Australia: Transport crisis turns west into wasteland

IT MAY be home to a booming population, but lack of public transport means Sydney’s west is in danger of becoming a Mad Max-style urban wasteland.

Its dependence on cars could prove its death knell, with rising petrol prices forcing many families to abandon their vehicles and become locked in their local communities.


Curtin University Professor Peter Newman yesterday warned delegates at a conference examining western Sydney’s future that, unless other transport options were available, vast areas were in danger of “dying from the outside in”.

He said, just like some parts of the US, suburbs in western Sydney faced being “boarded up and abandoned”.

“Already in the US, car-dependent cities are dying from the outside in,” Professor Newman said.

“Whole suburbs are boarded up and abandoned; the residents could not afford the mortgage or afford to sell the place. The dreams of people have gone and it’s not just the subprime mortgage meltdown – it is peak oil prices.”

Daily Telegraph