I WOULDNT START FROM

HERE
TOWARDS THE TRANSPORT REVOLUTION SYDNEY
Tim Williams
NEEDS
Chief Execu1ve, Commi5ee for Sydney

Overview
Public transport revolu1on for Sydney
Modal shiA
Get community support and buy in

True cost of transport benets and costs

Proper project selec1on and appraisal

Mode neutral/mul1modal
What is the problem you're trying to solve?
New understanding and metric of conges1on
Not mobility but accessibility/moving people not cars
Integrated land use and transport

We need demand management

Governance and ins1tu1ons

Visions for the city

Sydney happens to us, its not an express of us
2

The importance of the agenda to the performance

and performance of Sydney

Can yesterdays institutions

produce tomorrows solutions?
RMS
Elder Cato
Orwell

Beyond satire RMS

The real spatial planner of Sydney

What should we be aiming for:

building on other cities
A hypothe)cal best-in-class urban mobility system would:

Be as aordable as Hong Kong, with a similar modal split and level of

smart-card acceptance. It would also have as few vehicles as Hong Kong.
Ensure air is as pure as Stockholms
Promote cycling like Amsterdam
Be as safe as Copenhagen
Have best-in-class bike sharing as demonstrated in Brussels and Paris
Have a public transport service as frequent as the London Tube
Have best-in-class car sharing as demonstrated in StuAgart
Have as minor an impact on climate as in Wuhan
Ensure travel 1mes as short as they are in Nantes
7

Straight to the problem

A plan for growing Sydney
Planning where people will live and work across Sydney, and how
these places are connected to each other, will inuence Sydneys
long-term success and the standard of living our communi=es
will enjoy. It is cri(cal not to repeat the mistakes of the past
dispersed housing growth that resulted in a sprawling and
poorly connected city, complicated by unique geographic
constraints. Planning for Sydneys inevitable popula=on growth
has never been more important.

Roads & sprawl

Roads = sprawl & dispersed development
model for Sydney
Brown University study: 18% popula1on loss each
1me a city adds an intra-city highway through it
All studies conrm highways = dispersed city
development, and so it has been in Sydney
And will be again

Car use and sprawl

Newman P and Kenworthy J, Gower, Aldershot, 1989.

Ci1es and Automobile Dependence: An Interna1onal Sourcebook

10

Sydney Orbital Network: how does this

fit? What kind of Sydney will this
produce?

11

WestConnex: a congestion
buster?
The centrepiece is a new Western Harbour tunnel, and a West Connex
extension at Rozelle. Mr Baird said it would alleviate conges1on on the
Sydney Harbour Bridge, Anzac Bridge and the Eastern Distributor, as well as in
the CBD.

"By bus1ng conges1on we will allow people to get to work quicker and home
sooner to spend more 1me with their families," Mr Baird said. (ABC News 25 Nov
2014)

Trac conges1on tends to maintain equilibrium. If road capacity increases,

the number of peak-period trips also increases un1l conges1on again limits
further trac growth: The problem of induced demand (Victoria Ins1tute of
Transport)

12

Induced Demand

13

Induced demand if you build it

they will come
New roads induce new demand, conges1on returns to equilibrium
The reverse has also shown to be true, removing a road can
actually reduce demand and reduce conges1on.
The evidence is that unless supported by demand management
approaches and signicant new capacity in public transport,
building or widening roads in a dynamic city actually induces more
car journeys and that any relief oered by such new road capacity
is temporary.
Trac modelling in UK requires induced demand be taken into
considera1on in appraisals = stopped expanding roads

When highway capacity raised by 10%, immediate 4% jump in
demand and all new capacity lled in a number of years
queueing theory
14

Reversing induced demand

Trac cures are like hangover cures they are
temporary, illusory and dont address the root
problem

But interes1ngly, when you take a highway out
of a city, conges1on doesnt actually worsen
trac re-routes or ows to other modes
Reducing capacity can reduce demand
RMS knows this dont they?
15

A vision for Sydney

Smaller homes, shared space, bigger lifestyles: enabled by public
transport revolution

Rebalanced Polycentric
Networked

Dynamic, Prosperous
Mobile and Liveable
16

Future Sydney
A
Connected
City
A Well
Governed
City

A Global
City

A More
Urban City

Future
Sydney
A Smart
City

A
Sustainable
City

A Shared
City

17

Why 2055?

Was 54
Long term approach
Smaller homes, shared spaces, bigger lifestyles
Not the current default: Sprawl, dispersed, out not up
Public transport, networked city
City of short distances and walkable centres
Parrama5a in 10 minutes/Liverpool in 20 minutes
City of 8 million (Melbourne will be bigger) who will they be? Where will they
live and work? How will they travel?

18

Future Sydney - A connected

city
A highly accessible and interconnected region: with strong physical, cultural and social connec=ons

Future Sydney has highly connected urban centres, airports,

and seaports. The city region has world class roads and
railways which create this hyper-linked region, bringing
prosperity to New South Wales residents and their
communi1es.

Urban centres such as Wollongong and Newcastle have been
transformed through access to the global economy of Sydney.

Transport in Sydney has moved far beyond the private car with
a wide variety of transport choices available.

19

Future Sydney - A connected

city
A highly accessible and interconnected region: with strong physical, cultural and social connec=ons

Car use remains at 2015 levels replaced

by transit, walking and cycling

20

Future Sydney - A connected

city
A highly accessible and interconnected region: with strong physical, cultural and social connec=ons

A Rail Revolu=on
The old suburban railways have been transformed into
dedicated express intercity services and a comprehensive
metro rail system. The backbone of the suburban rail
network is a network of express intercity services,
providing rapid transit between the many ci1es of Sydney.
Sydney to Parrama5a is a 10 minute journey, with a
journey from Campbelltown to Sydney taking less than 30
minutes with convenient interchange to metro services
along the way.
The metro system is a fast, comfortable, convenient,
frequent, reliable means of mass transit. The metro
system, hallmark of a modern global city, is the principal
mode of public transport in Sydney.

21

Future Sydney - A connected

city
A highly accessible and interconnected region: with strong physical, cultural and social connec=ons

The Green Grid

Light Rail Networks in all urban centres

22

This is not our vision

23

24

nnor

Nor this (BTW: dont worry too much

about overcrowding: 1/3 density of
London)

25

70/35

26

27

Oran Park

28

Ryde

29

Ryde

30

Ryde

31

Why people dont walk in Aus ci)es

need to retrot suburbia
People dont walk in aus ci1es because we have
designed des1na1ons out of reach;kids put on
weight in summer hols in aus.
Does geung to a grocers or a doctor or a
restaurant without a car seem like a pre5y big
burden? Can your children walk or cycle to
school safely on their own? If you think these
are unreasonable ques1ons then choice has
been designed out of your area
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33

GDP is concentrating east of

Parramatta already while population is
growing west

34

The education & health divide are

following the economic divide

35

The education & health divide are

following the economic divide

36

But new arrivals go to the edge:

vulnerable communities in Sydney: and
low density sprawl

37

38

Suburbia kills it is now

associated With Obesity,
Diabetes, and Heart
Disease
Physical Ac)vity

Higher density neighbourhoods are associated with more walking

and bicycling. (2) Mixed land use, such as shops and jobs near
housing, contributes to healthy commu1ng while mono-culture
single family homes does not.
Mental Health

Sprawl not only reduces the opportunity of regular exercise, an
important an1-depressant, it also limits opportuni1es of
interpersonal contact, which aggravates social isola1on.
Social Capital
Social networks, trust, & reciprocity are undermined by the
isolated nature of suburban homes and car transporta1on.

39

Health and suburbia

obesity is not just a health problem, but strongly linked to the
economic development and human capital structures of ci1es and
regions.
Obesity is nega1vely associated with the share of workers doing
knowledge, professional, and technical work and posi1vely
associated with the share of workers employed in blue-collar
working-class jobs.
Larger metros have lower levels of obesity as well (the two are
modestly correlated). This may be a func1on of less driving and
greater walking and biking to get around.
In fact, obesity is closely related to the way we commute. It is
strongly posi1vely associated with metros where more people drive
to work alone (.52) and nega1vely associated with the share of
people who bike or walk to work (-.41).

40

Though higher density doesnt

mean

41

Talk quite a lot about

density done well: which
more and more people
are seeking out: Vauban

42

5 km/h top speed for cars, restriction on parking,

this is the favoured form of transport

43

This is not our vision

44

This is not our vision

The people who are making the most noise are those who already have
the ability to jump in their car, drive wherever they want, they've got
great public transport opportuni=es, they are a demographic that,
generally speaking, is wealthier, and there is this aPtude of 'I love my
community don't mess it up.

But they're not living in the mortgage belt. They don't have kids who
are to some extent excluded socially from the opportuni=es that some
people have.

It's not right for the people in an inner-city community to come in and
enjoy their lifestyle and try and apply that to everybody else. And
I think that's exactly what we are seeing.

- Dennis Cliche, WestConnex Delivery Authority Chief Execu)ve
18th April, 2015

45

WestConnex
EQUITY - not roads in the east but public
transport in the west
Threatening to damage one of the only
successful examples of accessible, liveable
urbanity in Sydney Inner West
Low produc1vity / low wage / high transport
cost vision of equity for Western Sydney

46

We do like
Have a look at the momentum around us
which makes the Light Rail both a no brainer
and genius at the same 1me

47

Rouse
Hill
Hospital

NWRL
Sta1ons

Castle Hill

$1.1B

$8.3B
Norwest

UNSW

NSFC

NWRL

Epping
Town
Centre

North
Parrama5
a

Rail

M2

Blacktown

Epping

Carlingford
$1B

Roads

Parrama5a
Stadium

Parramatta

Urban Ac1va1on

UNE

UNSW

M7

Chatswood

UNSW
Wentworth
Point

Camellia
Rosehill

Sydney
Olympic
Park

$350M

North Sydney

ANZ
Stadium

Carter
Street
Lidcombe

Health

Macquarie Park
North
Ryde
Sta1on

$300M

Westmead
Hospital

M4

Eastwood

Herring
Road

$11B

Sydney

Parrama5a
Road

WestConnex

Fairfield

Burwood/Strathfield

Educa1on

M1
$9B

Sport

Liverpool

Green Square

2nd Harbour
Crossing

Liverpool
Hospital

Bankstown
UNSW

Sydney Airport

M5

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Freeways Parks
Cheonggyecheon, Seoul

Not only has the greenway become a well-loved part of the city, it has proven to benefit
the city in many different ways. The temperature of the inner city has dropped several
degrees, and birds, fish and other wildlife have returned to the urban core. Also, since the
freeways were removed, fewer people are driving into the city, choosing to take public
transit or other options.
49

Freeways Parks
Embarcadero Freeway, San Francisco

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51

Creating great walkable urban

centres = jobs in the new economy
The conven1onal wisdom used to be that crea1ng a
strong economy came rst, and that increased
popula1on and a higher quality of life would follow. The
converse now seems more likely: crea1ng a higher
quality of life is the rst step to a5rac1ng new residents
and jobs. This is why Chris Leinberger believes that all
the fancy economic development strategies, such as
developing a biomedical cluster, an aerospace cluster, or
whatever the current economic development avor of
the month might be, do not hold a candle to the power
of a great walkable urban place.

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53

Something closer to home

54

Famous for this.

55

to this

56

Denver

57

Denver
Big light rail and heavy rail
Engaged community/users/business
Referendum led to % GST hypothecated to PT
program over 30 years = $6B bond
TODs: stories for each
What does it enable ?
Personal
I am/We are FasTracks
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Community ownership

59

Humanising the construction

The folks who are featured in "I Am FasTracks" stories are neighbors, business people,
anyone who uses or is interested in public transporta=on and the massive growth
that's happening in metro Denver as a result of FasTracks.

60

Minneapolis

61

Vancouver

62

Vancouver

63

When Car-Loving Cities Start to

Embrace Light Rail: Salt Lake City and
Pheonix

over 70 US ci1es have/geung Light Rail: in Red States, on business grounds

64

Phoenix: a red, car dominated city on

the move:
Mayor is a convert to economic /downtown ac1va1on

The light rail system, which opened in 2008, has already reached 2020
ridership projec1ons. Its success has sparked a wide push for walkability and
transit-oriented development in the corridor. The Valley Metro transit agency
had a record year in 2013. The share of car-less households is increasing
Mayor says: The people of the City of Phoenix love what they've seen with
our public transporta1on improvements They understand that our
transporta1on system and access to higher educa1on, access to jobs, access
to our bioscience campus in the heart of city, our economic development, are
all one and the same. There is not an inch of space between the economic
success of our city and the growth of high-quality public transporta1on."

65

Phoenix: the most sprawled city in

US
First o, when it comes to issues of walkability and bikeability, these are
not soA issues. These are cri1cally important issues when it comes to
economic development. The companies and entrepreneurs that provide
the highest-quality jobstechnology, science, etc.the employees of
these companies won't come to a place that doesn't have a great bicycle
culture or a great walkable culture. None of those things are going to
happen by accident. They're going to be smart policy choices made by
leaders who understand how important that is.

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67

68

Portland

69

New York
JaneAe Sadik-Khan - NYC Transport Commissioner
Re-imagine your streets, theyre hidden in plain sight

Taking out road capacity
The people are far ahead of the press and far ahead of the
poli1cians

h5ps://www.ted.com/talks/
jane5e_sadik_khan_new_york_s_streets_not_so_mean_any_m
ore?language=en

70

London demand management

the answer says business
Given the scale of demand, even the most ambi=ous
programme of road-building would by itself be inadequate to
meet Londons conges=on challenge.

Therefore, on top of road building plans, the Mayor must
champion a more eec=ve management of demand and
that will mean moving to a more sophis=cated system of
conges=on charging in the capital

71

Crossrail - The Culture line

Crossrail has developed a visionary art strategy, engaging eight world renowned
London art galleries which together create a permanent line-wide exhibi(on across
the eight central Crossrail sta(ons.
In collabora=on with each art gallery, an interna=onally recognised ar=st will be
selected to be part of the Crossrail story by par=cipa=ng in the largest, collabora=ve
art commissioning process in a genera=on. The result will be a series of eight unique
des=na=ons, with an art commission of interna=onal importance embedded into the
design and architecture of each sta=on.

72

Places & Spaces Exhibition

Urban realm & development on
the Crossrail route: Crossrail will
change Londons landscape. It is
the rst transport project in the
UK, on this scale, to propose
public spaces and above ground
property developments that are
integrated with sta=on designs
to improve the user experience
for the travelling public when it
fully opens in 2019.

73

Crossrails Urban Realm: The

public spaces outside the stations
These spaces outside sta=ons need to work eec=vely as transport
interchanges and get people to the next stage of their journey by bike,
foot, bus or taxi, as well as being pleasant spaces to meet friends.
The key principles for the designs were agreed with our partners, including
Transport for London (TfL) and the local authori=es on the Crossrail route
in 2010. The designs aim to be acrac=ve, adaptable and sustainable so
their use can change over =me; accessible including, where possible, step
free; legible and free from clucer; and safe and secure. Importantly they
also aim to retain the iden=ty, diversity and characteris=cs of local areas
giving condence to local communi=es and to poten=al investors.

74

Dallas
Dont rely on vehicle movements giving weight
to other objec1ves:
Urban renewal
Improved liveability
Increase in transport choice
Crea1ng more aordable housing / walkable districts
Reducing vehicular conges1on
Air quality
Safety
Business development
Connec1ng people / skills / ideas
75

How do we get from here?

76

Understand some of the forces

shaping all cities: the great
inversion

77

The great inversion

What we are seeing is a reversal in which the words inner city, which a
genera1on ago connoted poverty and slums, [are going to mean] the home of
wealthier people and people who have a choice about where they live
There is a desire for urban life among the millennial genera1on, whether
thats life in the centre of ci1es or life in town centres that are springing up in
the suburbs. But some form of more walkable, urbanized living is part of the
ethos of the emerging genera1on.
Not just them: smallest segment in the market now are families seeking 4
bedroom houses; and
boomers not re1ring to Port Macquarie but Inner West of Sydney say

78

A demographic perfect storm:biggest

demographic event since the baby
boom

* Meanwhile, the genera1on raised on Friends is not the only major cohort looking for new places
to live. Theres a larger one: the millennials parents, the front-end boomers. They are ci1zens that
every city wantssignicant personal savings, no schoolkids. And empty nesters want walkability:

With the leading edge of the boomers now approaching sixty-ve years old, the group is nding
that their suburban houses are too big. Their child-rearing days are ending, and all those empty
rooms have to be heated, cooled, and cleaned, and the unused backyard maintained. Suburban
houses can be socially isola1ng, especially as aging eyes and slower reexes make driving
everywhere less comfortable. Freedom for many in this genera1on means living in walkable,
accessible communi1es with convenient transit linkages and good public services like libraries,
cultural ac1vi1es, and health care.6

For them, that increased walkability means all the dierence between an essen1ally housebound
existence and what we all hope will be several decades of con1nued independence.


* In combina1on with their independent children, these re1ring boomers will numerically
overwhelm those families of child-rearing age who typically prefer the suburbs. This upcoming
convergence represents the biggest demographic event since the baby boom itself.

79

From white flight from to bright flight

to cities
This phenomenon is what the demographer
William Frey has in mind when he says: A new
image of urban America is in the making. What
used to be white ight to the suburbs is turning
into bright ight to ci1es that have become
magnets for aspiring young adults who see access
to knowledge-based jobs, public transporta1on
and a new city ambiance as an a5rac1on.


80

Demographic shifts population

and migration

Changing family structure ;delayed marriage and fewer
kids: graduate women: two graduate households
Quality of life is understood by young people without
kids to mean proximity to restaurants, retail, cultural
and educa1onal ins1tu1ons and other urban
ameni1es
they want a vibrant street life, historic
neighbourhoods mixed with new stu, and public
transit
Within 5ks of CBDs
Drop in driving / cant text/ facebook/ access internet/
work and drive
81

Understand how starved of resources cities in Australia are:

Vertical Fiscal Imbalance - cities underfunded

82

Federal funding harms our cities

Federal funding is shaping our city,
crea1ng sprawling car dependency
Ver1cal scal imbalance, and horizontal
scal equaliza1on

provides for the common-wealth between

states
The challenge is social inequality between
suburban boundaries, not states
Federal Grants Commission is structurally
incapable of solving the challenges of
social inequality in our ci1es

83

Federal funding
The federal government must be involved in
urban produc1vity
US gas taxes fund mul1 modal transport,
including transit
Infrastructure Australia must look at policy
evalua1on
Can yesterdays ins=tu=ons create tomorrows ci=es?

84

transport takeaways

Though cars are s1ll dominant, the era of automobilty seems to have peaked:
though we are s1ll designing this city around it

Its a delusion to think you can reduce conges1on by building roads: only road
pricing and extra public transport connec1vity can achieve that

The best transport ini1a1ve is a higher density land-use project

Light rail and other PT needs to be part of wider transport network including ac1ve
transport - We need to redesign walking back into our ci1es for economic and
health reasons

PT alone is not enough we need to manage demand on our roads and look at car
parking policy

We need to explain to the public the true cost and benets of transport modes:
and not select modes solely because they seem fundable from tolls
85

takeaways
The community will support big public transport spending if
we iden1fy the long term benets and develop easy to
pay instalment methods such as Denvers hypotheca1on
of small % GST to public transit
We need appraisal processes that value wider benets and
longer term payback periods and not just eciency or
speed or returns to Treasury over 3 years:the Harbour
Bridge would never have qualied.
We need to end the default low density sprawl model of
Sydneys development:
86

takeaways
We need to embrace the future of smaller homes, shared spaces and
bigger lifestyles: both Millennials and re1ring baby boomers are vo1ng
with their feet for this future : we need to ensure they can have that
future in Parrama5a and other key centres
Key to unlocking all this is funding user and beneciaries pays - making
sure we capture the value of PT investment that is currently accruing ,
unearned ,to private landowners : many global ci1es doing this
We must end ver1cal scal imbalance and federal underfunding of our
ci1es : the feds need to invest in PT projects in our ci1es because of the
GDP benets they bring par1cularly in a knowledge economy

87

Economic Appraisal
We need more empirical evidence on the impact on urban
road conges1on of supply side investment
Cost benet analysis is dominated by (supposed) travel 1me
savings, which assume no increase in demand
PT subsidies reduced sprawl and automobile travel subsidies
increased it (Su and DeSalvo 2008)

88

Business as usual

Evalua1on methods are cri1cal

We measure mobility

Should measure

Travel speeds
Travel 1me

Accessibility to jobs
Accessibility to markets
Accessibility to labor
Capacity ma5ers!

Our metrics and priori=es simply

maintain the status quo

Induced demand is completely ignored

Cost benet analyses should include induced
demand, environmental damage, impact on
non-road users

Vancouver

Conges1on increased
Commute 1mes decreased

89

Demand Management
Road Pricing

Distance travelled
Time of day
Loca1on of road

Parking Levy
Workplace travel plans
Transit orient land use

Weve tried, we can do

more
Harbour crossing
1me of day tolls

Parking Levy

We have a parking levy in

Sydney, Nth. Sydney,
Bondi, Chatswood and
Parrama5a

Optus reloca1on

Macquarie Park workplace

travel plan

Eastern Distributor

We reduced trac by
closing streets
90

Land use matters

TOD Transit Oriented
Design
Locate development near
transit
Priori1se walking and cycling
Connect a ne grain street
network
Plan for mix uses
Op1mise density and capacity
No car parking

We need a TOD
Development Corpora1on
91

Livable streets
Complete streets movement
The one public service we all use
everyday are the streets where we live
Tony Blair
UK Prime Minister, 2001

Roads are the open sewers of

the 21st century
Professor Danny Dorling

#sneckdown

92

Western Harbour & Bays

Precinct
Western Harbour = 80 ha from Walsh Bay to
The Star no new public transport
investment; will SRT go via Barangaroo?
Bays Precinct = 80ha; surely unthinkable in a
modern city without world-class public
transport?

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Governance
There is no place for a Roads Minister or RMS
in a mul1modal department of transport
Mul1modal appraisal
Urban problem solving

Community involvement - Denver

Radical Targets
Vision Zero
Car Free Hamburg
Double the market share of Public Transport
94

Funding
Value Capture
Capture the posi1ve
benets of transit
Recover the true cost of
road use

Rebalance the project

appraisal
incen1vises mul1modal
evalua1on and funding
95