Road congestion diminishes the quality of life for the residents in Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) cities and costs the ANZ economies over $17bn per year. Urban road supply is constrained by the coastal geography of our cities and is becoming more expensive to deliver with tunnels, bridges and bypasses. Meanwhile, aggregate demand for transport continues to increase in line with a growing population, albeit at a declining rate as inner city living and working changes travel patterns. Different road users have different travel needs with commuters, commercial and freight users requiring access at different times, with different economic costs and benefits. Reliability is a particular concern for all users that ultimately impacts the liveability of a city. ‘Acceptable’ congestion is therefore a subjective concept that includes absolute and stability of commute times, scheduling considerations and efficient investment in road supply that delivers the desired benefit. The ANZ city congestion performance has been determined using massive Google data extracts for the 600km of arterial roads that comprise the backbone of the urban network. Congestion performance is correlated with population, so that the biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, perform worst overall. In these cities, road users need to allow an average 50% more time than free flow to complete their journeys during peak hours, when average speeds are as low as 29 km/hr and 34 km/hr respectively. Brisbane (52 km/hr) and Perth (58km/hr) have better performance, while Auckland congestion performance is similar to Melbourne, despite having a lower population. Adelaide has the slowest average travel speed, but higher reliability, reflecting a road network with fewer motorways. Darwin, Hobart and Wellington have low levels of congestion, with Canberra the best performing city overall, achieving average speeds over 60 km/hr. While weekday morning and afternoon peaks exhibit time delays up to 40%, weekend travel also faces congestion with delays up to 30% at the mid-day peak in Sydney. ANZ cities perform in line with comparable cities in the US and Europe for time delay and reliability, with Melbourne exhibiting the best relative performance, and Auckland the worst. These international comparisons are challenging due to individual geographic and historic road planning constraints. ANZ cities with similar populations are in fact the closest comparator cities for each other. Most ANZ urban congestion is due to recurring imbalances between supply and demand, with up to 12% due to identified non-recurrent causes, primarily traffic incidents. For many cities, better data collection is required to develop a deeper understanding of the drivers of congestion to ensure the investments are likely to deliver the desired benefits. Road and transport agencies should invest in a portfolio of interventions including integrated land and transport planning, as well as relatively low cost, high benefit cost ratio “no regrets” interventions such as smart ramp metering and optimising traffic signals. For each road corridor, both demand and supply interventions are important, and a program of multiple intervention projects tailored to the specific congestion problem is most likely to optimise the investment in new road capacity. In particular, detailed pre-investment metrics, and post-implementation analytics are required to ensure that the multibillion dollar investments are made wisely. ANZ road agencies are shifting their purpose from just road-building to a more holistic concern for safe, reliable customer journeys. This typically requires a greater focus on strategic planning, delivery performance, technology and data-driven operational capabilities. Particular focus should be given to: - Strategy and program planning that integrates land use and major infrastructure with the road network plan; - Leveraging data and new technology to optimise investments and the operational management of the road network Congestion mitigation strategies are on the cusp of major change over the next 10 years, due to increasingly intelligent technology embedded in vehicles and road infrastructure. ANZ road agencies should provide a platform of regulation and technology that can support adoption of this innovation from the private sector. This needs relatively rapid action to support intelligent vehicles and new policy intervention as the most potent platforms for innovation that will mitigate urban congestion. Effective action on road congestion is needed to avoid it becoming a drag on the economy, living standards or quality of life. Each jurisdiction must develop a strategic plan and investment roadmap for our cities, using an iterative end-to-end process starting from the needs of citizens. No doubt our cities could all be better had past generations implemented their visionary transportation plans. Similarly, the benefits of more focused investment will flow to future generations, and we hope this work triggers a commitment to embrace the potential of the next wave of transportation innovation. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting