Melbourne

I have to admit, I did a double-take at "Australia's biggest city" referring to Melbourne. But it does in fact appear to be correct, so long as you look at "significant urban areas", and not the "greater capital city statistical area" or "urban centre".

To be honest I'm not sure what each of these is supposed to mean. GCCSA is at least clear in that it's the SUA of the main city plus a few others (Central Coast and Bacchus Marsh & Gisborne, respectively), but what is SUA vs UC? Clearly neither is as limited as "city council area", but beyond that? 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, this is certainly not a problem unique to Melbourne. It's been quite a while since I've made it down there, but the perception I get is that yous have a lot better options for public transport than we do up in the sunshine state. And at the very least,

But it's the difference between an hour-and-a-half of travel time, compared to maybe 30 or 40 minutes

Is incredibly relatable here, too. It's a problem across the entire country, as well as in other anglosphere countries around the world. We desperately need a wide-spread cultural and political change when it comes to transport and city planning. That means more and more frequent public transport. More public transport routes that aren't solely designed to get into and out of the CBD. More and better active transport routes. Better zoning laws to enable more people to live closer to where they want to go. And it also necessitates not spending billions upon billions of dollars on road-widening to keep making cars more and more appealing.

This article was much better than I was expecting, honestly, touching on non-CBD routes, congestion charging, and building more in areas with pre-existing good public transport. But it was all so very surface-level. More articles like this, for Melbourne, for other Australian cities, and at the national level, is great. But even greater would be more articles that allow themselves to really delve in present a clear vision for a better future.

Ugh. It seems that realistically we're going to be wrestling with the suburban sprawl for quite a while.

Random thoughts: How much of this is the demographics of the population growth being dominated by young families (which is likely a fairly severe factor toward heavy car usage)?

It feels to me that the call to build out more and more public transport inevitably runs into costing and logistics issues (thus my top comment). The most logical way to ease traffic problems like this is to lean into 15 minute living, which requires higher density living in which a walk, bicycle or small electric vehicle can take you just about anywhere you want to go.

While there's plenty of higher density development going on, I'm skeptical that it's selling the idea well. How many of these residents are "shoe box" apartments in cuboid buildings which provide little natural sunlight or air flow? Look at a satelite image of european cities and look at the residential buildings ... so often you'll see that they have a doughnut shape and an inner garden, which provides natural light and airflow to most apartments, as well as more natural settings. Is car use being minimised in any of these areas? Likely not (as all the new residents need to drive places too!) ... so the case for a car-less living is just not being made any where.

I'd like to see a move to make the CBD mostly car free so that people can see it. The other day I was walking down Elizabeth during/close-to peak hour, and the pedestrians were moving faster than the cars, which meant the total movement of individuals far exceeded that of the cars (which were all mostly single driver of course!). Take ICU vehicles off a number of streets completely except for special purposes, basically as is done now anyway, and allow pedestrians to use and enjoy the streets. And then get some smart urban planning in the picture.

Unfortunately, I honestly think it's kinda over for Melbourne (and maybe Australian cities generally). Property prices are too high and precious, the legacy of the CBD + suburban sprawl is going to curse the city as it grows, the population growth seems an additional burden while trying to pivot, and its culture of urban planning and development seems just cursed (fed square, docklands, Flemington race course flooding, shoe-box apartments everywhere and various stories I've heard about corruption in some local councils in growth corridors).

Side observation: I somehow missed the memo that Melbourne had overtaken Sydney as Australia's biggest city.

Mandatory office days despite working on a tech job that has no onsite requirements, and needing to get to the station without walking 4km and waiting for a bus. That and people wanting to drive to avoid shit PT and sick people.

The downvote brigade got you. Must be chilling out in All with nothing better to do. Fucking weird.

But Dr Terrill said the easiest and cheapest solution was to implement congestion charge

This is the kind of thinking that got us into this mess. If you want people to take PT then improve PT rather than making non-PT worse. Don't punish people for suffering at the hands of a problem that decades of successive governments, the same ones that now want to charge them for it, have created, contributed to, or simply ignored. If someone has spent tens of thousands on something that costs thousands more to register, insure, fuel, and maintain, so they can sit in a stop-start grind for 60-90 min just to get to work, how bad must the alternatives be?

The simple fact is every day heaps of people are trying to get to or from the same place at the same time. PT definitely helps, and would have to remain part of the solution in one form or another, but ultimately it still masks the same place, same time issue. I can't help but think that getting away from the "CBD" mindset would remove so many issues. And shorter term, stop trying to force people back into the office. Less people needing to go anywhere at all, and those that do aren't all converging on the same point. Winning.

Of course you also have groups like CBD landlords, car manufacturers, fuel companies etc etc as well as govt budgets that have a vested interest in things not changing, and the safest political move is to just take more money from people who will grumble, but have no choice but to cough up. Rinse and repeat.

Shitting on cars seems popular but imho that is lazy activism, the problem isn't "cars", it's a bunch of things all contributing to them being necessary in situations where they shouldn't be.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries data showed Victorian motor sales in 2023 outperformed 2022 by 12.5 per cent — and 2024 numbers are already outpacing last year's growth.

Liam Davies, from the Centre of Urban Planning at RMIT, said while research had not been conclusive in this space, he suspected travel patterns had also changed since COVID, putting more people on the road.

"For someone who works at home and finishes at 5 o' clock, it means they could then spend some of their travel time budget visiting friends or family," Dr Davies said.

The upward trend in vehicle ownership wasn't isolated to Victoria — registrations had increased across the country, and in some places, at a pace faster than population growth.

Transport projects included the Metro Tunnel in Melbourne's CBD, the Suburban Rail Loop in the south-east, and the upgrading of trams, trains and buses across the network.

The Victorian government had taken steps towards this in their Housing Statement, which aimed to build thousands of homes in areas of Melbourne which have existing transport infrastructure.

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