Matthew Schneider: Gold Coast Highway ‘strangling city

A leading town planning expert has highlighted the Gold Coast Highway as the city’s key transport issue, saying it is “strangling the city’s connectivity and productivity”. Here’s his solution.

It’s the secret of the southern light rail route.

While residents and politicians alike fret over the plan to replace Gold Coast Highway traffic lanes with tram tracks through Palm Beach, it seems that this is not a problem seeking a solution - but an urban plan that is better by design.

Think of it as the traffic jam we have to have. As the highway shrinks back to a boulevard, the controversial infrastructure could become the very thing that showcases the suburb’s village vibe.

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“The whole point of the light rail is to get people in cars off the Gold Coast Highway,” says respected town planning consultant and Urbis Gold Coast director Matthew Schneider, a member of the Gold Coast Light Rail Business Advisory Group and chair of the city’s committee of the Property Council.

“We don’t need to resume land to make more room for vehicles, we need to encourage people to get off the roads and move them onto public transportation or to use roads more suitable for higher traffic like the M1.

Matthew Schneider is a director of Urbis and heads up the Gold Coast office at Southport. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

“The Gold Coast Highway is strangling the city’s connectivity and productivity. It’s littered with traffic lights, noise and pollution; prioritising it as a route for light rail rather than private cars is one of the best things we can do for this city.

“In Palm Beach, creating a boulevard rather than a highway will actually make the suburb a better place. The more we reduce our reliance on the highway, the more liveable our suburbs become.

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“People who think the Gold Coast Highway is an effective transportation route are living in the past, it’s just nostalgia. You haven’t been able to travel from Mermaid to Southport at peak hour in less than 30 minutes in more than 20 years. There are major barriers to synchronising the traffic lights. It’s just not the road you ever take if you’re trying to get anywhere on time. Unless you’re taking the tram.”

Traffic on the Gold Coast Highway near Harbourtown. Picture: Richard Gosling.

Matthew, who has acquired a reputation as “Mr Everywhere” with his roles as strategic adviser, project director and business manager sitting alongside his membership in diverse bodies including the Gold Coast Music Advisory Group and the City Heart Taskforce, says redirecting traffic is part of the Palm Beach plan.

He says a multi-modal study is investigating future upgrades of Nineteenth Avenue and arterial roads to cater for increased cars heading to and from the nearby M1, as well as improved exits and entries from the freeway.

And Matthew, who has led some of the city’s most influential strategic planning projects with City of Gold Coast, says while there is a pernicious belief that light rail is used almost wholly and solely by tourists, it’s actually become a lifeline for locals.

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In fact, G:link’s most recent passenger satisfaction survey found 79 per cent or passengers were Gold Coast residents with 11 per cent visitors from Australia and 10 per cent international visitors.

He says it’s time to reframe the conversation around light rail and development on the Gold Coast - but also to speak straight. And to listen.

“There’s this real cancel culture around development and the discussion of ideas. People won’t listen to the message simply because they don’t like the messenger.

“You can’t bring anything up without it getting shouted down, which leads to secrecy, which leads to fear, which leads to nothing getting done.

“However, I think we have done ourselves a disservice in some respects by not confronting head-on the realities of the light rail.

Potential routes for stage 4 of the light rail.

“The truth is that, along the Gold Coast Highway corridor, there will be increased development - that’s how we pay for the infrastructure. It’s an approach that’s used worldwide and delivers great results for communities. The alternative is that we all pay increased rates and taxes.

“But it’s not going to be skyscrapers straight down the highway, primarily it will be medium-density buildings in certain pockets of suburbs.

“Even if you live within 400m of the station, you’re not going to see a 10-storey building on a cul-de-sac, there are rules in play that allow development, but sensible development.”

Matthew says while the concept of future development frightens many residents in beachside suburbs, better public transport itself is uncontroversial.

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However, he says the inability to hold a rational discussion about growth creates an environment everyone is reluctant to speak candidly, therefore making it controversial.

“I remember talking to a mayoral candidate during the last election campaign, asking where we should accommodate our city’s planned growth … should we develop the canefields, the Hinterland or the urban parts of our city?

“They answered that the growth should be in the existing urban area, along transportation routes in medium-scale developments.

“I asked how they would define medium-scale development. 10-storey buildings along the Gold Coast Highway was the answer. And yet, that same candidate opposed exactly that scale of development in Palm Beach during their campaign.

“Their position was conflicted and it’s a good proxy for where we’re at as a city. We’re losing the thread of the argument because we’re blinded by emotion and not seeing the facts.

“Our beachside suburbs should be where we’re building medium-density housing, not sprawling out into the suburbs where our population becomes disconnected and disenfranchised. As many people as possible should be able to live close to the beach. We’re the Gold Coast.”

An artist’s impression of a proposed light rail stop on the Gold Coast Highway at Palm Beach.

Matthew says just like the light rail is ultimately for the locals, so too should be the rest of our city - and especially the heart of our city.

Let’s face it, if we’re ever going to bring Surfers back to a place of paradise, we need to get our hands dirty.

Although Matthew means that literally.

“Maybe we just turf Cavill Mall,” he says.

“I think if we take bold steps like that, we can quickly get the heart of the city beating again.

“The best features of this city are natural, we need to play on that and our city’s personality.

“Spoiler alert – but I’d love to see that just happen one night, a surprise act of guerrilla urbanism. And knowing our city leaders, I reckon we’re right up for a bold and playful manoeuvre like that to change the paradigm.”

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Matthew says the Gold Coast has all of the key pieces to make a fantastic city - the beach, the river, the skyline, the restaurants, the culture, the infrastructure and the people - but it’s a matter of putting those pieces together to complete the puzzle.

“The light rail goes a long way to connecting these places, but at the moment in Surfers there just isn’t enough there to bring people out.

“We need to make it a place that’s paradise for pedestrians. A green mall is one start, but another green bridge from the back of HOTA connecting that cultural space to the back of Surfers is another.

“The fact that council owns the Transit Centre is another great opportunity, it only takes a few ideas and a few actions to really get the place pumping again.

“What we need to do is put tourism and events to one side for the moment and focus unashamedly on locals. If we love it, tourists will too and events will naturally be attracted as well.”

Matthew Schneider is pitching for the Gold Coast to be branded UNESCO’s first city of pop culture. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

Matthew says he would love to see the city embrace its reputation as a young, hip and trendy place. He says he is pitching for the Gold Coast to be branded UNESCO’s first city of pop culture, under its Creative Cities Network.

“The Gold Coast is 61 years old, we’re a young city. We pioneered high rises and colour and casinos and nightlife … we set the trends and we’re growing in culture.

“The tradition of this city is change itself, we grow and develop and that’s what makes us dynamic.

“You don’t come here for the quiet life, you come here to be a part of progress.”

Matthew says part of that progress means embracing traditional pieces of our city and reimagining them as part of the future.

He says surf clubs along the coastline could be transformed into a suite of bright and breezy beach clubs that attract the bold and the beautiful.

“They have the location, and by supporting them we are supporting one of the pillars of Australian society - surf lifesaving.

“We need to support the clubs with a business model that is sustainable and distinctive. One of those ways would be hosting their own beach club, it doesn’t need to be roped off from the public, we’re not talking about restricting the public from the sand or the sea … even though we have no issue with that when the Nippers are training. It’s about working our best assets to their best ability.”

Matthew says focusing on the personality and character of each suburb is integral to the city’s future.

And he says the introduction of light rail to growing suburbs like Mermaid Beach, Miami, Palm Beach, Burleigh and beyond is the perfect opportunity to reintroduce neighbourhood plans, which were scrapped years ago.

He says these hyper-local schemes were a great way to ensure the character of individual suburbs was protected.

“The Gold Coast started as a string of individual villages, and that was always part of its charm. Tedder Avenue is very different from James Street, is very different from Nobby’s Village and the Broadbeach Mall.

“Now is a great time for these high growth coastal suburbs to put down on paper what makes them special, what should be protected and what should be encouraged.”

Matthew says while the light rail is certain to bring change - whether that’s alternative routes for private cars, increased usage of public transportation or more development - it can also be a catalyst for retaining the culture and personality that has made Palm Beach and other coastal suburbs so popular.

“Look at Nobby’s and the new development happening there, the architecture embraces the local culture and history, it’s providing parking and linking to public transportation.

“It’s a great example of how we should move forward.

“The real secret of the light rail is that it’s actually the perfect opportunity to protect the very things we most love about our city.”