Congestion
Traffic Forecasts
Land-use Planning

 

 

Congestion

Those in favour of the Tunnel argue that if nothing was done to increase cross-Harbour capacity, high levels of congestion would exist by the year 2000 from early morning to mid evening, for approximately 12 hours per day. They argue that under such conditions it would not be possible for traffic to recover from any flow disruptions, such as traffic accidents, until late in the night.

Opponents to the bridge argue that congestion is not such a bad thing because it causes people to change their travelling habits and their places of residence and work. They say that congestion would not get much worse because people would use public transport more and new centres of business would spring up elsewhere. They also argue that building the Tunnel will not rid motorists of cross-harbour congestion because it will encourage more people to drive across the Harbour at peak hour and congestion will build up again.

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Traffic Forecasts

Forecasts done for the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) were based on historical traffic trends. However they were disputed by those who argued that changing patterns of population growth and distribution and changing locations of employment would influence traffic and reduce the rate of growth of traffic. It was also argued that rates of vehicle ownership were dramatically tapering off. Those opposed to the Tunnel argued that cross-harbour traffic was not increasing sufficiently to warrant a bridge.

Recent traffic projections have been below those forecast in the EIS because of the toll, increasing petrol prices and various other factors. Transfield-Kumagai are confident that this is a temporary trend and that traffic levels will meet their predictions in the long-term.

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Land-Use Planning

Planners have argued that traffic problems should not be looked at in isolation from land-use planning because traffic results from people travelling from one location to another and one should consider the location of things as well as the means of travelling between them in planning for the future. They argue that this was not done in the case of the Harbour Tunnel.

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