Let’s confront traffic issues

HOBART has a peak-hour traffic problem but also a car-dependency problem — that’s why some of the creative solutions outlined in the Hobart City Council’s Draft Transport Strategy are welcome.

City traffic in Hobart. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

HOBART has a peak-hour traffic problem. Everyone who drives on any of the key arterial roads into the central business district every morning and evening knows that.

But Hobart also has a car-dependency problem. And that’s why some of the creative solutions outlined in the Hobart City Council’s Draft Transport Strategy and revealed in yesterday’s Mercury are welcome — at least in terms of sparking a discussion.

The Department of State Growth has estimated that a reduction of the number of vehicles on Hobart’s major arterials by just 6-7 per cent would be enough to deliver free-flowing traffic year-round. So addressing our traffic congestion issues is surely a nut we can crack — and we likely won’t need a sledgehammer to do it.

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For instance, the challenging idea floated in the transport strategy document of charging commuters more to park in the inner-city if they travel there in peak hour could be enough to convince at least some commuters to change their travel habits and take pressure off our roads. Similarly, the equally controversial proposal for a private car park levy on all CBD spots to fund pedestrian improvements would make it less attractive to drive all the way in — although the likelihood is that in many cases that idea would simply end up being a tax on the businesses that pay for many of those spots.

The Mercury is not endorsing either of the ideas; merely suggesting that as conversation-starters they are worth throwing into the mix.

But they are just two of the proposals outlined in the strategy document to make peak hour travel and/or driving into the CBD less attractive. The document also floats a range of potential incentives to make it more attractive to ditch the peak-hour crawl behind the wheel. These include better park and ride facilities in suburban centres, from where commuters could then catch public transport into the city instead of driving (although this would hardly be a council responsibility).

But the success of such facilities would live or die on much improved public transport services — from better buses operating on extended timetables, to ferries and the long-proposed light rail into the northern suburbs.

When we asked readers about public transport for the Tassie 2022 series at the start of this year, 74 per cent of the 800 respondents rated the introduction of ferries as important, fairly important or very important and 67 per cent said the same for light rail. Both results were considerably higher than the 50 per cent who said “building more roads” was important. The Government and our councils should be moving more urgently to implement both.

But we all also need to be realistic and accept Hobartians do like to drive around our city, and so we should also not stop talking about ideas such as an arterial bypass around the CBD to divert traffic from Macquarie and Davey Sts. It doesn’t make a lot of sense if we are envisioning a future Hobart that all traffic is funnelled directly through the centre of the city — even if, at the moment, most travel ends there. Fixing that problem is vital if we want to ensure Hobart retains its liveability into the future.