- Courier Mail Blog on the tunnel,
- Courier mail article on increased congestion,
- Senator Andrew Bartlett's Blog,
- "Fabian's" Blog,
- (No)Tunnels fact sheet,
- Stop the North South Bypass Tunnel,
- Queensland Conservation "TUNNEL VISION, FLAWED LOGIC" media release.
Our oil supplies appear to be dwindling (See Peak Oil and Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas) especially with nations such as India and China aspiring to be "just like the west" and ramping up their car production and car usage.
So much evidence has been presented to us and so many smart people have told us frankly that "Climate Change" / "Global Warming" is a reality that is going to affect every living thing on this planet and we must change the way we live. (For example, see Climate Ark Blog, Climate Hot Map, Union of Concerned Scientists, Greenpeace, WorldWide Fund for nature, Google (currently 240,000,000 hits), ...).
The message is clear, we need to drop the "business as usual" attitude and adjust to our changing surroundings and change the way we live.
In face of all this we have people like George "Dubya" Bush and John Howard with their pathetically poor leadership which continues to push the "If we get the economy working first then the environment will be fixed" attitudes. In exactly the same way, we have our somewhat unbrilliant Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Campbell Newman, doing exactly the same thing. He's a yes man. Admittedly the proceeding Labor Council proposed the idea for the Brisbane Tunnels and I'm equally critical of them. But Campbell reeks of saying "yes" too many times and to the wrong people (such as the ones who want to fund and develop these stupid projects that appeal to him). The Tunnel project will cost billions of dollars ($2 billion up from $950 million). It will encourage so much more traffic. But worse than this, due to the cost of the project, a complete and comprehensive public transport system will not be created. Given all the problems our planet is facing an improved public transport system is the most logical development we should be embracing. By building expensive road systems we are giving our citizens NO OPTIONS as to how they get around. Build a brilliant public transport system and most people can use that leaving those who need to drive private vehicles the roads that currently exist.
Your thoughts at this stage could well be "yes, everyone has a suggestion". Yes and our myopic Council fails to consider any of them except the ones proposed by their cronies.
I am writing a letter to Lord Mayor Newman and The Queensland Minister for Transport and Main Roads, Paul Lucas MP. These two co-signed a letter sent to residents of Brisbane (I have no idea if this letter was sent to just inner-city residents or it circulated further out).
The letter is titled "Travelsmart". Let me go find an official site for this ...
My god, the irony of this is greater than I thought. Travelsmart is a national campaign to reduce pollution from transport usage and not just Queensland. This is after Sydney and Melbourne have built extensive freeway and tunnel projects that wasted more money, causes more people to drive instead of catch public transport and thus depletes our already limited supplies of fossil fuels and causes more pollution. I will continue this post by including the letter sent to me:
Dear resident,
Reducing traffic levels in your neighbourhood
Queensland Transport, the Australian Greenhouse Office and Brisbane City Council have been working in partnership on a project called Travelsmart.
Travelsmart helps tackle local traffic issues by giving residents access to information, advice and encouragement to walk, cycle and take public transport.
If you choose to take part in the Travelsmart program you will be able to order free information specially tailored to your local neighbourhood. The information available includes:
- a local map of your neighbourhood transport options
- special 'timetables' for your nearest bus stop, and
- leaflets on all aspects of cycling and walking
The benefits of Travelsmart can be achieved by people simply changing just a few trips each week. his can make a big difference to traffic levl, and to your health.
Over the next few days Socialddata Australia, (telephone number 1800 68 4860) will contact you with futher information about Travelsmart. Please consider the information carefully and discuss it with other members of your household.
This is a wonderful opportunity to join a community effort that can make a big difference to your community, local area and neighbourhood. We hope you will be part of it.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Lucas MP (Minister for Transport and Main Roads)
Campbell Newman (Lord Mayor of Brisbane).
What a rort; what a bunch of tossers. They build a tunnel and say don't use it. Its like handing out chocolate bars and telling you not to eat them. They should be handing out fruit and vegetables. They should build proper public transport systems and make them so friendly, useful and efficient that people use them.
I will put my letter up when finished.
BTW, I'm quite a happy chappy. Just very frustrated.
