Australia’s addiction to mega roads continues despite the spectre of climate change.

" The stream of projects shows Australia’s approach to urban transport is stuck in the car-obsessed past. It’s an approach at odds with state planning policies that prioritise other less-polluting transport modes, such as train and tram extensions, bike lane infrastructure and better pedestrian footpaths.

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned, roads hinder national efforts to meet climate targets. They “lock in” emissions, by establishing long-term infrastructure that commits societies to greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come...Globally, roads account for 69% of transport emissions, and this is growing. "
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https://theconversation.com/australia-why-are-you-still-obsessed-with-freeways-when-theyre-driving-us-away-from-net-zero-262129
#cars #vehicle #pollution #GHG #climate #roads #highways #CarDependency #MobilityDesign #Sprawl #PacificHighway #CoffsHarbour #bypass

Cars wreck lives, roads and the planet

" Motor vehicles are a major cause of air pollution. Air pollution is causally linked to six diseases:

coronary heart disease
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
stroke
type 2 diabetes
lung cancer
lower respiratory infections.

Estimates of the deaths associated with air pollution in Australia range from 3,200 to more than 4,200 a year.

Even the lower end of that range is far more than the roughly 1,200 lives lost in car crashes annually.

University of Melbourne analysis in 2023 landed at an even higher figure. It suggested vehicle emissions alone may be responsible for more than 11,000 premature deaths in adults in Australia a year. "

"Payment (for the constant rebuilding of roads) should be based on a combination of vehicle mass and distance travelled. That’s because damage to roads is overwhelmingly caused by heavy vehicles. "

https://theconversation.com/stop-the-free-ride-all-motorists-should-pay-their-way-whatever-vehicle-they-drive-262950
#cars #pollution #MobilityDesign #roads #killzone #Bellingen #Suvs #trucks #fossilfuel #externalities

Prioritising life over cars

VisionZero - Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death

"Helsinki, like Oslo and Stockholm, have all but eliminated traffic fatalities. Lower road speeds, automated cameras, and clever city design all helped; but it’s the over-arching vision that made it all possible. More than half of Helsinki’s streets have a speed limit of 30 km/h (approximately 20 mph). Smarter street design also played a key role. Pedestrian and cycling infrastructure was prioritized for upgrades in recent years. More and more people started using public transit or bikes, or just walking."
https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/helsinki-went-a-full-year-without-a-traffic-death-how-did-they-do-it/

In 2024, Australia experienced its worst road toll in over a decade, with 1,300 fatalities.
https://datahub.roadsafety.gov.au/progress-reporting/monthly-road-deaths

Can Australia cut road deaths to zero by 2050? Current trends say no. What’s going wrong?
https://theconversation.com/can-we-cut-road-deaths-to-zero-by-2050-current-trends-say-no-whats-going-wrong-220289
#VisionZero #MobilityDesign #cars #speed #RecklessDriving #motorists #CarDominance #TrafficDeaths #pedestrians #PublicTransport #cycling #RoadToll #SacrificeZone #roads #climate

Koalas spend just 10 minutes a day risking their lives on the ground

"Roughly two-thirds of koala deaths occur when they're on the ground — mostly from dog attacks and vehicle collisions. Cleared areas and roadsides are more dangerous locations for koalas to live. Koalas have to move a lot because of their quite specialised diets...Landscapes should be arranged so koalas don't have to spend much time on the ground."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-07-10/most-koala-deaths-happen-ground-habitat-destruction/105507980
#koalas #wildlife #biodiversity #conservation #habitat #MobilityDesign #roads #cars #dogs #pets #sprawl

“The largest organised vandalism in our nation’s history”.

"Why Sydney’s beaches remain inaccessible is explained by how the city expanded, as well as a mid-20th-century decision described as “organised vandalism” and persistent efforts by beachside locals to limit public transport and a perceived influx of “outsiders”."
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jun/21/why-cant-you-catch-train-tram-to-sydney-beaches
#beaches #accessibility #cars #PublicTransport #Sydney #vandalism #MobilityDesign #sprawl #TheAmericanDream

Kids want to be mobile
but
don't own a private car and mostly live in public transport deserts.
Poor bike, footpaths, or road infrastructure increase risks of potentially life-threatening injuries when using mobility devices such as e-scooters.

" One in 10 children hurt while riding e-scooters suffered life-threatening injuries. Children were “massively overrepresented” in cases of e-scooter injuries and deaths, despite e-scooters being mostly ridden by adults."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/04/e-scooter-injury-toll-revealed-in-study-just-tip-of-the-iceberg-in-australia-doctors-warn
#children #MobilityDesign #parenting #TransitDesert #FossilFuel #mobility #RoadTrauma #NSW #MidNorthCoast

The koala procreation season and car crashes

Speeding combustion engines are one of the major threats to unarmoured koalas. No road is ever wide enough for vehicles in the Bellingen/Gleniffer area. Road signage is regularly knocked down and speeding is the 24/7 norm.

Koalas like to meet up between June and December. This is the time when the marsupials are forced to negotiate a fragmented habitat of roads, settlements and degraded logging sites.

Switch on your 'car brain' and consider others.
>>
https://friendsofthekoala.org/koalas-and-cars/
#cars #roads #motorists #NSW #biodiversity #koalas #RoadTrauma #Bellingen #GlenifferRoad #RosesRoad #BellingenShire #SignageKnockedDown #enforcement #MobilityDesign

It seems to be tolerated that large machines mow down unarmoured human beings

"In the case of a crash, SUVs and LTVs cause more severe injuries to pedestrians and cyclists than passenger cars. This effect is larger for fatalities than for KSIs, and the fatality effect is particularly large for children... The Injury severity, defined either as ‘fatal versus non-fatal injury’ or as ‘killed or seriously injured (KSI) versus slight injury’. Pedestrians and cyclists are about 44% more likely to be killed when hit by an SUV or light truck (e.g. a van or big ute) compared to a passenger car."
>>
https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/early/2025/04/11/ip-2024-045613

Stop the child murder/ Stop de Kindermoord
"The streets no longer belonged to the people who lived there, but to huge traffic flows... It took the intolerable toll of child traffic deaths – and fierce activism – to turn Amsterdam into the cycling nirvana of today."
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/05/amsterdam-bicycle-capital-world-transport-cycling-kindermoord
#cars #roads #SUVs #LTVs #pedestrians #cyclists #children #ChildTrafficDeaths #wildlife #RoadTrauma #MobilityDesign #AI

Image: Bellingen cars conquer the few footpaths