Letter of the week: ‘Smart growth’ means invest in mobility, not cars

ANTHONY GOULD of Salt Rock writes: While I agree with the identification of the problem of traffic (which I experience daily) in the recent article “Going nowhere slowly on Salt Rock Road” (March 23), I do not agree as implied that we inevitably have to pave over more land to provide bigger intersections, traffic lights and wider roads.

Over the last two decades the rest of the developed world (including the USA – the so called “land of the car”) has realized that simply providing more and more road space for cars does not solve congestion and never will.

Worse, car-oriented development degrades the environment that makes our spaces attractive in the first place.

Instead the most progressive cities and towns are now applying fresh thinking on how to meet a community’s travel needs without the private car dominating.

Lots of buzzwords are being thrown around but the one I think sums it up is “smart growth”.

Basically, have cars by all means, but prioritize alternatives so people can use cars but don’t have to: rather than investing in a car system, invest in a mobility system.

So yes, there is some work to be done on some intersections (the N2 and Tiffany’s entrance for a start) but surely our goal should be that summed up by the mayor of Bogota, Columbia: “A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars but where the rich use public transport”.

Unfortunately, we on the Dolphin Coast seem to be stumbling into a situation where we are locking ourselves into a car dominated style of development that is difficult to undo and, in my opinion, totally underachieves on the potential of what this part of the Dolphin Coast can become, where nature and development can co-exist.

What value are luxury lifestyle estates and so on if the public spaces connecting them are soulless traffic clogged wide roads?