Media Release
July 7 2008
At the crossroads: Adelaide’s transport future
Adelaide’s
current rail and tram network of 130 kilometres needs to be more than
doubled within the next 40 years for the city to maintain a sustainable
transport system, according to UniSA’s Professor of Transport Planning,
Michael Taylor.
The Acting Director of UniSA’s
Institute for
Sustainable Systems and Technologies, Prof Taylor will present a
seminar At the crossroads: Adelaide’s transport future as
part of the University’s free lecture series,
Gift of
knowledge 2008.
“The recently proposed rail and tram extension will add only about 10
kilometres to the existing network, but Adelaide’s future travel demand
will require at least an additional 150 km of tracks by 2048,” Prof
Taylor said.
As part of the seminar, Prof Taylor will visit Adelaide in the year 2048
and address its changing demographics, ageing population, the move away
from oil fuelled car dominated transport to vehicles like UniSA’s
renewable energy vehicle
TREV,
automatic driverless cars that enable us to squeeze three lanes of
travel into one (and therefore reduce the city space occupied by roads),
as well as a light rail system that runs solely on electricity.
And since Australia has been labelled the fattest nation in the world,
Prof Taylor says that we should take a good look at the city of Lyon in
France, which has some 340 bike stations located around the city.
“With bike stations at 300 metre intervals, people can buy a ticket to
hire a bike at a bike station and ride to their destination, leaving the
bike at another station. If that sounds like hard work, commuters could
catch driverless electric trains, perhaps using a new Euro ticket
system, which enables you to use your mobile phone as a public transport
ticket. Another alternative is the ‘electronic purse’, which works like
a universal card to purchase rail and bus tickets, hire a bike, access a
car park, or even do the shopping,” Prof Taylor said.
Will cars still rule the road? Is rail-based transport the answer? What
will life be like with these new services? Can we afford the new
technology and infrastructure? And what if we can’t? All will be
revealed in this fascinating visit into the future.
Contacts for interview
- Professor Michael Taylor office (08) 8302 5628, 8302 1861 mobile 0439 439 460 email michael.taylor@unisa.edu.au
Media contact
- Geraldine Hinter office (08) 8302 0963 mobile 0417 861832 email geraldine.hinter@unisa.edu.au