Rex Gardner: Dig deeper for a solution

HOBART’S traffic problems need to be buried once and for all — in a two-kilometre tunnel under the city.

Traffic on the Southern Outlet coming into Hobart about 9am. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

HOBART’S traffic problems need to be buried once and for all — in a two-kilometre tunnel under the city.

The tunnel would take through traffic from the two main contributors to our city’s gridlock — the Southern Outlet and the Tasman Highway — and would give Hobart back to the people.

Tunnels are the only serious long-term solution to our daily traffic snarls. Everything else is just tinkering at the edges of a problem that will simply get bigger as the years pass by.

There’s that old adage “when all is said and done, more is said than done”.

Nothing could be more applicable to Hobart’s gridlock today, because all we’ve done for decades is talk about it.

And guess what? It gets worse by the day.

Everyone who gets caught up in Hobart’s traffic snarls has an answer. More clearways, free bus travel, car sharing and light rail are all good mini-fixes, but ultimately we’re going to have to push the problem underground like hundreds of cities around the world have done.

More than 80 per cent of Hobartians drive to work each day, and experts say the best public transport system in the world won’t replace the convenience people find when using their own cars. Proof of that exists in spades.

The biggest resistance to road tunnels under Hobart is cost. Few people doubt a tunnel is the solution — it’s just a matter of where the $500 million to $600 million will come from.

“We can’t afford that,” say the small thinkers among us.

Half a billion dollars is “lunch money” for a Federal Government determined to spend big on infrastructure, and we shouldn’t fret about it. When the election cycle is right, it will flow.

And once the tunnel is built, there is always the option of a toll to pay for it. A $4 toll to travel from one side of Hobart to the other in a couple of minutes would be a blessing for many.

Or there’s the option of calling in a company such as Transurban, which operates much of Melbourne’s tollway system, to build and operate the tunnel for, say, 30 years, with ownership reverting to the state thereafter.

Traffic congestion has been a headline problem in Hobart for more than six decades. The opportunity for a city bypass called the Northside Freeway was suggested in Hobart’s transportation study in 1965, but slowly got lost in the mists of time.

Traffic in Macquarie Street, Hobart. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE

The Liberal Government’s vision in this election campaign is to actually facilitate traffic flowing into Hobart CBD from the south and the east via the Tasman Highway and the Southern Outlet.

If re-elected, the Hodgman Government would, over eight years, duplicate the Tasman Highway into four lanes from Sorell to the Tasman Bridge. Furthermore, a fifth lane would be created on the Southern Outlet to allow a smoother flow of traffic into and out of the city.

That’s all good and well, but those two measures will only deliver more traffic into Hobart a few minutes earlier.

But give the Government its due. It has thought subterranean, by proposing an underground Metro bus exchange somewhere under Franklin Square or the Elizabeth Street Mall, which surely is a forerunner to thinking more broadly about solutions to problems of road congestion.

Hobart’s traffic woes have got this city’s hackles up more than any other issue. Letters to the Editor columns are bursting. The Mercury could run a daily page of readers’ outrage and solutions to the problem, and still have plenty left over. Traffic surpasses health and education when it comes to everyday problems.

But Keith Anderson, of Kingston, hit the nail on the head in the Mercury letters page on Wednesday when he said we need more plumbers in politics.

Noting the Government’s plan for a fifth lane in from the south, he said: “The Southern Outlet itself is not the bottleneck; that begins at the traffic lights at Davey St and occupies most of Macquarie St and Davey St.

“Maybe we need a few more plumbers in politics. People understand that if I’m trying to get water from where it is to where I want it to be, a bigger pipe where the bottleneck is will be much more useful than a bigger pipe where it isn’t.”

Don’t you mean a tunnel, Keith?

There are lifestyle issues that a tunnel would solve as well. When you push traffic underground, life above ground becomes considerably more pleasant and pedestrian-friendly, and there’s little doubt Hobart CBD would flourish.

We fiercely defend the wonderful lifestyle Hobart offers, but because of increasing traffic and more visitors, the growing pains are stripping away the unique characteristics of this city.

Imagine Hobart without the constant traffic flows along Davey and Macquarie streets slicing through the heart of the city. Add to that the benefits of a Derwent ferry commuter service and light rail in from the northern suburbs.

Surely it is time to give Hobart back to the people and connect the city with Sullivans Cove again — a city where it is pleasant to stroll around through pedestrian malls and parks without the threat of death by motor vehicle.