Band-aid Solutions Will Not End Transport Woes

Urban sprawl is exerting massive pressure on our transport systems to move people from where they live, to where they work.

A study by the Grattan Institute found that while 60% of all job growth in Melbourne was occurring within 10 km of the CBD, population growth within the zone was only 30% of total. In contrast, the zone 20 km and beyond from the CBD supported only 25% of job growth, but 55% of population growth, due mainly to the availability of affordable housing.

Currently the car is the only viable means of travel to work for a large proportion of the population. However, our commuters are facing ever-increasing road congestion, with travel times 20% longer than a decade ago. Our governments have tried to fix the problem – and woo voters – with offerings of new transport infrastructure. Yet these do not come cheap. In Melbourne, the North-East Link road project connecting northern, eastern and western suburbs is estimated to cost approximately $16 billion, while the Suburban Rail Loop will involve 90 km of tunnelling, $50 billion and three decades of work. In Sydney, the WestConnex project that provides better connection between the western suburbs and employment centres in the city will cost $16 billion, while the Sydney Metro rail project with 31 km underground tunnel is projected to cost over $33 billion. But with Melbourne’s population set to grow from 4.9 million to 8.5 million by 2050, and Sydney’s population from 5.1 million to 8.0 million in the same period, even these ambitious projects are essentially band-aid solutions.

What is required is nothing less than a paradigm shift in urbanisation planning. The heart of the congestion problem lies in the fact that people do not live where they work. The major reason for this is that Australia is becoming more and more a service economy – that is, growth is in service industries such as retail, finance, legal, education and health, rather than primary industries such as mining and agriculture, or secondary industries such manufacturing and processing. ABS data shows that between 2008 and 2013, the total labour market grew in line with overall population, but employment in most primary and secondary industries actually fell.

These large-scale changes occurring within the Australian economy are inextricably linked to changes in urbanisation patterns, since service-based knowledge workers are typically concentrated in the Central Business Districts of our cities. Where they live, however, is another story, since the pressure of housing affordability forces our CBD workforces to the fringes of the city.

We must radically re-think the way we plan and build cities by keeping jobs and industry at the forefront of our thinking, thus ending unsustainable urban sprawl. A form of urbanisation that I have termed ‘Expanding Nodular Development’ (END) hinges on limiting the size of cities and channelling growth to satellite cities. These satellite cities are arranged in waves in a fan pattern, with waves about 100 km apart extending into the regions, so populating the regions. The new cities would be built at the sites of existing ‘seed’ towns, and would be planned for a minimum of 100,000 people and a maximum population of about one million.

To end urban sprawl and cut commute times, satellite cities must be self-sufficient in terms of industry, employment, and cultural opportunities. Cities would be planned to facilitate ease of transport, and people would live where they work.

The key lies in creating new industries that can provide primary employment in the vicinity of these satellite cities, along with generating secondary and tertiary jobs (ABS data shows that for every primary plus secondary job, 6.5 service tertiary jobs are created). In Europe, we have seen the establishment of intensive primary industries such as horticulture and animal husbandry (e.g. piggeries) within urban environments. Another high growth industry that is eminently suited to the END model concept is aquaculture, which can even work symbiotically with horticulture through the process of aquaponics.

The onset of climate change has generated unprecedented interest in renewable energy, which will be an apt energy source to ‘fuel’ these industry-centred satellite cities. Renewable energy can be easily utilised by separating hydrogen from water through the simple process of electrolysis. This hydrogen can be burned, with zero emissions, for heating and to generate electricity, or stored for future use for practically no cost by injecting into existing natural gas pipelines. Hydrogen can also be used as an industrial feedstock as it is a basic element required for the manufacture of plastics, PVC, and a host of industrial, commercial and household chemicals. Hydrogen can also be used in fuel cells to power motor vehicles such as cars, trucks and buses, and as such has vast potential to replace oil-based fuels, without emissions. In addition hydrogen can be easily converted to ammonia, a fertiliser with enormous export potential.

In short, renewable energy and industry-centred satellite cities go hand-in-hand, giving rise to a future Australia that is largely independent of fossil fuels in all sectors. This would enable the nation to easily meet emission targets, increase national energy security, and vastly increase manufacturing potential to fuel new economic growth.

Centring satellite cities on primary and secondary industry would create job opportunities for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers. This is important since not all workers are inclined or suited to the tertiary, knowledge-based jobs, which our present society is requiring to an ever-increasing extent, and which is contributing greatly to youth unemployment.

The planned establishment of new cities also presents unique opportunities to develop a sustainable environment. Waste water recycling, rain water harvesting and solid waste disposal with energy recovery all become feasible at little extra cost, compared to costs required to retrofit established cities. With these planned and designed measures in place, less stress is placed on natural river systems in times of drought, and pollution of the environment through inadequate waste treatment is minimised.

The END model offers a blueprint for future urban development, allowing the population to grow while simultaneously containing congestion and providing commensurate growth in employment to maintain present living standards. The concept, though novel, does not require any great innovation, just good planning and integration of existing technologies. Historically, Australia has been good at this, but ultimately what is needed is the political will to make this vision happen. Now is the time when national leaders should look beyond the next election, reject band-aid solutions and take up big ideas that imagine a sustainable future for our Australian cities.

Frank Reale is a mechanical and electrical engineer and environmental scientist with a special interest in urbanisation and sustainable growth.