Why wait? Ease traffic right now

It’s time for a serious conversation about buses, because we are facing years of roadworks, explains Michael Larissey

BRENDAN Blomeley brings an important focus to the role buses play in reducing congestion on our overcrowded transport corridors (“Express buses a crucial part of reducing Eastern Shore congestion,” Talking Point, July 27).

As the owner of Redline, Tasmania’s oldest private bus company and the bus contractor of the Sorell, Dodges Ferry and Southern Beaches area to Hobart, I have witnessed a steady increase in traffic congestion over the past decade as the area continues to grow.

In the great Tasmanian traffic debate there has always been a focus on the big-ticket items such as light rail, tunnels and ferries.

While these all have some merit and should be considered as part of our longterm planning, they all have something in common — they are all wildly expensive, they will take years if not decades to provide any reprieve and they all have a long line of political, planning and funding hurdles to overcome before they become a reality.

Meanwhile the simplest, most cost effective and immediate solution is right in front of us. Improved bus transport and more express services.

Combined with a 50 per cent reduction in fares, a wellplanned express bus service would require no costly infrastructure to be built, does not require the state government to patiently wait cap in hand for federal funding and will not be delayed by a series of expensive consultant and planning reports.

Two extra buses in the morning and two in the evening at peak hour on the southeast corridor will remove around 200 car trips per day off the highway.

With the support of a media campaign promoting the use of public transport, buses offer a sensible, reliable and costeffective way to reduce the number of cars on the road.

We can do it quickly and reduce congestion in weeks

BUSES OFFER A COSTEFFECTIVE WAY TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF CARS ON THE ROAD. WE CAN REDUCE CONGESTION IN WEEKS AND NOT WAIT THREE OR FOUR ELECTION CYCLES FOR A SOLUTION AND FUNDING TO FALL FROM THE SKY

and not wait three or four election cycles for a solution and funding to magically fall from the sky.

So why is improved bus transportation, a proven and practical solution to the state’s congestion problems, regularly glanced over by those making the decisions?

This solution might not share the romance of trains and ferries, but it has proven over decades to be a cost effective, viable and practical solution to a problem that exists now, using infrastructure that is in place now.

I am sure it would be welcome relief to the thousands of motorists who are currently watching heavy machinery move in on the airport interchange site.

While we all welcome the progress and the solutions this will bring, we can only try to imagine what peak hour traffic will look like in a few months’ time when works are fully under way.

And it is planned to go on for two years, longer if there are any delays.

It’s time to get real about traffic congestion and rethink the role buses can play in achieving a positive solution for this corridor.

A well-planned, affordable, express bus network will take cars off the road and relieve congestion, and we can do it now!