Lot's Wife Edition 8 2013

NATIONAL AFFAIRS
CONSEQUENCES IN
ZONE 2
Linking east and west, dividing inner and outer Melbourne
Anthony Taylor
The proposal for a freeway from Clifton Hill to Parkville (and then to
the Western Ring Road) may not seem immediately relevant to transport
in Clayton. However, the size of the project means it has significance
for all of Melbourne, even all of Australia. This
is because approximately $8 billion would be tied
to the project. The sheer amount of Victorian
Government funding needed will preclude the
implementation of other policies and infrastructure
projects across the state.
The commentary and developments regarding
the East West Link proposal affirm, amongst many
other things, a key lesson about transport policy in
Victoria. The lesson is that there is an inner suburbouter
suburb divide in Melbourne, which extends
to community response to transport policy; and
complementing this, there is a public transportprivate
(ie. motor) transport divide. There is certainly a complex and
fascinating relationship between these two binaries which is played out in
the media and is also evidenced by actors: politicians, transport bureaucrats,
the road lobby, inner-city activists and so on.
“Where inner Melbourne
expanded with the provision
of good public transport, and
then cars augmented this
later, in Zone 2 it has only
ever been cars. In Zone 2,
then, a new freeway further
entrenches how necessary a
car is to get around.”
It is difficult to intelligently explain why there is such a divide in
community response (or lack thereof) to transport projects. The answer
which is often parroted would be that it is simply “hipsters” or “inner city
lefties” who protest road projects; meanwhile, the
“battlers” in the outer suburbs don’t have time for
such bullshit. They have long hours and bills to pay,
and cars are the only practical way of getting around.
Sadly, the next move of the Hun-style argument is
to convince people in outer suburbs that, since it is
only the privileged city dweller who protests roads,
the best they can and should expect is a new road.
However, the overwhelming investment in private
motor transport, and concomitant urban sprawl over
the past 50 years can also do some work to explain
the differing responses to road projects in inner and
outer Melbourne.
Every time a new freeway is built in this city, it sharpens the divide
between the way transport works in Zone 1 and Zone 2. The impact of a
new freeway, regardless of where it is built (leaving aside local impacts), is
not so dramatic for those living in Zone 1. There remains a choice between
10 LOT’S WIFE EDITION 8 • 2013