Your argument has weight but it is cheaper to build infrastrucuture today than in say 10 years time.

What is neglected here is that local government via poor planning, corruption and lack of inter communication between local councils have contributed to a 2 tier system inherant with problems.

On one hand, they approve transit orientated developments away from transport and allow massive double garages as the prominent design feature, encouraging those in these areas to be car orientated.

On the other hand, the main employment hub of the CBD is car unfriendly, with council not allowing adequate car spaces with new developments, restricting vehicle access and greatly affecting those poor people in the transit orientated suburbs.

What a stupid situation lacking in any vision at all.

At least if road infrastrucutre is in place, in the near future when oil may not be the core provider of fuel for vehicles, the infrastructure is in place and lets face it, Brisbane needs it.

If councils did not allow development to occur until after infrastructure announcements, then used some of the contributions from subsequant developers to fund it, we would not have these inherant problems. Trains are the key to the long term existance and life quality of QLD, yet they will only be built after residents are disadvantaged for many many years.

Good old local government, ruining lives and they dont even know it.

Building massive new road projects at this point in time is about as ridiculous as the Easter Islanders putting all their energy into building more statues in order to appease the gods, as their life-supporting resources ran out.

This massive amount of money should be put directly into measures to ease us through the imminent peak oil shock and direct us onto a sustainable basis. Public transport, car-pooling, walking, cycling or sitting at home on your arse (woops, I mean, working from home) instead of commuting to work every day are all part of this.

It is hard to imagine something more insane than to continue building road projects based on the profligate use of cars when we have seen a “30 per cent increase in the price of oil since early 2004”, and every indication is that the trend will continue.

Can’t the Beatty Government see the light, or I should say, the glaringly dazzlingly blindingly obvious sign that things are a changin’….and rapidly?

How about putting this enormous amount of money into biofuel production, local food co-ops, a system to better help the unemployed when people suddenly start losing their jobs on mass and to help those that will suffer when inflation and thus interest rates skyrocket. How about a strengthening of our ridiculously run-down police force that hasn’t got a hope in hell of holding things together when fuel-price-triggered inflation and unemployment bite, food is vastly more expensive if obtainable at all and massive civil strife erupts?

And most importantly - how about spending some of it on getting us off this absurd continuous growth spiral and onto a genuine basis of sustainability?

We need much more focus on this issue, thank you for raising it here.

Realist raises the main problem, poor planning and no vision. Clearly infrastructure is cheaper today but when it is going to be privately owned such infrastructure repesents a clear financial blackmail problem. Roads are a public service and under no cirxumstances should that public ownership be given away. That issue needs to be reversed, and now, before the water and electricity etc have been given away as well.

Ludwig too makes a very good point which I agree with entirely. This plan for 5 tunnels and who knows what else lacks vision and common sense. It's insanity and the premise on which it was promised by Newman has been broken several times already. As such he has no mandate for any of these tunnels. Remember the $2 toll?

Firstly who is going to pay $4.10 for a one way trip, $10 for trucks, $6 for taxis. People will simply avoid the tunnels and render them useless if not actually producing worse traffic problems. In 4 years time when they are supposedly complete what will the toll be by then? And the price of fuel? In 4 years time who will be able to afford to drive anywhere?

Decentralising the clogged CBD area is an obvious choice as is building a complete and decent public transport system. Then there is the thought of workers on opposite sides of the city swapping jobs for reduction in their costs and travel. I despair of today's governments. Is there simply personal greed behind these proposals?

Does anybody know if the survey mentioned in the article looked at what types of car travel have been replaced by public transport?

I'm guessing that most of us use public transport primarily for routine trips (travel to work in the CBD). Using it for much else out in the "burbs" is a difficult and time consuming process.

I'd certainly like to see less spent on tunnels and more on increased services on my local train line, more focus on arterial bike ways (I have about 6km of busy road between my place and the CBD with very narrow edges and no bikeway) etc. I ride to work sometimes - the trip is a few minutes longer by bike than train but just too risky sharing trafic lanes during the shorter days at this time of year.

R0bert