Opinion: Future of SE Qld traffic is clean, green and connected

South East Queensland is on track for a climate-positive Olympics, with innovations making transport greener and safer, writes Sue Johnson.

With every great challenge comes even greater opportunity.

Over the next 20 years, South East Queensland’s population will rapidly expand to exceed five million people.

This means that by the 2040s, a further 1.3 million people will call SEQ home.

And with the Olympics on the horizon, these monumental challenges present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a lasting legacy for our region.

At Transurban, we know that the Olympics will require smart innovation and partnerships for investment.

Now is the time to partner and collaborate to ensure we have the best minds in the game working together to develop the transport solutions that will enhance our region’s liveability and ensure that traffic bottlenecks and congestion are not an inevitable side effect of growth.

Our modelling shows that the strongest population growth will be in the satellite cities around Brisbane, while the greatest job growth will continue to be focused in the CBD.

This means our transport infrastructure needs to be able to cater for more people travelling from their homes in the outer suburbs to their jobs in the inner city.

Investment in public transport will play a large part of the solution, but improving and expanding on the current road network will play just as big a role.

In the past, the go-to solution to manage more traffic was to build bigger and better roads, but today smart technologies can provide more innovative solutions to manage traffic.

We now have the opportunity to fast-track technologies that combine different transport modes and mobility options to create more convenience and choice.

Sue Johnson in Transurban Group’s traffic control room in Brisbane’s Eight Mile Plains

We’re already using technology and innovation to create safer, more efficient journeys for the 400,000 people that use our roads every day.

At our new 24/7 state-of-the-art traffic control room, we’ll detect and respond to incidents even quicker by using cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology to automatically identify incidents and congestion and alert our operators to respond.

We’re also trialling connected and automated vehicle and on-road technologies, which will ultimately offer significant safety and efficiency benefits across our entire transport network.

Combined with new infrastructure projects, these innovations will underpin our region’s future liveability.

We also have opportunities with 2032 forecast to be one of the first climate-positive Olympics.

Transurban has committed to net zero emissions by 2050, and from next year, our roads and tunnels across Brisbane will be powered by 80 per cent renewable energy, saving up to 35,000 tonnes of emissions.

We’re also trialling asphalt made from recycled materials, introducing eco-driving capability to help our customers drive more efficiently and we’re transitioning to an electric vehicle fleet.

Now is the time to take action to ensure our city is ready for the growth that is coming our way.

Let’s make the next decade count!

Sue Johnson is Transurban Queensland group executive