Peter Seamer: Get smart to build a better Melbourne
INFRASTRUCTURE is necessary but it won’t solve Melbourne’s problems — to do that, the world’s most liveable city has to think outside the square and begin a cultural shift, writes Peter Seamer.
Susie O'Brien
Don't miss out on the headlines from Susie O'Brien. Followed categories will be added to My News.
MELBOURNE is one of the world’s great cities. But like many cities, congestion on our roads and trains is threatening our lifestyles and economy. Housing costs in inner and middle Melbourne cause financial problems for many and homelessness for some.
We are increasingly a two-tiered society with jobs, transport and cultural services benefiting generally well-off inner-city dwellers while new home buyers in the middle and outer suburbs miss out, but still pay the lion’s share of the costs.
SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR MONDAY COMMUTE
As we double our population by the mid-2050s, we will need at least twice as many homes and twice as many trips on our roads and trains; 80 per cent of Melbourne’s commuter trips are made by car.
Even doubling our rail capacity over 30 years, at some extraordinary cost, will not improve that ratio.
However, much discussion, including the debate between public transport advocates and drivers, is missing the point.
While we need infrastructure — and the government’s activity in recent years is welcomed — ultimately, we have to be smarter about how our city works. We can’t “build our way out of congestion”.
We must change the way we do things. We can change the way we work. More of us can work from home or off peak.
HOW TO TRANSFORM THE WEST INTO THE BEST
THE BEST MELBOURNE SUBURBS TO LIVE, WORK, PLAY
New technologies will accelerate that transition. Even the partial elimination of some trips can be very effective in reducing congestion.
In simplistic terms, if we all worked from home 50 per cent of the time, we would halve the demand on our roads and trains.
That’s the least expensive and environmentally and socially friendly way of resolving our transport problems and while it’s impossible for some businesses, it clearly has a role to play.
We should charge more for expensive road and rail trips in peak hour into the CBD and less to locations we want to encourage.
We should also reduce charges on the empty trains and freeways running in the opposite direction to the morning and evening peaks. Lowering or removing charges for the trips we want people to make and increasing the charges for users of congested peak-hour infrastructure makes sense.
Instead of expensive and inequitable growth of employment in the CBD, we must accelerate the growth of business and jobs in our major activity centres such as Box Hill, Sunshine and Dandenong and in the bigger economic clusters.
“Plan Melbourne”, the generally bipartisan government plan for our city, recommends the development of powerful, well-serviced business clusters, usually based around hi-tech institutions, close to where people live.
Similarly, last week’s launch of “Future Cities” by Infrastructure Australia supports that. Melbourne has a range of clusters of which Monash is the biggest with about 85,000 jobs and East Werribee, a developing cluster, the smallest.
Yet, other than a couple of exceptions, our clusters have been generally overlooked by successive governments and councils and have been left to private enterprise to develop.
Mostly, they have little public transport, poor access for business trips to the CBD and airports, and limited services such as residential hotels, cafes, support industries, entertainment venues and childcare for their visitors and professional staff.
Government needs to prioritise transport access to these areas and give financial support, as they have sometimes in the past, to make the areas attractive for businesses.
This can be done at a fraction of the cost of trying to increase transport capacity into the inner areas.
NEXT CHAPTER ‘CRITICAL’ FOR MELBOURNE
ONE FACTOR MAKING ‘CHEAP’ SUBURBS EXPENSIVE
Councils need to free up zoning controls to allow a wider variety of enterprises to prosper and additionally encourage higher adjoining residential density to allow us to live near our work.
Instead of a long expensive commute, we can walk, ride, use local buses or take short car journeys.
Under this plethora of issues, governments struggle to respond to citizens demanding solutions.
Unfortunately, it is easier, and usually better politics, to announce the “next new big transport project” rather than tackling complex but ultimately more successful mechanisms such as user charges and the development of business hubs.
Some current government projects achieve this well: the level-crossing removal program frees much-needed road capacity for trips in middle Melbourne, as well as new capacity on trains.
Suburban road capacity is particularly important long-term as we will rely heavily on road-based autonomous vehicles in coming decades.
Similarly, the North-West Link will allow for much-needed access for business and commuter movements in the northern part of the city; but unless it links to the transport-poor cluster of businesses around Latrobe University and Heidelberg, an opportunity will be lost.
But momentum is building. The Victorian Planning Authority heads the government’s efforts to accelerate growth in our key clusters and the Committee for Melbourne has a strong interest in major suburban business hubs and the greater metropolitan area as part of its Melbourne 4.0 report.
HALLOWED GROUNDS SHOULD BE OPEN TO ALL
THE PARK THAT WOULD CHANGE THE FACE OF THE DOCKLANDS
Changing times require a variety of new techniques such as differential transport charging, new modes of working, developing better centres for business in key locations throughout the suburbs and local zoning that allows higher densities, particularly near business centres.
Working differently will help reduce excessive transport demand and allow good access to jobs regardless of where we live.
This will open up affordable housing for many and turn around the two-tier society now developing.
But the challenge is to implement these detailed actions and not just wait for the “next big transport project”.
PETER SEAMER WAS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE VICTORIAN PLANNING AUTHORITY FROM 2007-2017
AFL locker room lechery reveals lack of respect
The sight of Richmond ruckman Mabior Chol being groped by his teammates was schoolboy locker room lechery. It was also pathetic, weird and we deserve better from our AFL players, writes Susie O’Brien.
Box office classics fail to capture iPhone generation
Movie night seems like the perfect way to get ourselves through stage four. But trying to introduce the iPhone generation to much-loved classics from the ‘80s has been a massive flop, writes Susie O’Brien.