Rivers as barriers to mobility in Australian cities

Rivers are a major barrier to mobility in many Australian cities. A lack of river crossings can result in reduced accessibility, higher travel times for cross river journeys, and added congestion on routes to and from widely spaced bridges and tunnels. Brisbane, the case study of our paper, is a case in point. While Brisbane has a total of 46 car lanes crossing the river, 28 of these are in and around the CBD. To the east of the CBD there are 22 kilometres of river, with only one crossing location (12 lanes at the Gateway Bridge). West of the CBD, there are two bridges (a total of 6 lanes), covering 45 kilometres of river. As a result, many drivers crossing the river are forced to detour into the inner city, which results in extremely inefficient use of the road network. In recent years, the total capacity of Brisbane River crossings has been increased by 14 car lanes, through the construction of the Gateway Bridge duplication, Clem7 and the Go Between Bridge. All of these projects bolster capacity at existing crossing locations, rather than breaching the river with new connections. In this paper, we use travel modelling to assess the benefits of these recently implemented projects in comparison with a range of other potential crossing locations. We show that the creation of new crossing locations would be more effective than bolstering capacity at existing locations. These findings relate not only to Brisbane but to all cities which are separated by a physical mobility barrier and provide general insight into efficient and strategic placement of infrastructure.

• Record URL:
  • http://www.atrf.info/papers/2013/index.aspx
• Authors:
  • Potesil, T
  • Oelrichs, C
  • Veitch, T
• Conference:
  • Australasian Transport Research Forum (ATRF), 36th, 2013, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
• Publication Date: 2013-10

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 20p
• Monograph Title: Transport and the new world city: 36th Australasian Transport Research Forum (ATRF), October 2nd-4th 2013, Brisbane

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Case studies; Highway capacity; Inland waterways; Mathematical models; Mobility; Rivers; Types of roads by network
• Uncontrolled Terms: Policy and planning; Road networks
• Geographic Terms: Australia; Brisbane, Queensland
• ATRI Terms: Case study; Mobility; Modelling; River; Road network; Traffic capacity
• ITRD Terms: 645: Capacity (traffic network); 8531: Case study; 9105: Mobility (pers)
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Society; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01514675
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ITRD, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 20 2014 10:11AM