Back To The Past With Michael Sutherland

Perth City Council candidate (and rejected former Mt Lawley MLA) Michael Sutherland wants to take the City of Perth back to the 1990s, when it paraded the slogan "Your car is as welcome as you are".

I truly thought we had got past this sort of idiocy long ago, with inner cities focussing on walking, cycling and public transport, instead of creating yet more traffic congestion by encouraging people to drive to the central city.

Sure, no one likes to pay for parking - witness the number of Perth city commuters who park on my street every day and walk or get a cheap (2-section fare) bus into the city.

But what we have to realise is that car use is not costless (to the driver (self-evident), to other drivers or to the community) and nor is parking.

In peak periods in Perth, every additional driver on the roads imposes congestion costs on other drivers that are even greater than that driver's cost of using the car. On top of that, there are the costs of air pollution, climate change and social impacts - such as community severance by heavy traffic, with which inner urban residents like me are are only too familiar.

Nor is car parking costless, especially in central cities where land costs are very high. Where parking is free to the user (such as at suburban shopping centres), the cost is paid for by businesses (through council rates and/or lease rentals) and ultimately is factored into the prices paid by consumers. The critical difference, where car parkers don't pay directly, is that everyone pays, whether they get there by car and use the parking provided or not.

Public transport to Perth city has never been better - and current proposals for its development will make it even more so - so why, oh why, would we want to turn back the clock 20 years or more and turn the city into a traffic sewer once again.