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Labor’s Liberal-lite Traffic Plan


Cassy O'Connor MP  -  Thursday, 29 April 2021

Tags: Hobart, Transport, Public Transport

Cassy O'Connor MP | Greens Leader and Member for Clark

Labor's plan for traffic congestion in Hobart is bordering on ridiculous.

Clark candidate, Ella Haddad’s proposed new highway link between Tolmans Hill and Glenorchy is quite alarming.

What would Labor demolish of flatten to replace with asphalt?  Dozens of homes, Knocklofty Reserve or both?

Building more roads just leads to more cars.  It’s outdated, twentieth century thinking and Labor should know better.

The Greens’ sustainable transport policy aligns with expert advice on effective modern transport solutions. 

Hobart's traffic congestion can be addressed by changing people's behaviour and getting them out of cars, with investment in bike paths, free public transport and Park and Ride facilities, a better bus transit centre in the city, Derwent Ferries and a light rail for the Northern Suburbs.

We have seen over recent weeks the pain, confusion and uncertainty created by plans to bulldoze houses and expand the Southern Outlet in a simplistic and symbolic ruse to fix a complex transport problem. Destroying family homes to expand the Outlet, with no fix to the Hobart bottleneck, will do nothing but displace people and encourage more cars on the road.

Now Labor proposes more of the same, a new highway through homes and reserves with no sense of purpose or sensitivity to the families that would be affected or the bushland that would be sacrificed. 

Labor and Liberal are two sides of the same coin.  All they are offering is more roads and false hope that will do nothing to offer real transport choices to get more cars off the road, and ease traffic congestion.

Feasibility studies signal intent and can lead to significant public angst over the most outrageous pipe dreams. We need only remember the pulp mill to see where Labor's feasibility studies can lead us.   

Just this policy, let alone the process of investigating feasibility will cast dozens of families into uncertainty and cast doubt over the security of their family home.

 

You can read the Greens’ plan to tackle traffic here - https://tasmps.greens.org.au/green-new-deal/genuine-traffic-solutions-lu...