major problems lie at the exit and dispersion of such traffic AND crossing traffic. 

Dispersion of traffic is the key, but NOT through already congested areas. Destination is the key. Where does everyone want to go?

Of course there are answers and "compromises" to be made, including working from home.

But the WestCONnex — as presently planned, including feed more traffic through Newtown and surrounding areas — is definitely NOT the way to go.

It's crazy. It's lunacy. And by 2032, a year later after this report accounts for, the big hit from global warming will change our thinking on this subject entirely.

And by the way, I did not mention "developments" and "developers" who see the new pathways of destruction as bonanza for building high rise building designed from rabbit boxes stacks near the exits... 

But if King Street is to become a nirvana, it will be a nirvana with even more traffic than present, according to Roads and Maritime Services modelling obtained by Fairfax Media.

Along King Street, the RMS figures show a continual increase in cars travelling in the morning and afternoon peak hours between the years 2011, 2026 and 2036.

There is a similar story for other major roads around the inner south of Sydney, including the already densely congested Botany Road, O'Riordan Street, Cleveland Street and Southern Cross Drive.

The modelling challenges claims that construction of the motorway will quieten local roads. At best, it seems, the motorway might prevent local roads becoming busier than they would be if it were not built.

Prior to the March election, Mr Gay said that, without the third stage of WestConnex, 120,000 cars per day would be "spewed into Newtown, Balmain, Leichhardt, Erskineville".

But, he said, this scenario would be avoided because "we will have a magic tunnel that will go underneath and King Street will become the nirvana that we always hoped it would be and we always thought it would be and I might even try and buy a black shirt."

Last week, Mr Gay told a business lunch that once completed "WestConnex will remove large volumes of through traffic off inner-city residential streets."

"Instead of rat runs through suburban streets, motorists can jump on and off this motorway," he said. 

In a response for this story, a spokeswoman for the WestConnex Delivery Authority said: "In 20 years, an extra 1.6 million people will be living in Sydney. More people will mean more trips on our roads."

"WDA traffic modelling, which has been ticked off by independent infrastructure experts, shows the inner south will improve with WestConnex as opposed to a do nothing scenario," the spokeswoman said.

The figures obtained by Fairfax Media were created within RMS using the department's strategic traffic forecasting model. The documents include information about when the model created the traffic forecasts.

The forecasts do not align with the traffic forecasts released by the WDA for the first stage of the project, a widened M4 motorway. The WDA uses traffic forecasts for 2021 and 2031, as opposed to the figures for 2026 and 2036 obtained by Fairfax Media.

A professor at the Institute of Transport & Logistics Studies, University of Sydney, Michiel Bliemer, said in the short term a new motorway could remove traffic from local roads. 

"But quite quickly it will have the phenomenon of induced demand, which is that all the other roads around will become less congested and more attractive to drive on," he said, which would probably attract public transport users back to their cars.

"It usually helps temporarily but because of induced demand and population growth, traffic volumes would go up again," Professor Bliemer said.

Fairfax Media asked Mr Gay's office and the WDA why, if detailed traffic modelling was available for WestConnex and the roads around it, it had not been released to the public.

The WDA spokeswoman said: "Interpreting background data can be misleading."

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-traffic-secret-westconnex-documents-show-worse-congestion-after-toll-road-20150525-gh980u.html

Then the spokepersonwoman could have added:

"the minister and I have been misled by interpreting the background data... but the minister thinks it's better that people sing in their cars in a massive underground traffic jam than swear profusely on the surface roads about traffic conditions... Kids should not hear profanities... Yes, there will be more cars spewing into King Street... but this would bring a Nirvana to vendors of black shirts in Newtown since he's prepared to buy one should the WestCONnex be built..."

We could not argue with this...

WestConnex Action Group spokeswoman Pauline Lockie​ said some residents had only found out they would be losing their homes on Thursday as the plans were publicly released.

She said it was outrageous there had been no consultation and residents affected by the plans were "extremely distressed".

A large number of the homes to be lost due to the stacks and entry and exit points to the tunnel will be in Haberfield.

Haberfield Association president Emma Brooks Maher said the unique identity of Haberfield would be lost.

"Haberfield is a garden suburb of international significance. It's the world's first garden suburb and it should be looked at from its heritage point of view," she said.

The delivery authority spokeswoman said the project was designed to minimise property acquisition and more than 50 per cent of WestConnex would be in underground tunnels.

"Some property owners are already in negotiations. Where properties are impacted, we contact owners as soon as we are in a position to do so," she said.

The $2.7 billion contract to build the extension has been awarded to Leighton Contractors, John Holland and Samsung C&T.

Roads Minister Duncan Gay said an extra 1.6 million people would live in Sydney in the next 20 years and WestConnex was needed to stop the city coming to a "grinding halt".

"WestConnex will help provide relief for hundreds of thousands of motorists stuck in gridlock on the M4 and M5 each day," he said.

"We are investing historic levels of funding to build public transport like the $8.3 billion North West Rail Link, but upgrading Sydney's existing motorway network is vital."

Fairfax Media revealed last week that the government's own traffic modelling showed that congestion on multiple roads in the inner west would continue to worsen even after the motorway was built.

Opposition transport spokeswoman and Strathfield MP Jodi McKay said a business case for the WestConnex program needed to be released.

"It is concerning that this Liberal government is happy to hand out contracts while continuing to refuse to release the business case behind WestConnex," she said.

"Let the people whose homes will be compulsorily acquired at least see the business case supporting this road."

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/haberfield-and-homebush-set-for-pollution-stacks-as-m4-east-tunnel-plans-revealed-20150604-ghgu8p.html

Cyclists are riding down car lanes at College Street in Sydney's CBD to protest against the State Government's decision to rip up the adjacent cycleway to allow construction of a new light rail line.

The Government has announced plans to demolish the College Street cycleway and defer the construction of the Castlereagh Street north cycling lane for at least three years.

It said the decision was necessary to allow for the construction of the Sydney Light Rail line from Circular Quay to Randwick, in the city's east.

Protesters will today ride in the traffic lanes during the morning and afternoon peak hour periods.

Protest organiser Rob Berry told the riders there will be no safe alternative when the cycleway goes in about a fortnight.

"It's just criminal that they are going to dig up something that has been serving the community so well, that has been such a success," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-26/cyclists-traffic-lanes-protest-demolition-sydney-cbd-cycleway/6574692