The Herald Sun's editorial says stop bashing our motorists:
Cars bring people into the CBD. Another tax is not the answer. It never is. People will reject the tax and shop somewhere else. Businesses may find themselves forced to move outside the city.
Sure cars do bring people into the CBD, but public transport is by far the biggest mover of people into and out of the Melbourne CBD:
Public Transport dominates, but still over a quarter came by car – including over 32,000 car drivers.
Public transport took 67% of motorised commuter trips into the CBD.
Back to the Herald Sun's war on cars:
What councils should be advocating is a shared plan whereby cars, cyclists and pedestrians share the streets.
Whoa! I think we have a genius on our hands here.
Making drivers the victims is likely to increase frustration and road rage between drivers and cyclists.
The city driver as "victim". My heart bleeds.
Hundreds of new bicycle parking spaces would be provided under the plan, but there should also be consideration for more carparking spaces.
While some councils fear this would only encourage more cars to enter the city, more carparking would cut the congestion caused when drivers now find themselves with nowhere to go.
Suggest the editorial writer Googles "induced demand" and gets back to us.
But then again, more car parking might not have the effect the editorial writer thinks:
The number of car driver journeys to work in the Melbourne CBD actually decreased from 34,289 in 2001 to 30,570 in 2006, a mode share drop from 27% to 23% (ref). This happened despite a 20% increase in the number of parking spaces in the CBD between 2000 and 2006
In the end, the editorial contains the flaw in its own argument:
Changes need to be made, with bike riders expected to make up a quarter of all traffic entering the city during the morning peak period within the next five years.
That increased share of traffic movements into the CBD is almost certainly going to come at a corresponding decrease in the number of single-occupant private cars. So it's not about bashing "our" motorists, it's accepting the "our" motorists are becoming "our" bike riders.