The Problem of Traffic Congestion in Sydney - Case Study Example

THE PROBLEM OF CONGESTION IN THE MAIN CITIES; SYDNEY. Student name Module number Name of Tutor Word count: 2277 The problem of congestion in the main cities; Sydney Sydney is Australia's largest city, and it boasts of great architecture witnessed at such times in history. Despite its complexity, as it seems today, Sydney is an urban setting that has grown with the evolution of time. According to Attenbrow and Val, (2010), the original inhabitants of the city were the Aborigines who are believed to migrate to the small setting during the Upper Paleolithic period. With the evolution of time, Sydney has grown to the level it is today, both in Geographical and Demographic terms. The infrastructure of the moment can not compare in any way to that of the previous centuries. As the largest city in Australia, Sydney hosts several international meetings, conferences, and cultural events. Even though it happens to be the largest city, it is among the eight capital cities of Australia, with the official one being Canberra, which, ironically, has one of the smallest populations in Australia. It was a small town when Canberra became the capital in the early 19th century. The growth regarding the economy and social structures has not gone short of expectations. As would be expected, there has been the migration of people into the city, making it one of the most populated areas in Australia. The Australian Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development (2014/2015) projects a 33% population growth by the year 2031. ABS, (2013b) projects that the population will have grown to around 82% by the year 2061. With such tremendous growth in population, and with the current population becoming hard to contain with the current standards, the problems are bound to continue haunting the Australian government and civil society unless amicable solutions are suggested and implemented. It is important to note that just like most other cities on a global scale, Sydney is also experiencing the problems facing grown and growing economies. With a population of more than 5 million inhabitants, Sydney experiences transport problems especially congestion. This issue disrupts the economy and costs the government millions of dollars every day due to lack of workforce in industries at the appropriate time. The citizens are also affected in that they may lose sources of livelihood due to this. In a bid to get to work in time, employees may sleep fewer hours and wake up early. This habit may have grave consequences on health. Many others have resorted to renting houses near their workplaces, leading to loss of some income they strive hard to get. This issue is not isolated, though, as we will see in the course of this paper. According to BITRE, (2012), the rising cases of congestion in Australian cities has brought about the rise of active transport characterized by walking and cycling. However, those who can walk to and from work are those who work on the older less developed sections of the cities. The probability of engaging active traffic comes about by the distance between homes and workplaces. Where the distance involved is long, the residents have got no choice but to endure the long hours in traffic congestion. According to ABS (2007d), Sydney had the largest number of people using vehicles, either private or public, to work. These statistics were compared all the Australian cities in 2006. Among these, 21.7% used public transport while a whopping 61.9% used private transport. This use of private means of large numbers is one of the main contributors to the problems related to congestion. The graph below shows the increase in public and private vehicles over the years. The increase is one of the leading causes of congestion. ABS (further states that some residents of the city outskirts, including Ashfield and Wolli Creek, have more than 40% of the residents using public transport to work. Sydney residents travel for various reasons, not only to work. The tram and trains have eased congestion, though it remains a pain in the neck for the working class who have had to find alternatives to traveling long distances into Sydney town to work. Such options include relocating to the suburbs nearest to the city. While it may seem the best choice, it greatly inconveniences those people who leave their families to work. Another alternative that workers have sought is looking for jobs that suit their needs when it comes to traveling. More often than not, however, such jobs tend to be located in the rural areas where they may not benefit like in the city. Workplaces are known to enjoy a large pool of customers, suppliers and several other pro-bono benefits that conspicuously miss in the rural regions, according to Productivity Commission, PC (2014b). The administrative structure in Sydney has come up with the idea of co-locating jobs with residential areas. This suggestion is currently not in use because most of the people stay in the regions close to Sydney city. Moreover, there is a significant likelihood of having more skilled labor in the urban areas than in the countryside. Most of the urban dwellers tend to be more enlightened than their rural counterparts. The public exposure helps them gain significant levels of education that are desirable in workers, BITRE (2013b). As such, these people are likely not to move and settle in the rural regions. With this adamancy, the question of transport and congestion can not quickly resolve without critical evaluation of the factors playing a part in it. According to NRMA Motoring and Services (2011), building more road networks can never be a solution to the congestion problem in New South Wales, the region in which Sydney is. The National Roads and Motorists Association recognizes the need to link the major roads with technologies that are known to offer permanent solutions to the issue of congestion on the roads and in the ports. Given that the private car is likely to remain an excellent transport tool encouraging the population to use alternative means of transport is not the best way to alleviate congestion. In this era, road technologies should come in handy to protect the interests of the government and the citizenry, the two most important stakeholders who find themselves at the jaws of losing hard-earned monies to delays on the transport systems. One of the traffic congestion Scenario is as shown below; BITRE, 2000. Congestion is one of the principal causes of global warming. BITRE (2000), records that among the eight cities in Australia, Sydney has the highest level of congestion. Due to the long time spent idly on the road, vehicles produce more amounts of the oxides of Carbon that constitute greenhouse gases. According to the BITRE report, congestion and traffic interruptions in about six of Australia's cities accounts for not less than 13 million tons of greenhouse gases per year. Also, vehicles are likely to consume double the amount of fuel they normally do under free-flow conditions. The report further states that about 40% of the fuel consumed by Australian vehicles every day is as a result of traffic delays. Of the percentage of greenhouse gasses estimated to arise in the report above, Sydney provides roughly 4 million tons, followed by Melbourne at 2.9 tons, Brisbane at 1.3 tons and Adelaide at 0.9 tons. Canberra, the capital of Australia, happens to produce the least amount, probably due to the small population likely to travel there every day. Canberra has a population of roughly 500,000 inhabitants. The Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics approximated that traffic delays cost Australia not less than 9 billion Australian dollars every year. In a study the same year, the global analysis of traffic flow put Australia at position two among the most congested regions in the world. Sydney and Melbourne were named the most congested cities in the area. Though several possibilities of easing the pain that is traffic congestion have been evaluated and put into practice, the problem of traffic congestion is notunder control. In 2014 and 2015, the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) published reports on the economy of Australia, particularly around the issues surrounding transport and traffic delays. According to the 2014a report, as the standards of living increase, one thing that people tend to consider is owning a personal vehicle that comes up as a necessity to certain classes of life. As the standards soar and cars increase on the roads, this tends to aggravate the already volatile situation, making people stay on the roads till late, especially during the peak hours, that is, early morning and early evening, Australian Social Trends, (2008). Though Sydney has a vast network light rail, buses and ferries, the results in easing congestion have not been highly significant. Several cities have been able to fend off the problem that is congestion from the level of Sydney and the other Australian cities. Most of the best and the worst hit cities in the world are either in America or Australia. Let us look at one of the towns that have resolved the issue successfully. Stockholm city is a metropolitan region in Sweden. In actual sense, it is the capital city of Sweden and the most populous town in the Nordic. According to Craythorn and Dennis, (1997), about 2.5 million people live in the metropolitan region. The municipality has about 1 million inhabitants while the urban area has 1.5 million residents. Due to the problem of traffic congestion experienced since the beginnings of the town, the administrative unit decided to come up with ways to reduce the traffic snarl-up in the city. Dennis and Craythorn further say that in finding a solution once and for all, the government introduced the famous congestion tax on 1st of August, 2007. This introduction was after a seven-month trial that brought about to the decline in the rate of movement and also the creation of free areas for business operations. Furthermore, the fees that would accunulate would be used in building new roads around Stockholm and inside the city. According to the argument brought forward by the administrators, the reduction in traffic would lead to a better environment. Though some of the states voted against the motion to implement such charges, the residents and workers of Stockholm unanimously voted yes in the referendum that leads to the permanent introduction of the tax charges. Those who drove to the Central Business District during the restricted hours of the day were charged highly than those who were outside the Stockholm city. Further, electronic control points were erected on the entrance and exit areas of affected regions for payments. Stockholm deployed Cordon pricing to curb this problem. The public community voted the motion to engage the taxes from 30% to 52% within the seven month period it was on trial. According to Hermann, (2006) the Stockholm government used one method to implement several avenues of curbing traffic congestion. In charging motorists who drive into the city between 6:30 am to 6:29 pm, the administration reduced the congestion by 22%. To ease the identification of vehicles caught breaking the traffic rules, there were built in automatic number plate identification methods. The funds received were used to create better networks, especially the Stockholm Metro, a rail system that has underground and above ground stations. This system has helped ease the problem of transport in Stockholm. Due to the charges imposed on the motorists, most resulted in either public transport that is much more cheaper or active transport like cycling. The charges imposed appear below Time of day Tax Inner City Tax Essingeleden  00:00 – 06:29 0 SEK 0 SEK 0 € 06:30-06:59 15 SEK 15 SEK 1.62 € 07:00 – 07:29 25 SEK 22 SEK 2.38 € 07:30 – 08:29 35 SEK 30 SEK 3.24 € 08:30 – 08:59 25 SEK 22 SEK 2.38 € 09:00 – 09:29 15 SEK 15 SEK 1.62 € 09:30 – 14:59 11 SEK 11 SEK 1.19 € 15:00 – 15:29 15 SEK 15 SEK 1.62 € 15:30 – 15:59 25 SEK 22 SEK 2.38 € 16:00 – 17:29 35 SEK 30 SEK 3.24 € 17:30 – 17:59 25 SEK 22 SEK 2.38 € 18:00 – 18:29 15 SEK 15 SEK 1.62 € 18:30 – 23:59 0 SEK 0 SEK 0 Traffic congestion is one of the major things that disrupt the economy of nations. Large and small cities alike are affected. Sydney is the largest town in Australia. Among Australia's cities, Sydney happens to have the greatest working base and largest population also. As time evolves, the common citizenry can afford private vehicles. The graph in this paper has presented the case of growing population of vehicles over time. The consistent use of private means of transport is one of the major things that aggravate the situation. Those cities like Stockholm that have managed to come up with policies to regulate the flow of traffic into the city centers enjoy relatively better environments. Consequently, the convenient flow allows for an active working population whose productivity is not in doubt. The community will not stop growing. The economy has to keep growing and keep buying vehicles. To avoid drastic effects on the economy of Sydney and Australia at large, it would only be prudent to have control policies. Sydney has a lot to learn from Stockholm, whose tax charging system has been in existence for slightly over a decade. Reference List ABS, 2013b, Population Projections, Australia, 2012 (base) to 2101 cat. no. 3222.0, Canberra. Attenbrow, Val 2010, Sydney's Aboriginal Past: Investigating the Archaeological and Historical Records. Sydney: UNSW Press. pp. 152–153. ISBN 978-1-74223-116-7. Retrieved 27th March 2017 BITRE, 2012, Traffic Growth in Australia, Report 127, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra. ABS (2007d). Sydney social atlas. Canberra: the author. BITRE (2013a), Western Sydney employed residents: a profile of skills, occupation and operating industry. NRMA Motoring & Services. (2011). Decongestion 10 Ways to Relieve Sydney’s Traffic Headache. Sydney: NRMA Motoring & Services. https://bitre.gov.au/publications/2000/files/is_016. Retrieved on 27/03/2017, 6:23 pm Australian Social Trends, 2008. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 27 March 2017. Craythorn, H and Dennis, R (1997). The Ultimate Guide to International Marathons. United States: Capital Road Race Publications.  Hermann, K (2006). A new way to organize parking: the key to a successful sustainable transport system for the future. Environment and Urbanization. International Institute for Environment and Development Productivity Commission (2007b), Review of Price Regulation of Airport Service and traffic congestion, Inquiry Report No. 40, Productivity Commission, Canberra. Read More