The state government will need to rethink its policy on meeting urban demand as the city reaches five million people, urban management expert, Professor Nicholas Low, warns.
Speaking ahead of a University of Melbourne public forum on the implications of “Melbourne @ 5 million” on Thursday December 3, Professor Low said “more” people does not necessarily mean ”better”.
“Melbourne at five million is nearing the population of the core of London, Paris or New York. Imagine London without its Underground, Paris without its Metro, New York without its Subway: it’d be transport chaos. Right now that looks like Melbourne's future by 2030.”
Professor Low, director of the Centre of the Governance and Management of Urban Transport (GAMUT) at the University of Melbourne, says the recent adjustments to the Melbourne 2030 plan provides the state government — as well as stakeholders and residents — with a unique opportunity.
“Imagine a future of integrated transport: rapid trams to all shopping centres, pedestrian shopping streets, buses timetabled to meet trains, frequent and reliable modern trains with simple timetables, a completed network of bike paths connecting with rail stations, land use patterns geared to demand for accessibility, accessible housing that's also affordable. That's the future the government wants and the public wants'.
In Victoria, the government typically follows the land market, which is structured by the way land owners, speculators, developers and builders traditionally work, Low said.
“Urban sprawl is the inevitable result. The government then responds by building motorways to provide mobility.”
“That way will not work in the 21st Century with its pressing challenges of global warming and peak oil. Do we want to join in planning the future of our metropolis? What does real planning actually mean? It is surely more than a bunch of projects connected by nice rhetoric and some glossy pictures.”
