Willoughby traffic: what is happening?
The Crag No. 164, August 2007

Long-standing readers of The Crag will be aware that I have a close interest in urban transport and traffic matters. Since February 2006 I have represented the Federation of Willoughby Progress Associations at meetings of the Willoughby Traffic Committee. While this committee meets at the Willoughby City Council chambers, it is strictly a technical committee of the Roads & Traffic Authority (RTA).

Readers may be interested in a general assessment of the issues that have come before the Traffic Committee over the past 18 months and some comments on the implications of these trends. While we in Castlecrag may get agitated at delays in getting out of the suburb in peak hour traffic and the safety of right-hand turns out of Edinburgh Road into Eastern Valley Way, we generally live in splendid isolation from the traffic chaos that has enveloped much of Willoughby City over recent years.

Two main themes dominate the meetings of the Traffic Committee. One set of issues revolve around the gridlock that is occurring at specific locations across the city because too many people try to drive their vehicles to the same spot at the same time. Major trouble spots are schools, larger shopping centres, sporting fields and locations of special events, such as the annual Spring Fair parade. The daily peak hour jams into the Chatswood CBD and the city also come into this category. Traffic congestion around schools and gridlock at sporting events has a remarkable impact on human patience and civility when motorists and local residents come face to face!

In addition to all the time losses and greenhouse emissions generated by this congestion, there are numerous other impacts. Bus operators are increasingly reporting significant delays and an inability to maintain their schedules, while emergency services, such an ambulances and fire brigades, are coming to the Traffic Committee with requests for action to allow their vehicles passage through the chaos.

The second set of issues revolves around the fact that having arrived at a destination; a motor vehicle requires a large space for parking. That space has a high value in urban areas, but motorists are reluctant to meet that cost. The cheapest option is to take over public spaces for parking private vehicles. A high proportion of the matters coming before the Traffic Committee come from residents in narrow streets that have become parked out to the extent that two-way vehicular access is blocked. There are numerous requests from residents for parking restrictions to overcome this congestion or from service providers to allow their vehicles access.

At the July meeting the committee was briefed on the results of a parking study in the Artarmon Industrial Area. It highlighted the saturation of available parking spaces throughout the area and the flow on to surrounding residential streets, many of which are 100% ‘parked out’ each working day. The study highlighted the high level of parking infringements, with vehicles parked on footpaths and nature strips, across parking bays and transgressing time restrictions. It estimated that a rigorous enforcement program would generate some $25,000 per day in parking fines.

The efforts of the Traffic Committee to address the matters that come before it are limited by the responsibilities delegated to it and the policy framework within which it operates. Sydney’s traffic problems are, in part, the result of transport policies that encourage high greenhouse gas emissions and ongoing reliance on fossil fuels, lack of integrated land use planning and inappropriate pricing signals to users, thus generating low economic efficiency. Governments of various persuasions have introduced measures that encourage car use and penalise public transport users, such as tax concessions for company cars and parking spaces, GST on fares and free parking at shopping malls. There is no political will to address congestion and introduce road pricing schemes that recover the investment in roads by charging for use on a mass/distance basis and with differential charges for the time of day.

What is obvious from the many traffic and parking issues that come before the Traffic Committee is that only a profound change in everyone’s attitude and behaviour in terms of movement and mode of transport will achieve any noticeable result in terms of overcoming the present chaotic situation in Willoughby. I note with interest that there has been a profound change in public awareness about climate change and sustainable living over the past year or so in terms of housing, water conservation and some related matters BUT there is a mysterious barrier to taking action on the 40 per cent of household energy used for transport.  Getting into the car to drive the kids to soccer or to go shopping is just too convenient and thinking about the consequences can be left to others.

What consultations with residents on local traffic concerns show is that there is strong support for Council to ‘do something, so long as it does not affect my property or amenity’. In a similar vein, several speakers at the public meeting on Northbridge Plaza (page x) stated that they wanted to see the ‘traffic congestion fixed up’, but at the same they wanted the continuation of free parking at the Plaza car park. It seems most likely that the traffic congestion and parking problems of Willoughby are set to become a whole lot worse before effective solutions are possible.

While we wait for future action, perhaps we can reduce our ecological transport impacts by shopping locally and walking there and back whenever practical? We encourage residents to “Think local, Shop local and Employ local’.

Bob McKillop