“Quicklook” Assessment of Greater Adelaide's Assets & Challenges ...

• World IT Congress (in Feb. 2002) is seen as a boon to project Adelaide
area as a forerunner.
• All state schools are connected.
WEAKNESS
1. State and Federal government oversee the highways. Traffic volumes are
reasonable, but does get a bit congested. It was mentioned that work could be
done to have clever road management systems to relieve peak period
congestion without building additional road capacity.
2. Public transport has been privatized with promises of improved efficiency etc.
But, now the bus does not seem to ever run on time. In the past, the majority of
passengers were professional people, now there are mostly kids riding. It was
clean, efficient, and ran on time. Now it takes thirty minutes between schedules
even though eighteen minutes are scheduled. The advertising is not matching
up to reality and people are voting with their cars. As a result, new initiatives to
improve service levels have been introduced; e.g., the ’15 minute Go zones’
whereby you can be sure of a bus within 15 minutes. In addition, specialized bus
services for events such as the Royal Show and Football Park football have been
introduced.
3. In certain areas there is only a limited amount of road space due to heritage
regulations that constrain road space.
4. Peak hour parking regulations are noted as causing a problem. They stop at
6pm, so zones allow people to park on street on main roads, which can cause
congestion.
5. Most industrial land is up North of the city; there is also significant population in
the South so everything gets ’funneled’. Planning should address this issue.
6. Financially restrained – many big ideas but not able to deliver. Budgeting and
planning should include consolidation, prioritization, and bootstrap techniques.
7. Australia rates poorly on broadband access. Telstra is reluctant to roll out ADSL,
because it is expensive to the home user ($90.00 AUD a month). In CBD
(central business district) the fiber network etc. is good. Because of a prevailing
conservative attitude, cable rollout stopped, so only forty percent of Adelaide is
cabled. Therefore, Cable TV never took off here. Online shopping on TV or PC
never took off like in the USA. It is thought that maybe this is culturally ingrained.
When cable TV came out, at a cost of about $50 AUD, many people cancelled.
Laws prevent major sporting events from being shown exclusively on cable. As a
result some events have to be shown on free to air due to this culture, but you
must pay to get any film. The analogy in America would be that the National
Hockey League is pay, but local games are free. Other areas for high speed
access should be explored, particularly in the wireless arena. Costs of wireless
are rapidly coming down, it does not require legacy copper infrastructure, mobility
is increased, and existing building structures are not impacted.
8. Some concerns in telecommunications are about a community that is getting
older.
9. For telecommunications - being middle of the country is a disadvantage because
you are dependent on exit points for submarine cables – Perth and Sydney. This
needs more in depth assessment.
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