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Posted: 2017-07-20 07:40:01

Updated July 20, 2017 17:47:39

Believe it or not, the traffic in Hobart can be frustrating.

While southern Tasmanian drivers are unlikely to stew behind the wheel for the length of time their mainland Australian cousins do, experts have warned unless action is taken to alleviate the peak hour crush the city could suffer economically and culturally.

The slow crawl towards a possible solution inched closer today with a meeting of stakeholders to propose and examine suggestions to solve the dilemma.

Attendees listened to presenters and were urged to add their thoughts to pieces of paper pasted on to the walls of the meeting room.

Bob Clifford, whose ferry operation stepped into the breach to link Hobart with its eastern shore for two months after the Tasman Bridge collapsed in 1975 disaster, has proposed a network of 16 ferries built by his company Incat — the catch being state and local governments would have to fund terminals and other infrastructure.

Hobart Mayor Sue Hickey said while she could not pre-empt council's decision on Mr Clifford's idea but that it "would be safe to say council is unanimous — we must at least look at it as one piece of the jigsaw puzzle".

Hobart's traffic dramas, Alderman Hickey said, were due to the city being "a victim of our own success", and that the tourism boom had contributed to the issue.

"The river is underutilised and maybe it is time to reconsider ferries as an alternative public transport," Alderman Hickey said.

Mr Clifford, who addressed the gathering, said he was "pleased to see that people are at least thinking about" the proposal.

So, how did Hobart's traffic become such a problem? Well, it may have something to do with the city's design from the get-go.

One prang and you're knackered

The growing city of Hobart is ranked 11th largest by population, at just over 220,000 people.

But Hobart's peak-hour commute time has been judged among Australia's worst, only beaten by Sydney and Melbourne — and is not getting any better.

A 2016 report found a cocktail of roadworks and increased long-term parking are behind much of the gridlock.

It described Hobart's traffic system as "complex and dynamic", heavily reliant on three major arterials and susceptible to gridlock should incidents occur.

It recommended a number of measure to address "weak links" in the traffic network, including the completion of roadworks on the eastern departure of the Tasman Bridge, upgrades to the intersections, maintenance of clearways of Barrack and Collins street junction

An animal rights protest on the Tasman Bridge in 2016 saw a social media backlash from angry drivers over the resulting paralysis of the city's eastern arterial for hours.

The incident demonstrated how a critical route in Hobart can be virtually shutdown, giving motorist few options for a workaround.

Experts have said it comes down to a city just not designed to cope with the amount of vehicular traffic.

Avoid Sydney's 'confused manner' was the brief

Soon after taking office in 1810, Governor Lachlan Macquarie landed in Tasmania for a personal inspection of the fledgling Hobart site and was not impressed, author Frank Bolt noted in his work unearthing the origins of the city for the Royal Society of Tasmania.

Mr Bolt has said the "collection of miserable huts interspersed with some structures of brick, public buildings of an unsatisfactory quality and a few muddy tracks and laneways" alarmed Macquarie, who was mindful not to repeat the "confused manner" in which Sydney had grown.

Acting surveyor James Meehan was commissioned to design a plan and delivered a grid system common to many Australian cities, complete with Macquarie Street at its heart, in a nod to his boss.

By 1852, it is estimated Hobart's population was around 24,000 — comprised of free settlers, military and administrative personnel and serving and ex-convicts.

By the 1960s, forward thinking bureaucrats could see the coming traffic storm and commissioned Australia's first urban transportation study, which proposed a number of measures to improve flow, including the Brooker Highway and the Southern Outlet, which are in action today.

Despite many subsequent plans and investigations, Hobart has still found itself at, or near, capacity during peak commuting times.

While the ferry proposal has its supporters, others are not sold.

Traffic gurus prefer terrestrial solutions

Two transport consultants have said they do not believe the Incat proposal is the answer to Hobart's traffic congestion.

Robert Cotgrove has said for a regular ferry service to be successful, "urban residents going about their daily activities must be the major market".

In an opinion piece for News Corporation, Mr Cotgrove said the idea of ferries for public transport in other cities is appealing for their promise of reducing the number of cars on arterials during peaks.

"Here the prospect is far less certain," he wrote, adding the potential market for ferries among urbanites was "existing bus passengers".

Consultant and author John Livermore, also writing for News Corporation, said he disagreed with Mr Cotgrove's preferred solutions of bypasses, instead stating "light rail, improved public transport and an integrated transport policy … a part of urban renewal over a 20- to 50-year period" was the ticket.

In March this year, Minister for Infrastructure Rene Hidding urged Hobart City Council to "reconsider its opposition" to recommendations in its 2016 report and blamed the council's "lack of action" for the traffic snarls in Hobart's CBD, which he said were "causing immense frustration for Hobart commuters and creating the perception that nothing is being done".

Perhaps that might be the jolt that sees council push the ferry proposal out of dry dock out into the water.

Topics: sea-transport, transport, road-transport, history, hobart-7000

First posted July 20, 2017 17:40:01

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