Infrastructure Partnerships Australia has proposed a new system to charge motorists and freight vehicles according to where, when and how far they drive, and wants the the ACT to offer itself up to trial different approaches.
“Our figures show Canberra suffering similar problems to Sydney and Melbourne, with the Territory’s congestion costs doubling to $400 million in the next 14 years.” IPA chief executive Brendan Lyon explained.
“At its most fundamental, transport is broken because we don’t have the money needed for new and renewed infrastructure and we use the networks we have very poorly.
“This problem can and will be fixed by pricing reforms that spread capital city peaks, better recover freight costs and make the system fairer and better for motorists.”
IPA modelling shows a fairer and better pricing system would have a tiny, 37 cents per week impact on the average Canberran road user, but would give them better maintained, safer roads and faster journey times.
“It’s understandable that people will be concerned about change, which is why we need a detailed process and real world trials,” Lyon continued.
“Canberra’s integration between local and state government powers means it could play an important role in testing technologies and models to fix transport.
“The transport network is costing us time and money, because we cannot afford the new road and rail infrastructure we need, and we use what we already have badly.
“While it’s easy for people to get scared of a pricing system based on time, distance and location of travel, our modelling shows it would fix most of the problems and give motorists much better travel times, for much fairer costs.”
Lyon said the NRMA and other peak motoring groups support a process to fix road pricing, because it’s the key to better roads and better transport.
Better roads are supposed to be courtesy of the fuel tax we pay at the pump. Now we have to pay another charge to make rail viable.
Fuel taxes never ever came close to funding the road building, even when cars got 10mpg. Never mind road maintenance, which mostly comes out of council rates. Shall we start talking about the direct healthcare costs resulting from the higher accident rate of this mode of transport? Or the cost of “free” roadside parking and planning-mandated parking bays?