News

What will the Brumby Transport Plan mean for Melbourne?

Media Release, Monday 8 December 2008

Leading academics and community representatives will provide responses to the Victorian Transport Plan at a forum to be held by the GAMUT Centre at the University of Melbourne.

The forum will be held tomorrow at 11.00am in room 225 of the Alice Hoy Building at the University of Melbourne. Please contact John Stone below for further details.

Speakers at the forum will assess the content of the Plan against a set of principles that GAMUT believes should underpin Melbourne’s transport and urban development. These principles recognise the need for:
- annual transport greenhouse emissions to show a downward trend by 2015
- medium and long-term transport sector greenhouse gas emission reduction in the order of 80% below 1990 levels
- transport greenhouse emissions to decrease at a similar rate to other sectors
- alternatives to the private car to address growing social isolation and health problems caused by the lack of access to jobs, services and community
- a substantial mode shift away from private car travel in addition to a rapid move to cleaner vehicles.

A number of key areas of the content of the Plan will reveal whether it is likely to achieve outcomes consistent with the above principles.

GAMUT Director, Prof Nick Low, says that “Already, this past week’s capitulation on the urban growth boundary raises fears that Melbourne will become even more car dependent."

“We will be looking for:
- an immediate moratorium on expansion of the capacity of the freeway network for private cars
- changes in the design and delivery of public transport services, implemented in a short time-frame across most of Melbourne’s existing urban form, to achieve significant modal shift to public transport
- real commitment to shifting a significant proportion of port related freight off roads and onto rail.”