source: www.transport-impacts.com
Public transport patronage in Sydney is increasing with the NSW Government’s annual household travel survey indicating rail travel was up 3% and bus travel up 2.5% in 2008-09. Car trips fell by almost 1% for the fourth year in a row.
Infrastructure Australia has rejected all of the Sydney transport projects the NSW Government was seeking federal funding for. Infrastructure Australia has assessed plans for the western metro, the M5 expansion, the south-west rail link and the Pacific Highway upgrades, with only the Pacific Highway upgrades approved. Political instability in NSW is said to have contributed to the failure to secure funding, with the cancelling of the Metro project earlier this year marking the 14th cancelled rail project in 15 years.
source: http://global-warming.accuweather.com
The Bureau of Meteorology has indicated that there is a significant likelihood of ‘La Nina’ weather pattern this year. This will mean more chance of above average rain and floods, especially inland eastern and northern regions.
Environment group Beyond Zero Emissions and Melbourne University’s Energy Institute released joint research that shows Australia’s energy needs can be met with 100% renewables within 10 years. The Stationary Energy Plan shows this is achievable with a combination of energy efficiency, fuel-switching from gas and oil to electrified energy services, then using a combination of commercially available renewable energy technologies. Wind and Concentrating Solar Thermal with Molten Salt Storage are the two primary technologies used at approximately 40:60 a ratio, with some backup from biomass and existing hydro. The required investment of $37 B/year is the equivalent of 3% of GDP. The money spent to implement the plan is the equivalent of $3.40/person/day. Avoided future costs of fossil fuels plus externalities such as global warming, make the plan an economically attractive.
source: http://static.worldarchitecturenews.com
By Russell Yell
This month we delve into the realms of transport interchanges and a brief history of what I see as an iconic example of transport history being reborn for a new environmentally conscious future.
source: www.sydneycyclist.com
by Claire Porgand
If you braved the cold on the last Sunday in June you may have seen an unusual group of cyclists. Lycra was abandoned for plus fours, tweed skirts and tweed jackets, whilst the speed slowed to a steady pace. The tweedy peloton wound through the city before finishing at Alexandria Park for picnicking and bicycle polo.
SCAPE strategy have recently completed the Contextual and Strategic Framework reports for the Hunter Street Revitalisation Masterplan (HSRM) in Newcastle, NSW.
Led by the City of Newcastle Council, the aims of the project are to arrest the decline of Hunter Street and to bring about revitalisation by way of 4 sets of principles : street activation via good urban design , a better integrated transport network, a system of green spaces or corridors and connecting cultural aspects with community use and future desires.
This scheme, and many others, is the result of an integrated planning approach that informed the Melbourne 2030 Vision, which has provided the blueprint for a more efficient city. In 2006 the State of Victoria released the document “Meeting our Transport Challenges”, setting out the transport vision for Victoria for the next 10 years. A longer term vision for the next 25 years is documented in “The Victorian Transport Plan”, released in 2009. Both of these documents refer to the need for the Victorian transport system to evolve and provide travel options that are cleaner and healthier.
As part of a range of actions intended to reduce carbon emissions in the short term, the 2009 Transport Plan set out the Government’s intention to implement a bicycle share scheme. The bicycle share scheme is not intended as an alternative for car based commuter trips, rather it is intended to replace the short trips from transport hubs to CBD locations and short trips during the day which otherwise might be made by taxi, tram or bus. By providing this alternative the bicycle share scheme not only provides a healthy means to travel but also relieves pressure on the public transport system by removing some of the short CBD trips.
Kite Richards
The City of Sydney Council with support of the State Government is looking to ban private cars from using George Street between Bathurst and Market Streets with only buses and taxis allowed through. Traffic would be redirected at Liverpool and King Streets onto Kent and Castlereagh Streets. The plan also involves establishing 40 km/h zones across the city and introducing 10 km/h pedestrian priority shared zones.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/plan-to-close-sydneys-george-street-to-traffic-20100506-ubg0.html
The Federal Government’s budget has allocated nearly a $1b towards the Australian Rail Track Corporation to fund a package of rail projects to increase freight rail movements, reduce travel times and enhance productivity. Additionally, the Government has committed to establishing an intermodal terminal precinct at Moorebank to address the critical shortage of intermodal capacity in Sydney. The terminal will provide a much needed integrated transport solution for the movement of freight to and within the Sydney basin.
The NSW Bike Plan promising $158 million over 10 years for new bike paths has been released. The Plan will commit $80 million over the decade to connect 13 high priority ”missing links” where cycleways are interrupted, $78 million would be spent to ”fast-track” bike networks in Parramatta, Liverpool and Penrith. The plans also has provisions for dedicated signs for cyclists, 332 new bike parking spaces at transport interchanges and an improved online journey planner. However, the plan has been criticised for being a token commitment to cycling.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/cyclists-win-more-safe-paths-20100516-v6fb.html
The first electric car recharging station in NSW has opened in Glebe for customers of a hybrid car rental company. Lord Mayor Clover Moore says it is part of a pilot program testing the viability of charging stations, and the commencement of Sydney being ready for when electric cars start arriving in 12 to 18 months.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/24/2907812.htm?section=justin
Kite Richards
The Federal Government may commence with legal action in the International Court of Justice to stop Japan’s ‘’scientific” whale hunt. This comes after the Environment Minister rejected a ”compromise deal” from the International Whaling Commission to set long-term whale-kill quotas for Japan, Norway and Iceland and proposed instead a five-year phase-out plan for whaling in the Southern Ocean. However, Japan also rejected the ”peace deal” put forward by the IWC on the basis that the cuts it proposed to Japan’s ‘’scientific” whaling program in the Antarctic were ”too drastic”. If Australia’s whaling objectives are not met diplomatically at the IWC meeting next month, then legal action is to be taken in time to halt Japan’s annual scientific whaling hunt this November.
http://www.bluetier.org/images3/20040606c.JPG
A concentrated effort to stop illegal land clearing is underway with the NSW government set to begin mailing satellite photos of infringements to farmers across the state. The surveillance satellite gives the government one of the strongest environmental monitoring systems in the world, with images of 100% of farms in the state now being taken every year. The Department of Environment and Conservation requires a permit before the clearing of native vegetation, with one farmer fined $40,000 after pleading guilty to illegally clearing more than 100 hectares of native vegetation.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/big-brother-checks-up-on-farmers-20100503-u3rk.html
Craig Schulman
In February 2009 the Australian Government announced a $42 billion economic stimulus package to reduce the impact of the global economic recession on Australia. $6 billion was allocated for the provision of 20,000 Australia-wide, new social housing dwellings over three years, with $1.9 billion allocated to deliver around 6,000 social housing homes in NSW by June 2012. The task of delivering the social housing homes was bestowed upon Housing NSW (HSNW) who estimated that between 400-500 development approvals would be needed to meet the Commonwealth’s targets.
http://images.dailyme.com/assets/2009.jpg
by Kite Richards
With an inconclusive United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen and the implosion of a political deal to pass the enabling legislation, the Australian Government has decided to defer its proposed emissions trading scheme until well after the next election. These policy changes have implications for development of new projects in the low carbon sector.
At the last Federal election the Labour Government committed to commence an emissions trading scheme (ETS) to tackle climate change. However, the government has indicated it will now wait until the end of 2012, when the current Kyoto commitment period ends, before implementing its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).
While the government’s target on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions are said to have remained unchanged, the government indicates it will be in a better position to assess the level of global action on climate change at that time. Further, the poor international response at Copenhagen has seen the government indicate it would not try to legislate the CPRS even by its new delayed start year of 2013 unless there is ”credible action” by the end of 2012 from countries such as China, India and the US.