The
report analysed population growth, jobs growth and commuter flows in Australia’s
four largest cities. It found:
1) Melbourne
was the only city in which jobs growth in the outer suburbs had failed to keep
pace with the population boom. Parts of outer Melbourne now have less than one
job for every three working people, forcing residents to commute further for
employment.
2) Eighty-four
per cent of outer Melbournians drive to work, the highest level among Australia’s
biggest cities, and just 9% use public transport.
Monash
University Professor of Public Transport Graham Currie said any city growing in
population without expanding public transport was planning for decline. He said
“the future cupboard of public transport projects is looking bare” and that “If
population grows by 25% but services remain essentially static, we have a per
capita decline of 25 per cent in service levels. We are not responding to
growth. Rather we are going backwards”.
This
report reveals as a fraud the idea that Melbourne’s rapid population growth is
okay. Jobs are far removed from homes, and workers are not using public
transport, leading to traffic congestion, long commutes, and reduced quality of
life for everybody – a planning debacle.
It’s all very well to say that what is needed is better planning, but expanding the urban growth boundary and high rise and urban consolidation have both given us the outcomes we have today. The better planning never happens, and it won’t as long as Melbourne’s population continues to grow by 200 a day, 1500 a week, 75,000 each year.
Kelvin THANK YOU speaking up against this uncontrolled population explosion which is threatening to swamp Australia (already suffering drought and driving rain that includes large hailstones and strong winds!) and the WORLD.
ReplyDeleteThinking back 50 years, when I first started work, there were enough jobs so that one could leave an unsatisfactory job; by the time my sister, 9 years younger, left school SHE HAD TROUBLE GETTING A JOB! Now? Overcrowding, long waiting lists, unemployed, poverty, mental and physical illnesses, road rage, violence which sounds very much like the 'rats in a bottle syndrome'; there are too many for the resources and the liveable space - we are smothering the Earth!
It's not just Melbourne, it's everywhere I've lived. (3 countries and far too many towns and cities.) As far as I can tell, urban planners mainly plan to push population growth. The last time I had correspondence with an urban planner I was told to squeeze into a smaller space (increase density).
ReplyDeleteBah! If there is one thing I really really resent, it's paying property tax to hire these clowns.