Roads Australia (RA) is calling for greater urgency on urban infrastructure planning and delivery, saying infrastructure delivery “after the fact” won’t cut it on current population trends.
RA said that while there must be a focus on planning and delivering the right infrastructure where and when required, there must also be an element of foresight into future developments as well.
According to RA president David Stuart-Watt, over recent years, there’s been a growing recognition of the importance of integrated urban and infrastructure planning, and there’s evidence that we are getting better at it.
“But this latest report is a reminder that we have to improve further and faster to cope with our burgeoning population,” Stuart-Watt continued.
“We’re still in catch-up mode delivering infrastructure to urban growth areas established 10 and 20 years ago. We cannot afford to make the same mistakes in the future.”
“We need to factor into our thinking the likely impacts of new transport technologies and solutions.
“We are on the cusp of a transport revolution, but there is still a lot of uncertainty as to how exactly it will play out.
“We must accommodate a certain amount of flexibility in our planning scenarios to ensure we can take advantage of autonomous vehicle and drone technologies amongst others, as and when they roll out.”