The Ways to Overcome Traffic Congestion in Hobart

I am writing to you to inform you of a problem that is currently disturbing the flow of traffic in Hobart. There are over 245,000 cars in Tasmania and another 150,000 other motor vehicles. Around 80% of people in Tasmania travel to work or school by car. It’s simply not necessary. The distance from Glenorchy to Hobart is around 8.4km and it takes around 20 minutes by car. The distance from Kingston to Hobart is around 13km and it takes around 18 minutes by car. This tells us that the traffic is getting more and more heavy. Something needs to be done to decrease the amount of people driving their car and the amount of time they are spending in traffic.

Many solutions have been thought of to solve the issue of the growing traffic in Hobart. A very popular suggestion is to improve and build new bike lanes. Although the bike lanes are not currently the best, I think that if people wanted to ride to work, then they’d kick up more of a fuss and demand better lanes. Yes, perhaps building new bike lanes might get more people to ride but in the long run, would they really stick to it?

The main thing that is being done about the traffic is the building of more roads, motorways and improving road ways. Although this might slightly improve the amount of traffic build up, it is not the proper solution in the long run. Not a lot is being done to discourage the amount of people who drive their cars. A 3% increase of transport emissions has happened since 1990 to 2017. It’s estimated by The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics that in 2015, congestion costed Australia $16.5 billion. Traffic jams not only push up carbon emissions and air pollution, it’s damaging to the health and safety of the public. It’s just going to get worse and there is a solution.

The traffic congestion in Queensland was really bad. The construction of the light rails, however, put a stop to that. Since the system opening in 2014, over 21,000 passengers ride it every day and it has reduced vehicle traffic by 21% on the Gold Coast Highway at Broadbeach. It contributed to the Gold Coast public transport growth of 23% between 2013 to 2016. 

So if we had a light rail system going from Kingston Central, down the middle of the southern outlet and all the way out to Glenorchy, this would reduce the amount of cars heading to work, school and other destinations as it is cheaper and easier than paying for petrol and trying to find parking in the city. To overcome the problem of traffic in Hobart the government need to build more roads (for example add roads for bikes) or/and to improve roads that have alredy existed.