Future Brisbane: Transurban boss says we should not settle for congestion nightmare

We live in an incredible place so it’s inevitable that people will continue to move here, but we shouldn’t accept worsening traffic congestion as an inevitability, writes Transurban’s Sue Johnson.

I caught up with an industry colleague the other day who’d recently returned to Brisbane after living in Sydney for a decade.

Our conversation turned to how Brisbane is really coming into its own and fast becoming a global city with so much more to offer in the way of culture, arts, dining, entertainment, and sporting events. And it just keeps getting better with developments like Howard Smith Wharves and the new-look Victoria Park. Even the coffee is better.

But one of the biggest differences she noticed is the traffic.

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And that’s not surprising. In the past decade people have flocked to South East Queensland, chasing the fantastic lifestyle that we all know this region provides.

But a growing population also puts pressure on our roads and public transport. And this pressure is only going to increase with SEQ’s population projected to grow by 40 per cent over the next 20 years.

All tiers of government are working hard to prepare for this growth, with transport projects including the Cross River Rail, Brisbane Metro, M1 and Bruce Highway upgrades and the Coomera Connector to name a few.

But the reality is we’re going to need all of this, and then some, if we’re going to keep our city moving efficiently.

Our traffic modelling team at Transurban predicts that even with planned projects, the projected population growth means traffic congestion in SEQ will rise by 23 per cent over the next decade.

Traffic heading in and out of Brisbane on the M1 Pacific Motorway. Picture: Nigel Hallett

I’m sure we’d all agree that increase is something we don’t want to see eventuate. Being stuck in traffic is not only frustrating, it impacts our daily lives, making it harder and slower to get where we want to go. It also impacts our region’s productivity and the cost of doing business.

So, what more can be done to cater for rising population?

We need to work towards a fully integrated ecosystem of transport where road, rail and active transport options work together cohesively. This means that no matter where you live, you’ll have access to best-in-the world transport options that get you where you need to go, when you need to get there.

While targeted infrastructure projects need to be part of the solution, we should also be open and nimble enough to consider sophisticated transport technologies that could offer greater convenience and connectivity options to keep our city moving.

Today, on average, our Brisbane customers collectively save 86,000 hours in travel time each day by using toll roads compared to alternative stop/start routes. It’s a huge figure that is made up of individual stories of time saved, like the nurse who lives at Banyo who saves

an average of 25 minutes each morning on his trip to the Eight Mile Plains Community Health Centre via the Gateway Motorway.

One of the ways that we keep traffic moving efficiently at Transurban is by scouring the world for innovative solutions and cutting-edge technologies to design, build, operate and maintain our roads.

Sue Johnson, Group Executive Transurban Queensland

Our recently completed Network Operations Centre on Brisbane’s northside features advanced integrated traffic management technology, the same technology used by Transport for London, to monitor and operate our Brisbane roads and tunnels. Using predictive analytics, automation and machine learning technology, the centre’s incident response system is constantly learning via these state-of-the-art capabilities, to predict congestion, and identify and respond to incidents faster over time.

In future, connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) could further improve the efficiency of the existing road network. To investigate this further we’ve recently partnered with Plus – a Silicon Valley-based autonomous driving company – to look into how our roads can support

CAVs, including automated freight. While still an emerging technology, the potential benefits in terms of improved road safety, less congestion and better accessibility are significant, and have motivated us to contribute to the rollout of automation in the cities where we operate roads.

South East Queensland is an incredible place to live so it’s inevitable that people will continue to move here, but we shouldn’t accept worsening traffic congestion as an inevitability.

With the right planning, investment and innovative thinking we can set up SEQ to maintain the liveability that makes us the envy of the nation. Then hopefully in future when a colleague moves back to Brisbane from interstate, they’ll be surprised not just by the coffee, but at how easy it is to get around.