Media Release
Wednesday, 3 September 1997
Eastern Distributor - Police Remove Three Protesters While RTA Plans Another Large Motorway
Police took three anti-Eastern Distributor protesters into custody after a crowd occupied the Moore Park construction compound last Saturday.
Later in the week the RTA revealed plans for a new freeway linking the new M2 tollway with the M4. This will largely complete an orbital road system around Sydney if the Distributor and the proposed M5 East are also built.
Randwick Greens Councillor Murray Matson took part in the occupation and has condemned the new freeway as being ...
"...another blind step forward in the RTA’s march towards a car dependent Sydney. The total impact on the Eastern suburbs when the complete orbital system is operating will be greater than the sum of the parts."
A World Bank commissioned study of 37 international cities supports Matson’s view. In the study researchers from Perth’s Institute for Science and Technology Policy found that after a certain point cities become economically poorer the more cars allowed into them. Cr Matson explained,
"Developed cities decline with growth in car usage. U.S. cities have a much higher car usage than European ones but only 80 percent of the wealth per capita. Kuala Lumpur has more than twice the car usage of wealthy Asian cities like Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong but only about a fifth of the wealth. The moral is that cities that don’t waste resources on motorways can invest in public transport systems and productive industries."
Cr Matson further argues that the RTA is too committed to its core function of road building and should not be allowed to decide on broad urban transport questions.
"The RTA always wants to build more roads and never public transport. To build the Eastern Distributor tollway, the RTA has had to lie about the capacity of cars it will carry. This is nothing new. To build the M2 tollway there had to be lies told about the revenue it would earn. It follows that the RTA will lie about this new ‘Prospect Arterial’ as well."
Cr Matson is running for the NRMA board of directors on a platform of opposing major new road systems.
CONTACT: Randwick Greens Councillor Murray Matson