Sydney’s motorway tolls should remain high as an incentive to use public transport, and new tolls introduced to other main roads to reduce traffic and reinvigorate the city’s high streets, a leading think tank argues.
The Committee for Sydney has told an independent review into NSW tolls the government should consider transport vouchers, similar to the “dine and discover” vouchers used during the pandemic, instead of reducing tolls.
The Committee for Sydney think tank is urging the NSW government not to make it cheaper for people to drive.Credit: Jane Dyson
These could be given solely to people who live in areas with poor public transport and used to pay toll bills, top up Opal cards or put a deposit on an e-bike, the think tank said. “Even a voucher that provides cash for any use may deliver better public policy outcomes than the existing toll relief.”
It is one of six alternatives to reducing motorway tolls proposed by the committee, which counts motorway giant Transurban among its members, alongside Uber, GoGet, bus operator Transdev, Transport for NSW and several Sydney councils.
The group’s policy adviser Harri Bancroft said toll relief “isn’t as good as it sounds” because it made it cheaper to drive, leading to more cars on the road.
“Reducing tolls will simply shift the cost of driving from people’s money to people’s time,” she said. “This will also affect the equity of our city as traffic will most impact those living furthest away.”
NSW Roads Minister John Graham has ruled out placing new tolls on existing roads, and a congestion tax.Credit: Jessica Hromas
The toll review, led by economist and former consumer protection boss Allan Fels, is investigating the cost and fairness of Sydney’s toll system. The government has also promised not to introduce new tolls, and to place a $60 a week cap on tolls for household motorists.
But the committee argues the cost of driving should increase, and recommends several ways of doing so, including a road user charge per kilometre travelled, tolls on surface roads that have a motorway alternative such as Parramatta Road, and “cordon charging” to enter busy areas such as CBDs and town centres.
Under such a system, people who live in low-density areas with poor public transport would pay a lesser rate than those in high-density locations with better buses or train access. The government would need an agreed-upon way to measure public transport accessibility, the committee says. It could also be means tested.
However, the government already ruled out many of those suggestions ahead of the toll review. Roads Minister John Graham, who will address a Roads Australia industry lunch on Friday, has stressed he will not consider placing new tolls on existing untolled roads, nor a CBD congestion charge, as those would be contrary to the government’s election promise to end “toll mania”.
Manly has introduced 30km/h speed zones from Manly Wharf in the south, through the town centre, along the beachfront and up to the Queenscliff Bridge to protect pedestrians. Credit: James Brickwood
Acknowledging this, Bancroft said there were other “more politically palatable” ways to discourage driving, such as lowering the speed limit to 30km/h in major CBDs, shortening green lights for cars to give more time to pedestrians, and replacing traffic lanes with bike paths.
Lower speed limits are becoming more common. The latest version of the NSW Speed Zoning Standard, the guidebook for setting speed limits, recommends a 30km/h maximum “where there is a high place function with large numbers of pedestrians, and low traffic movement function”.
The committee also urged a wider review into the costs of travel in Sydney, not just road tolls, to ensure the result is not to “accidentally make driving a cheaper option than public transport”.
Public submissions to the toll review closed last week and a report on their contents is expected to be released this month.
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