Roads for nobody

Friday's local rag suggests that the State government here in Queensland is keeping their employees busy by investigating a possible new tunnel from Toowong to Everton Park.  This is to alleviate traffic congestion (of course).

Let me make some predictions.
1. This tunnel will not start construction within a decade.
2.  If 1 comes true, expect the tunnel never to be built.

The reasons are equally as obvious as the predictions.
1. The State government has no money for ridiculous projects like this.
2. The Federal government will tighten its belt before they are asked to fund this project.
3. The private sector will not fund it - they wouldn't fund a little $250million bridge because of good alternative routes, why would they fund this. 

If you want to head north on the Bruce highway from Toowong, wouldn't you take the other tunnel they plan to build to the Inner City Bypass, then get on the other new tunnel to the airport, then get on the Gateway motorway heading north?  I would.

It appears that the transport planning community has looked to cities around the world that have similar traffic problems to Brisbane (Los Angeles, Sydney etc), and adopted similar approaches to alleviating traffic congestion.  One wonders why transport planners don't instead look to cities that actually don't have severe traffic problems, and instead adopt some of the approaches used in these cities.  It is a lot like asking a chronic alcoholic which intervention worked best for him when he still drinks like a fish. 

I await a more diversified transport plan for South East Queensland.