Caleb Bond: Adelaide must give up its immature pride in not having any toll roads

South Rd is gridlocked and the rest of our city will be too if we don’t embrace toll roads – and there’s a key reason why it makes sense too, writes Caleb Bond. Take our poll.

Adelaide’s biggest carpark – otherwise known as South Rd – has now slowed to just 20km/h during peak hour.

People have been complaining about the traffic on South Rd (or “the South Rd” as I seem to remember it being referred to) since I was a tot.

Heck, they’ve been complaining about it since Adam was a boy.

And yet only now are we starting to get the Torrens to Darlington project off the ground – or under the ground, as the case may be.

It might cost more than $15bn but there is no doubt Adelaide needs it.

According to Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis, the traffic grid is set to grind to a complete halt within a decade and he rightly points out that “every other capital city on the mainland has got a non-stop corridor going through it to move traffic away from its grid network”.

Traffic flows slowly along South Road towards Tonsely during the midweek rush hour. Picture: Mark Brake

But do you know what else the other major capital cities have that Adelaide doesn’t? Tolls.

Perth doesn’t because WA makes an obscene amount of money out of resources and gets more GST than they’re due but Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane all have tunnels and motorways funded by tolls.

South Australia is strangely proud of the fact it has no tolls but has anyone stopped to think that may be part of the reason the traffic grid is close to locking up?

Having lived in Sydney and Melbourne, the distance you can cover by road and the time in which you can do it makes Adelaide look silly.

Adelaide’s lack of tolls doesn’t make it better. It just keeps people stuck in traffic.

The tolls are, admittedly, not cheap – particularly if you are travelling on them every day. But you don’t have to drive on the toll roads. Those who choose to pay the fee can enjoy the new, fast infrastructure and help free up space on the existing roads, thus alleviating congestion for those who do not want to pay tolls.

Slow traffic along South Road. Picture: Mark Brake

In Melbourne, for instance, you can get from Southbank to Melbourne Airport via the tolled M2 – a trip of about 27km – in just more than 20 minutes. Or you can take the M1 and M80 for nearly 40km and you’ll be there in about half an hour.

Both are always busy but neither generally get clogged.

In Sydney you can drive from the CBD to Liverpool in the western suburbs, about 40km away, in 40-odd minutes.

When applied correctly, tolls can deliver new roads and reduce congestion at lower cost to the government and faster than the government would do if they were paying the whole bill.

I don’t like the idea of tolls continuing in perpetuity. But if you offer an investor a reasonable return for stumping up the money to build the road and then nationalise it once those terms have been met, who loses?

The investor makes money, the government saves money and the motorist has less congestion to contend with.

The fact of the matter is that you’re paying for the roads anyway. Whether you pay for it through tax or a toll is rather immaterial.

Pay now or pay later – you’re still going to pay.