Congestion

Congestion is part of modern life and we can't get rid of it. We can only manage it.

So how do we manage congestion in land transport?

There are two general approaches: demand management and supply management.

Demand management is finding ways to change the time, place and method of the way we move.

Supply management is building more or wider roads (or railway lines)! The planners usually only consider roads. 

 There have been no route improvements on the main west rail line west of Penrith since 1910! In the 1920's the line was actually lengthened and had curves introduced! In that time almost the whole road between Penrith and Bathurst has been realigned!

What does the research say about congestion and how to solve it?

It boils down to this: if you have parallel road and rail corridors and want to reduce road congestion you invest in the rail line, not the road.
("It is clear that short to medium term investment in rail freight capacity could have a significant impact on the Strategic Road Network in terms of reduced congestion and other expenditure and should be considered in tandem with the assessment of road capacity." Source 

See also this source: Philippa Edmunds, from Campaign for Better Transport, said: “This research confirms what we have long argued, that integrated rail and road planning is the best way to reduce road congestion, collisions and pollution. It shows that on certain strategic transport corridors it is possible to improve road conditions without needing to add more road capacity.”)

Key points

• There are two general ways to deal with congestion – demand management or supply management.

• Demand management is more cost effective than supply management (see reference below)

• A clear path is the key to solving congestion: “punctuality and reliability are a result of right-of-way rather than traction technology” according to Sydney Uni research – road is NOT better at relieving congestion

• "In general, demand-side interventions may be most useful in the short-run to slow down the rise in the use of vehicles, and therefore recurrent congestion"  Congestion and Reliability Review: Full Report Austroads 2015 p.96  

• A small reduction in demand can lead to large travel cost savings.  

  1. • Source: "Estimating cost expansion factors in the Sydney urban and NSW rural road networks for economic evaluation of road projects" Orthongthed, N. et. al.    Australasian Transport Research Forum 2013  http://www.patrec.org/atrf.aspx  

• Traffic congestion is not linear – a small reduction in traffic can cause a proportionally larger reduction in delays = small traffic reductions lead to relatively larger time savings. A good example is the reduction in road congestion in Sydney during the school holidays.

  1. • • "once traffic goes beyond a certain threshold even by a small amount, the cost of congestion (say, measured in delays) shoots up exponentially (intuitively, because of driver reaction time delay. For a slightly more technical explanation, click here). This non-linearity then suggests that discouraging even a small number of people to not drive during peak rush hour can lead to big improvements in traffic congestion." Source

       • " ... traffic congestion is a non-linear function, meaning that a small reduction in urban-peak traffic volume can cause a proportionally larger reduction in delay. For example, a 5% reduction in traffic volumes on a congested highway (for example, from 2,000 to 1,900 vehicles per hour) may cause a 10-30% increase in average vehicle speeds (for example, increasing traffic speeds from 35 to 45 miles per hour). As a result, even relatively small changes in traffic volume or capacity on congested roads can provide relatively large reductions in traffic delay. Modeling by Deakin and Harvey (1998) indicate that a percentage reduction in urban vehicle mileage tends to produce about twice the percentage reduction in traffic congestion delays." Source

       • Video Jonas Eliasson: How to solve traffic jams  go to 3min.35

A general lack of investment in land transport, in particular in rail, has reduced the incentives for motorists and freight companies to change their behaviours and reduce demand on the existing road infrastructure. 

Remember how, with the introduction of the internet, that many of us said that we would work from home, but didn't?

Well the Covid-19 pandemic, showed us that some of us really can work from home. 

Same with solving traffic congestion: we need to rethink the way we do things! We need post-pandemic thinking.

Sometimes the government acts against its own policies:

"Congestion Compounded":                                            
‘‘By incentivising high productivity vehicles, government is perversely derailing their own policy to grow rail’s mode share target at a time when Sydneysiders want safer roads and less traffic congestion and vehicle emissions,’’ he said. ‘‘All this is doing is adding more and more trucks to Sydney’s road network.’’ 

Practical Low Cost Demand Management Strategies to reduce road congestion
(or how to encourage people to use the train).

We all know that congestion is bad in Blackheath (and Medlow and Mt Vic) on the weekends, especially on Sunday afternoons (or Mondays on long weekends). It's also bad in Katoomba, Leura, Wentworth Falls .......(see bottom of page for more examples)

What to do? 

Conduct a comprehensive study of stakeholders, especially in Medlow, Blackheath and Mt Vic, to consider the strategies below:

First:  at the peak times of Sunday afternoon (or Monday of a long weekend) have a specific two hour period where the lights at the 3 towns are green for through traffic. This would mean that locals could not access the GWH. Each set of lights supervised  by Highway Patrol / TfNSW for emergency situations.

Then ...
What about congestion charging (scroll to the bottom of the page)?
or better still the reverse: offer incentives to take the train and NOT drive from Sydney to the Blue Mountains.

These strategies could be implemented soon and at little cost.
Encourage people to visit the Blue Mountains on weekends by rail:

• 100% refund on all Opal card journeys to / from railway stations at Blackheath / Medlow Bath and other popular areas of the mountains to Sydney stations (perhaps other areas as well), with free parking at suburban railway stations.

• promote the previous initiative in the same way we have promoted Covid-19 precautions

• peak time avoidance bonus: pay local delivery drivers to deliver off-peak (as a temporary measure)

• provide free shuttle bus services from railway stations to popular places in the mountains 

• timetable more trains on the Blue Mountains line at peak times (new trains are coming soon)

• provide a higher standard of train travel - see further down on Finnish trains - make train travel appealing

• "Guaranteed Seat on the Journey Home": enable booking of seats on trains on the Blue Mountains Line, so that people know they won't miss out.

• encourage use of car share schemes: car owners who live in the mountains hire their cars on the weekends to visitors (government to offer rebates for hirers and pay the insurance costs of hirees). Tasmania introduced such a program in 2021 through their Hire and Drive Reimbursement Program.

• introduce a lottery for people who use the train: the first prize is a trip to a regional area of their choice anywhere in Australia, up to a certain value: the more visits you make to the Blue Mountains the more chance you have of winning!

• introduce a "meet and greet" program: locals (who will be paid) meet visitors off the train and show them around (people on Air Tasker already offer these services)

• introduce a house sharing program run by BMCC to provide quality weekend home stays (a kind of official Air BnB) - this works successfully in places like Bathurst during motor racing events.

What about on weekdays to cater for truck traffic?

• allocate times for through trucks and for local deliveries

• allocate times for locals to use the roads to shop, do school runs, get to work etc

This will allow businesses and residents to plan their day.

and on the other hand ... 

Introduce disincentives to road use, if necessary

• limit vehicle access, except for locally registered cars and light vehicles. Use number plate recognition cameras or police to monitor and impose a toll or fines (people from outside Opal card area eligible for an exemption). This could be done on the weekends in conjunction with the offer of free transport - under  the incentives above - to provide visitors with choice: travel free by rail or pay extra to use a car.

• introduce restrictions on parking in local streets (locally registered cars excepted)

• restrict trucks to making off-peak hour deliveries instead of during peak hours

• ban through trucks on the weekends (ie trucks going from west of Lithgow to east of Lapstone and vice-versa)

Practical Medium Cost Demand Management Strategies to reduce road congestion (or how to encourage business and families to use the train)

1. Reintroduce the "fuel by rail" subsidy to encourage fuel companies to return to rail

2. Introduce incentives, in addition to those mentioned above, for families with young children by retrofitting family and children's play areas to the new NSW TrainLink D set EMUs and the regional fleet while they are at it.

• no more "are we there yet?" because they will be too busy on the slippery dip, or playing house.

• no more comfort stops ("Mummy I can't hold on any longer")

• no more long lines at Macca's in Blaxland

• no more squinting into the sun or the glare of oncoming headlights

• no more tolls

People from the Bathurst area love "The Bathurst Bullet" so much that they are prepared to sit in a 25 year old suburban-style train, with hard seats sitting 5 across, travelling at 50km/h in some places to take day trips to Sydney.

Imagine how popular the new regional fleet will be with all (sorry some not all) of the "mod cons". They would even better if they had some of the facilities below.

This is what they do in Finland, (see Youtube video below) and in other countries in Europe.

Want to try it yourself? Go to: https://www.vr.fi/cs/vr/en/frontpage  and book a seat / section from Helsinki to Joensuu (which is like going from Sydney to Dubbo). See how quick the journey is. Note too that you can book family areas, working compartments, pet spaces, playrooms and so on. 

Then ask yourself "Would I take the train if they had those facilities on the Blue Mountains trains and new regional fleet?"