Thanks to everyone who contributed to the process – for voting and, more importantly, providing comment. We have started feeding all our content into the innovation process and wanted to keep you updated with the results.
Extension of the tram is by far the most popular with 73.6 per cent of responses but the major obstacles are cost and the current government’s anti-tram position. There is wide acceptance in the community that the tram will eventually extend to Coolangatta but the data says we can’t do trams right now. Buses are the best interim approach for linking the light rail at Burleigh to Coolangatta (and the airport) but improvements to the bus system should be mindful of light rail coming through in the future.
Doing nothing is not really an option because traffic problems will only increase in line with population growth.
Three things came out of our process for immediate consideration:
- Getting cars off the road;
- Starting work on bus lanes.
- Coordinating traffic lights; and
The first option, getting cars off the road, is dependent on thousands of individuals making a decision. That requires an education campaign or creation of a better alternative. We are pushing that option through the next stage of our process. We hope any solution would start having an impact in about 12 months and would gradually increase as education or acceptance of an alternative increases.
Bus infrastructure is the Government’s preferred approach with land already identified for resumption/road widening. Buses often block traffic when they only partially get into the bus stop lane or when two buses reach the stop at the same/similar time. We recommend resumptions commence with a priority for improving or building new bus stops and triggering any resumption where this land has already been set aside by new developments – this is the low hanging fruit approach. Construction of the bus lanes and/or bus stops should be added to future infrastructure work and be rolled out to better link the light rail with the southern parts of the city and reduce the number of cars on the road.
Coordinating the traffic lights has to be seen in the context of AI, which can be used to create optimum efficiency. Every time the lights change, there is a period where no traffic is moving at all so the more lights and the more changes there are, the worse traffic becomes. We are leaving this one up to the government and/or a tech company to come up with the solution. We strongly recommend the government investigate this option as well.