Traffic gridlock threatens Hobart’s hard-won lifestyle

Alleviate short-term road pressures then build a plan for the long haul, says David O’Byrne

HOBART, with its increasing population and growing popularity with tourists, is now feeling and acting like the state’s capital. This brings with it wonderful benefits but also creates challenges and quite simply, our infrastructure is failing to keep up.

Our capital city is in desperate need of a long-term plan to alleviate congestion. It requires short-term action to ease the current pressure with a stepped-out plan for the future. Not acting now will turn Hobart into a broken city, failing to meet expectations of its citizens and visitors, much like Sydney has become.

Time is our most valuable resource, particularly for working people. Traffic snarls erode our time to relax, to be with our children and simply get things done. In the past three years, people in Hobart have been spending far too much time stuck in traffic.

The State Government just wants to wish the problem away, hoping something will happen. It won’t.

The State Government should be condemned for its failure to come up with a coordinated response, its lack of a vision and absence of any plan for the future. If just one car breaks down in the city, on the Brooker Highway, on the Tasman Bridge or on the Southern Outlet, the capital often is reduced to gridlock.

It does not have to be this way.

Hobart has its challenges. We have a CBD squeezed between a river and a mountain. The river is wide with a harbour that restricts our ability to cross and we have more than 70 per cent of people coming into the small CBD from the Clarence, Kingborough, Glenorchy and municipalities beyond.

The Liberal Government lauds its infrastructure investment, which amounts to little more than wafer thin boasts about a cable car (as if it had already been built) a river ferry (with no ferry or infrastructure) and a Bridgewater bridge which has yet to pass first inspection let alone funding from the Commonwealth.

The recent pre-election announcement by the Liberals on the upgrade to the Tasman Highway from Sorell should be viewed as that, an announcement.

Like when they announced with great fanfare an upgrade to the airport roundabout a number of years ago, with no activity to date, and let’s not forget the four-lane dual carriageway Midland Highway broken promise.

Solutions proposed outside of the Hobart CBD without a combined CBD and regional solution is literally just kicking the problem down the road.

If we don’t do something soon, the benefits and advantages of living and working in Hobart will evaporate. Failure will also have a massive impact on the state’s economic productivity.

The strategy must be comprehensive, with complementary strategies that ensure we can move around our city and region with the least of amount of anguish and stress.

Over the past few months I have been doorknocking and engaging with people across the seat of Franklin and

beyond and there are plenty of ideas to be considered.

Some of them are infrastructure upgrades to alleviate key congestion points such as the Southern Outlet, Davey and Macquarie streets intersections (where we should also have a standing tow truck capacity), as well as the Sandy Bay Davey St intersection. The potential use of underpasses to reduce queuing at lights must be considered at these points and potentially other key points on Macquarie and Davey streets.

Upgrades must occur where the Domain Highway meets the Brooker Highway.

The community want their government to do work on the possibility of a western ring road connecting our southern suburbs to the northern suburbs.

Clearways at peak times must be established on Davey and Macquarie streets with enhanced synchronicity of the lights at intersections.

An integrated public transport service including bus, rail and ferry must be planned and investment provided, the proviso being that this must be reliable, time efficient, affordable and able to meet the needs of the students and families travelling to and from schools. The Tasman Bridge is under enormous pressure.

Planning must begin for its replacement with the ability to allow increased pedestrian, bike and prioritised public transport access.

These ideas from the community must be transparently considered.

Not one of these ideas alone will resolve the situation, but combined, they will add up to a far more efficient and user-friendly commuter experience.

This will take work, leadership and vision from a state government. While the current government hopes the issue will go away. In contrast, Labor is determined to work on our traffic plan and build a system for the future.

Yes, it is a challenge, but it is not rocket science, more just simple commonsense. Unfortunately, this is a commodity the Government and minister seem to lack.