Is it time for Sydney to embrace Congestion Pricing?
Mapping freight movement, carparks, and congestion tax
In this edition:
Using Connected Vehicles to map freight
Using more commuter car parks to reduce congestion
Is it time for to Sydney embrace Congestion Pricing?
Byte Size Podcast: Road Safety and Behavioural Change
💡Case Study Highlight
➡️ The TL;DR: Compass provided an Origin-Destination matrix across 79 zones in South East Queensland, including Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and Sunshine Coast. It mapped 20 million freight trips, how long they took, the exact path the vehicle drove, and the travel time.
One of the complex tasks faced by transport authorities is understanding freight vehicle movements. There’s currently very little data available to inform travel models specifically around freight - typically collected via tube counts and production data. But this data still doesn’t provide information about routes, travel time, and stops taken between the origin and destination of freight vehicles.
Compass selected specific vehicle makes and models (including vans, utes, heavy vehicles, and some commercial SUVs), which were either prime movers or goods and services carriers. We then provided an origin-destination matrix across 79 zones, resulting in the paths below:
The origin-destination output included:
Average trip time (minutes)
Average morning peak trip time (minutes)
Average afternoon peak trip time (minutes)
Distance
In addition to this output, we also collated data regarding the specific pathing of vehicles (see image below), where drivers stop, deliver, and/or otherwise use public/private spaces, and insight into what roads were being utilised for certain freight routes.
🚗 More Carparks = Less Congestion?
What’s going on?
Sydney has some of the worst traffic congestion in Australia. While the Australian government has always resorted to creating more parking spaces, do more commuter car parks mean less congestion?
What does this mean?
The Commuter Car Park program — a solution that is implemented by the NSW Government — is designed to ease congestion on roads by delivering more accessible and convenient public transport infrastructure.
However, some industry experts believe that building more commuter parking can actually intensify traffic congestion since it attracts more people to drive instead. People will always choose the most convenient way to move around, and driving has always been considered the more flexible, comfortable and reliable option when compared to public transport.
While it is not surprising that commuter car parks have always remained filled up as the demand has always been higher than the supply, Sydney is running out of space for cars — be they moving or parked.
Other questions emerge: Is there a better way to tackle traffic congestion? Would better public transportation services be a possible alternative?
Why should I care?
There are currently more than 12,000 commuter car spaces across Sydney with around 6,000 additional spaces on the way
Sydneysiders can expect to pay up to $78 a day for parking
Searching for parking creates 30% of congestion in crowded areas
Raises questions about whether increasing car park spaces will actually reduce congestion
Read the full article by ptc.
💰 Is it Time for Sydney to Embrace Congestion Charging?
What’s going on?
Aussies spend around 216 hours a year commuting to and from work (at least pre-pandemic). Would the introduction of a controversial congestion charge for Sydney help with traffic?
What does this mean?
A congestion tax for Sydney CBD might be the remedy to the city’s excessive congestion. Marion Terrill from the Grattan Institute suggests it is the most effective way to dampen people’s demand for driving in the city.
Implementing the tax assumes that people are more likely to take public transportation to avoid it. Moreover, at least 3,000 fewer cars will be on the road during morning and evening peak hours, which creates better traffic flow and a reduction in carbon emissions.
NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet has completely ruled out regressive congestion levies. He questions the fairness to households with different incomes — would congestion-based charges price the poor off the road for the benefit of those who can pay?
Why should I care?
Under the plan charges would be applied to drivers who enter a 20 sq km area around inner-city Sydney or would be imposed at certain times to reshape how and when people travel.
Australia would fail to meet both its 2030 and 2050 emissions reduction targets if the current level of congestion continues.
Read the full article by The Guardian
🎙Road Safety: Do we need better researcher-practitioner relationships?
Why do we need better partnerships between road safety practitioners and researchers? We asked Robyn Robertson, the president and CEO of the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) - a Canadian-based organisation that focuses on road safety advocacy, education, and behavioural change. Check out the show notes here on Substack.
What will you learn:
How medical, legal, and road safety groups can work together
Canadian Road Safety trends and how they compare to Aussie data
How to decrease your personal risk on the road
Got feedback on how we can improve our emails? Chuck Janis an email at janis@compassiot.com.au on how we can do better
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Compass IoT Team