Investing in our clean, green transport future

The Australian Conservation Foundation has produced a report: Investing in Sustainable Transport: Our Clean, Green Transport Future in collaboration with the Rapid, Active and Affordable Transport Alliance (RAATA).

Here we explain what the problem is, our vision in investing in sustainable transport and finally, the benefits in relation to our current transport issues.

The problem

There are two clear challenges facing Australia:

1. The need to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions to avoid dangerous climate change; and
2. Increasingly scarce and expensive oil.


The Federal Government has a long tradition of favouring roads in budget spending. The Auslink program funding ratio favoured roads by 12:1 compared to rail in the 2004–2009 period. In the most recent Federal budget there was a substantial investment in public transport infrastructure – however there had been years of neglect and there is a lot of catching up to do. The government needs to provide the right incentives and policies to make it easy for people to choose public and active transport. These incentives include differential tax treatments, refining the CPRS legislation and other complementary and additional measures. This is the responsibility of state and federal governments. We are looking to the Federal Government to take a leadership role.

Air pollution is not always so visible. Image Kerstin Schekenburger

The vision

By investing in sustainable transport, Australia will be better able to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and wean us from our addiction to oil. We can create cities that are more efficient, cleaner and more liveable places with fast, reliable and convenient public transport and healthier people.

Benefits

By reallocating the transport budget to two thirds spent on public and active transport measures and one third on roads we can provide a raft of economic, environmental and social benefits:

• Reduced congestion


• Reduced traffic accidents and pollution.


• Greater physical activity improving our health.


• More land for agriculture close to cities. More land available in urban areas for recreation and habitat for wildlife and to provide ecosystem services which underpin our wellbeing.


• Fewer resources used in providing transport.


• Less social isolation for people trapped in remote suburbs which have had poor public transport links.


• Reduced vulnerability to oil scarcity. Increasing clean green transport jobs.

ACF has formed an alliance to strengthen the voice advocating for change:

RAATA – the Rapid, Active and Affordable Transport Alliance – a group of 17 organisations with a common interest in promoting public and active transport measures:

ACF, ACTU, ASPO, Bicycle NSW, Bus Industry Confederation, City of Sydney, Conservation Council of South Australia, Conservation Council of Western Australia, Diabetes Australia, Environment Victoria, GetUp, Heart Foundation, Nature Conservation Council of NSW, Public Transport Users Association, Queensland Conservation Council, Rail Tram and Bus Union, UITP (International Union of Public Transport).


Ten bikes can park in the same space as one car. Image Julia Sakkis

Current transport issues

• Australia will be particularly vulnerable to oil shortages as we have developed into one of the world's most car dependent nation over the course of the 20th century. Australia has probably reached its peak oil production and the world's supply will probably reach its peak in the next year or so.

• We now import more than 50 per cent of our oil and Geoscience Australia has forecast  this will rise to 70 per cent within 6 years. In 2006 net imports of oil were worth about $12 billion.

• Our large cities are rapidly developing on the urban fringes due to population increases and it is the responsibility of government to provide public transport options so that low income families living in these areas are not forced to own and maintain two cars for the rest of their working lives – spending as much on transport each week as for food or housing. If a family runs 2 six-cylinder cars it will cost them $27,000 a year to own, maintain and fuel them per year (NRMA figures).

• It will also assist those who don’t or can’t afford to drive from being trapped in remote suburbs where there is greater risk of exclusion from jobs and services due to poor public transport.

• At the same time we must redevelop cities and suburbs to support Transit Oriented Development to enable communities to reduce travel demand because many jobs and services are provided in the local area and are easily reached by walking and cycling and with easy access to public transport.

• The economic benefit of providing more public transport is apparent when you look at the costs of roads versus rail. Rail is considerably cheaper to provide per passenger kilometre travelled than road. For the same amount of money you can provide more transport for more people in less space.

• Congestion on the roads is growing and costs about $21 billion per year in productivity losses. It is essential to provide public transport options to enable those who need to be on the road to get around more quickly. This can be achieved without having to build more roads.

• Public transport provides significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions even when coal provides the electricity. If our urban train systems could be powered by renewable energy this would lead to even more substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Less traffic means less air pollution, water pollution (from road run-off) and less noise – these all are externalities resulting from our addiction to oil.

• Public transport provides ongoing clean green transport jobs.

Related resources

You can download some presentations on this subject at the Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas »

Download the Investing in Sustainable Transport: Our Clean, Green Transport Future Report »

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