Two things

A few days ago I wrote about how neither SA political party had a comprehensive traffic and transport plan to expose to the South Australian people prior to the state election. I was wrong - the Liberals did have a plan and they have provided me with a copy. OK - it is a bit light on in terms of a real and ambitious programme - but it is a good start. Too bad they won't get to implement it.

The unfortunate thing about the Liberal plan is that it doesn't mention the Adelaide CBD Traffic signal problem specifically. Now this is the biggest and most obvious transport issue in Adelaide. Not so much because it has such a huge impact on the people and the environment - which it does - but because it has been ignored by Labor for so long. It astounds me that Pat Conlon is still Transport Minister - he has had the last 8 years to deal with this issue and did next to nothing. And it looks like he is not going to do much this time either.

Just to recap - the Adelaide metro traffic system is a dud - the infrastructure is broken, there is no signal co-ordination and that leads to a "hurry up and wait" arrangement which is hugely time wasting and very unsafe. Plus it has a serious environmental impact on the city and surrounds from the wasteful emissions of the "mobile car park" roaming in the city. There are other associated issues arising from the City Council abandoning its responsibility for traffic management.

There is no doubt that a dysfunctional traffic and transport system in a major metropolitan area has quite serious and long term adverse impacts on the local community. And the truth is that fixing such a broken system would have enormous and positive benefits for the place. Not only would the local comunity be forever grateful but it would demonstrate that the state is open for business once again.

Fix it and people will notice and respond - ignore it and they notice even more. "Continuous improvement" is a phrase that seems not to be understood by the current Transport Minister.

The second.

I also wrote recently about the Victorian road safety programme after Mark Webber was "beaten up" for commenting on it. I should point out that all Australian States subscribe to a similar road safety model - they can't manage to get their act together enough to fix the road accident and trauma problem but they can all manage to run a "fear" and "penalty" programme. Makes you wonder why? It wouldn't have anything to do with the revenue that it generates - would it?

All I can say to those people who thought I was being a little harsh - is look at what is happening elsewhere. Check out what is going on across Europe. Look at what the United Kingdom, France and Germany are doing - and Denmark and Sweden. And then you will know where Mark Webber is coming from. And why our system is rubbish.

The really scary thing for me is that the Australian States seem to have become locked into this weird "fear" and "penalty" scheme that can't possibly work. They now *own* this approach - have offloaded all responsibility to their police forces and seem likely to run with it regardless of success. Not a good look Premiers.

The big thing that is needed is for someone with authority to revisit the programme - and importantly to ask some "independent" experts about how best to conduct a "road safety programme". Independent as in overseas - because the so called "local experts" have been captured by this seriously broken system - and are mostly paid by it. Kevin or Julia?

But how many toes will that approach tread on? Hopefully lots - and the result will be a system that actually works.