If we’re going to insulate Australians from the impact of climate change, rising petrol prices and the transport needs of a rapidly growing population, a greater investment in public transport systems is essential.
This is why we’re working towards a national strategy that enables Australia to wean itself off expensive oil and reduce our car dependency.
Our Public Transport Report shows that for decades our governments have underspent on public transport projects, instead allocating the lion’s share of transport budgets to roads.
This might not sound alarming when petrol is plentiful and cheap, but the only thing currently protecting us from much higher prices is a strong Australian dollar.
The current transport challenges facing Australia
Federal budgets consistently favour roads over public transport spending. Now is the time for our government to provide incentives and policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and make it easy for people to choose public and active transport.
Why do we need active public transport?
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.
To assist those living in remote suburbs and regions who can’t afford to drive and are at greater risk of exclusion from jobs and services due to poor 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.
Congestion on our 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.
Public transport provides significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. If our urban train systems were powered by renewable energy this would lead to substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Australia is particularly vulnerable to oil shortages. We are one of the world's most car dependent nation. We now import more than 50% of our oil and by 2015 it is projected we‘ll be importing 70% of our oil.
Public transport provides ongoing clean green transport jobs.
If we invest in sustainable transport systems, we will be better able to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and wean us from our addiction to oil