South East Queensland (SEQ) is one of the fastest growing regions in Australia by 2026 an additional one million people will be living in the area. A consequence of this rapid growth has been an increase in travel and congestion. The Queensland Government has recently undertaken planning to manage this growth through the South East Queensland Regional Plan (the SEQ Regional Plan). In addition, recent State Government commitments to both infrastructure and public transport service investments through the South East Queensland Infrastructure Plan and Program (SEQIPP) and the TransLink Network Plan respectively, will help manage growth in vehicle kilometres travelled (VKT). However, the 2004 Queensland Infrastructure Report Card acknowledged that even with increases in transport funding, infrastructure and services will not be enough to sufficiently manage predicted traffic growth. It also notes that new transport infrastructure has a significant lead time, and is increasingly expensive to construct, maintain and operate. Thus the concept of introducing policy to manage Queensland's existing and future transport assets is gaining popularity. Further, integrating policy initiatives into infrastructure, services and planning will contribute to improving the efficiency, longevity and sustainability of these assets. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E214666.
Abstract