Our roads are choked and congested. Peak hour is now Peak hours over multiple hours because commuters are reluctant to return to public transport.

Alarming levels of congestion, gridlocked roads and traffic chaos are mainly due to the impacts of coronavirus; fears of infection and a lack of confidence around using public transport. Traffic is now several times worse than in pre-COVID times.

There’s been 90 per cent more congestion on Brisbane’s roads.

The ABC News reported that Queensland’s RACQ, had found, using TomTom traffic tracking data, that congestion levels for the month of February 2021 had been well above average compared to previous years, with Tuesday February 2 seeing 90 per cent more congestion on Brisbane’s roads than the same date in 2019 and 2020.

An RACQ spokesperson told the ABC News that “Brisbane was no longer seeing a single peak hour of traffic, but rather several peak hours that can last up until midday” and added “We haven’t seen this level of congestion in years”.

Industry and academic experts predict that public transport patronage won’t bounce back to pre-COVID numbers for another 3 to 5 years.

Our roads are choked and congested now. We can’t have ‘peak hour’ lasting all day. We can’t have this chaos lasting for another 5 years.

So, what can we do? What’s the solution? What is the alternative?

The solution is Demand Management.

Demand Management enables Governments and councils to:

  • Understand current and future pressures and constraints in the transport system
  • Identify when and where there is spare capacity
  • Redistribute demand to where there is – and to take advantage of – spare capacity

The advantages are:

  • We create capacity using and utilising our existing assets
  • We spread the load using network optimisation, management, and operations
  • We influence and change people’s behaviours to – think re-time and re-route

Almost all Governments, Parliamentary Ministers, Councils, Mayors and Councillors need to address budgetary pressures, make better use of their existing assets and save money through efficiencies. They have to, in fact they have no choice, because the pandemic has forced them to change their budgetary plans. There has never ever been a more important time for our Governments and Councils to change the way they use and spend our money.

Congestion is a big and complex problem. The good news is that it can be solved.

Demand Management provides Governments and councils with a n opportunity. An opportunity to do things very differently. Let’s make Demand Management a legacy of COVID19.

We really must do things differently. Our roads are choked and congested. And, we can’t have ‘peak hour’ lasting all day.