Happy cyclist at the Woodford Folk Festival

Surveys show that driving is easily the most popular way of getting there, with 86.3 per cent of patrons arriving by motor vehicle. There are a host of problems caused by all that traffic – congestion, the need for parking space, dusty conditions if it’s dry, and mud if there’s been rain. So it makes sense to encourage patrons to find an alternative.

Public transport is a good choice for many. There are up to 10 express bus services a day out to the festival site from Caboolture train station, taking patrons right to the ticketing gate.

The bus services don’t start until Boxing Day, by which time many of the prime campsites have been taken by motoring patrons who arrive the day before. So organisers are providing ‘bus travellers’ camping – car free camping space exclusively for those arriving by bus.

It’s an attractive camping area – level and well drained ground with trees for shade, and close to the ticketing gate and welcome gate. Car-pooling to the festival is another way to keep cars to a minimum. It saves money and is great for making new friends. On the festival website, you can find a link to Car Pool Australia, which connects patrons seeking a ride with those who have space in their cars.

Alternatively, find the notice board on the website, there’s a ‘ride share’  section where you can seek or offer a ride.

Cycling patrons are very welcome at Woodford, a free luggage service being a major incentive.  Together with sponsors Epic Cycles and the Sunshine Coast Environment Council, the festival arranges for luggage to be collected from pick-up points in Paddington in Brisbane (the Epic Cycle shop), and from Nambour (SCEC’ s office in Porters Lane).

The luggage is collected before Christmas and is waiting for patrons when they arrive. It’s then delivered back to the pick-up points on January 2.

Some cyclists ride incredible distances to reach the festival, but most take their bikes on the train to Beerwah or Beerburrum stations, and cycle from there. It’s a relaxed ride through forest and farmland along mostly quiet roads.

Cyclists are encouraged to jump the queue at the ticketing gate – push bikes may push in! They, too, have dedicated camping space. Cyclist camping is nestled along a creek bank lined with rainforest. There’s a marquee for secure bicycle parking and socialising, and, if needed, a mechanical service provided by Epic Cycles.

More details about cycling to Woodford can be found on the festival website.

The planned Mooloolah River interchange

It’s then that you realise that projected population growth is sending people loopy, including road planners.

It’s enough to send any sane driver into a spin. On paper, it’s like curled strings of spaghetti have been spilled on the map, the spaghetti signifying multi-lanes of concrete and bitumen which will cover a huge area and mean the demolition of many family homes.

And once it’s built you’ll never see granny again as she drives off into its motoring maze to who knows where.

So this is the Sunshine Coast’s future where the big spending is presently focused on bigger and more complex road systems rather than public transport – all to accommodate more and more people beyond its comfortable capacity.
So when you get onto these roads in 2030 or even earlier, where do you go – just down the freeway to get lost in the complexities of the next challenging interchange and funnel off into the next delightful bit of urban infill.

But back to Cr Griffin. At the face of it a serious woman, but one suspects her of having a wry sense of humour.

“Imagine the billions of dollars that would go into that – it’s a multi-modal transport corridor,” said the councillor as she waved the copy of the planned motorway upgrade.

“This is where the Department of Transport and Main Roads spends the money, drawing this stuff up – they don’t spend their money on getting the public transport improved.”

Cr Griffin holds an important portfolio on the new Sunshine Coast Regional Council.

The portfolio is ‘Integrated Transport’ – one Cr Griffins describes as having two elements; it is ‘integrated with land use but also it means that each mode is integrated with the other’.

“I asked the mayor for this portfolio immediately after the council was elected because I think that if we do not have a sustainable transport outcome, then we will never achieve a sustainable Sunshine Coast,” she said.

“There are other important elements to long-term sustainability but this is a core one.”

At the same time as showing the aerial map/overlay artwork composite of the multi-looped Mooloolah River Interchange, Cr Griffin also showed a page of the Sunshine Motorway 32 Study’ put together by global transport consultants Connell Wagner.

“Their brief was to come up with a motorway that could deal with the doubling of the Sunshine Cost population by 2032. These figures had been supplied by the Planning Information and Forecasting Unit (PIFU). Transport modelling done as part of the study predicted traffic volumes would increase in some areas to more than three times the level.

Connell Wagner reported back that ‘to cater for projected 2032 traffic volumes, the motorway would need to be planned for 10 lanes’ [in one of its sections].

They added a rider: ‘A 10-lane motorway is not practical. As more lanes are added, the spacing between interchanges needs to increase and it would not be possible to accommodate many of the proposed and existing interchange locations’.

“The engineers are saying ‘we actually can’t build it’,” said Cr Griffin.

“It would be a hideous choice, anyway.”

“Then what they say is ‘what we need to do, because we can’t do that, is shift to more effective public transport, increased vehicle occupancy, and land-use planning’,” said Cr Griffin.

“Do I see any evidence that they’re tackling these issues? The answer is ‘No’.”

So, it would seem that the engineers can not deliver a road system on this part of the Sunshine Coast to adequately cope with the State Government’s projected population figure which is in the ballpark of the South East Queensland Regional Plan.
But perhaps the prospect of ‘Peak Oil’ and the attendant escalation of fuel prices will drive drivers off the roads and on to public transport and save the day. We just need more money redirected towards installing those public transport systems.
Meanwhile, the SM2032 Study team, instead, has decided to provide a detailed planning strategy for a four to eight lane motorway that will cater for traffic demands to at least 2021 and provide strategic direction for motorway development through to 2032.

Fortunately, the consultants have also been looking at other transport solutions which include more effective public transport, increased vehicle occupancy and land-use planning to reduce road-based travel demand (transit systems).

This is where Cr Griffin has a particular interest. She believes that with the prospect of Peak Oil there will be rapid advances in public transport systems.

However, other advances of technology in ‘green mobility’, which include hybrid-fuels or hybrid vehicles, will still mean cars on the roads creating congestion.

“If you still have private motor vehicles, no matter how eco-efficient they are, there’s still a need to build more roads, and that’s not long-term sustainable,” said Cr Griffin.

“It will lead to loss of habitat and spending massive amounts of money on capital infrastructure, creating gridlocks, incurring more maintenance costs.

“While it’s important to look at those fuel options it is still important to look at public transport as a key element in the equation.

“Ultimately, people understand that their choices have prices. However, we must focus on delivering a great alternative to the private motor vehicle – to deliver a quality, fast, frequent, reliable, good-looking public transport service.

“We’re incredibly focused on working up the public transport options now. We have to make sure we are not approving residential or economic development without clearly having a delivery of public transport. It has to be a major player in our planning.

“With the council amalgamations we now have a much larger area to cover and have an opportunity at a regional scale to deliver good transport outcomes. We will be neglectful to our community if we don’t seize that opportunity.

“A key element is that we build into our land use planning, from the beginning, certain parameters to encourage public transport use such as designing in a ‘green link’ connector to major employment centres.”

But Cr Griffin did point out that one of the issues they had with State Government  was getting agreement to deliver infrastructure at the right time and sequence, when the residential development, or indeed something like the Kawana University Hospital comes on line.

She said there was the danger of creating a residential ghetto if you get to a situation where you say ‘Ooops! Now we need to deliver the public transport’.

Taking her ‘transport’ cap off, Cr Griffin said: “As a council we are saying you can have a healthy economy without relying on infinite population growth, and there are plenty of documents around to support that.

“Our economic advantage here is as a lifestyle region. We think we have a competitive economic advantage through rural food production as well.

“I also have no doubt that regions do not have an exponential capacity to sustain population growth into the future – that’s a nonsensical proposition. Physically you would have to be delivering a Shanghai-type future with lots of 80-storey residential towers.

“You have to be honest. You have to be wise in acknowledging that there is this thing called ‘sustainable carrying capacity’.”

The report, Fuel for thought: the future of transport fuels: challenges and opportunities, looks at the need to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Australia’s transport sector and how Australia can best deal with the reality of peak oil.

“This report puts policy makers on notice about government’s clear role to prepare Australia for the twin realities of climate change and increasingly scarce and expensive oil,” said ACF’s Sustainable Australia program manager Monica Richter.

“Australia’s economy has been shaped by cheap and abundant oil,” Ms Richter said.

“Transport is responsible for about 14 per cent of our total greenhouse emissions. When considering the design of Australia’s emissions trading scheme, the Government cannot just ignore emissions from transport.”

The report recognises the pain caused by soaring fuel prices and supports government investment in public transport. However, it also sees a future where fully electric vehicles are the norm.

“The CSIRO modelling predicts plug-in electric vehicles could account for about two-thirds of the kilometres travelled in Australia by 2050, so there is an urgent need for governments to help manufacturers re-tool to build cleaner cars here in Australia,” Ms Richter said.

“Decarbonising our society is a big challenge, but the sooner we start the easier it will be and the less it will cost us.”

Think of what is needed to build a vehicle with all its components, to keep it fuelled and running, to provide the infrastructure, highways, parking lots, to repair the damage it causes, to dispose of its rusting remains. There are 600 million cars worldwide and it’s obvious that resources and energy are being gobbled up at an unsustainable rate. Yet more and more cars are built.

Not even the threat of peak oil, the situation where oil supplies peak and rising demand coupled with decreasing supplies causes fuel prices to skyrocket, affects our love affair with the motor vehicle.

It has become an ingrained part of our culture for a number of reasons not all to do with necessity. Convenience, status and a host of psychological factors are at play – to the point where we’re hooked. As a society we suffer from car addiction.
If we are to be serious about reducing consumption, we need to drive less. Ultimately it’s up to governments to make the policy and provide the funding to help deal with our addiction, but taking action as individuals can make a profound difference.

Car use can be difficult to cut back on. Urban sprawl and a lack of infrastructure that encourages alternatives make sure of that. But it’s not impossible and it can be very rewarding.
For example, physical activity is the “best buy” in public health, so try walking more. Many car journeys are for short distances, less than 3 km for 37 per cent of car trips in Brisbane. This is an easy distance to walk, and you’re burning fat, not oil.

Walking is the most natural way of getting around, yet our car-dependent culture has made it something unusual. Humans evolved as walkers – it took us a million years to learn how to walk but only 50 years to forget!

Being car addicted deprives us of a long list of health benefits, not to mention friendlier neighbourhoods and more vibrant communities that result if more people are out-and-about on foot.

Walking doesn’t need much infrastructure apart from footpaths, but it could be encouraged in some simple ways – less waiting time for the pedestrian signal at traffic lights, for example.

Use a bicycle for short-distance travel. You don’t have to wear Lycra and look like a Tour de France cyclist to take to two wheels. It can be fast – anyone of average fitness can move along at 20 km/h under good conditions. It is definitely quicker than driving short distances on congested roads. It’s also healthy and inexpensive. No parking woes and it’s excellent if used in combination with public transport.

And it is fun too. Cycling releases endorphins – those chemicals in the brain that produce feelings of wellbeing, even euphoria. Zipping along with the wind in your hair and the endorphins flowing freely – try it and see for yourself.

Safety is the big barrier to getting more people on their bikes and we need some action to overcome this. Providing off-road bikeways and a network of traffic-calmed streets where cyclists have priority, would be a real inducement.

And lower speed limits are a key inducement too. Parents will encourage their children to cycle knowing that urban streets are safe. A 30 km/h speed limit is recommended and becoming common in Europe, so why not here?

With a bicycle in more than 50 per cent of households, and outselling motor vehicles in Australia in 2006, there’s great potential to increase bicycle use and reduce car dependence.

For longer distances in regions like the Sunshine Coast, public transport will be the preferred treatment of our addiction. If you use it already, you’ve probably found it viable, not necessarily fast, or convenient.

Improvements are happening, but so far they have barely kept up with demand and there needs to be a huge attitudinal shift by governments for public transport to be efficacious. Reversing priorities by giving public transport, not more roads, the lion’s share of transport funding, is essential.

We could consider public transport systems like bemos in Indonesia or collectivos in Ecuador – mini-vans or Kombis that travel a set route; they’re faster, more frequent and more convenient than buses and, cheaper than taxis. They’re great for low population densities over a large geographical area.

Some measures to help cut back from excessive car use can happen immediately. Setting up a car pool register for commuters wouldn’t take much to organise. The taxation system could be quickly amended to make the car habit more expensive and at the same time encourage alternatives. It wouldn’t be difficult to remove the GST on public transport.

Other measures will take longer. It’s essential that governments move quickly and develop long-term policies that recognise the reality that our hyper-consumption, our unhealthy addiction to the motor vehicle, is damaging our communities. It’s an environmental disaster and it doesn’t prepare us at all for the resource scarcity issues of the future.