Melbourne has less than half the population of London, but its transportation system produces considerably more carbon dioxide, according to an article in yesterday’s The Age newspaper. The great Australian dream in which each family owns its own quarter acre block has resulted through population growth in extensive urban sprawl and high costs both in land prices and in damage to the environment.
Because Melbourne’s population is much more widely spread out than London’s, its citizens rely more heavily on cars. Melbourne’s public transport system is much less developed than London’s, and carries fewer people, but on average those people travel further. Melbourne’s trains and trams rely on electricity from brown coal which produces more carbon dioxide than Britain’s black coal and nuclear power stations.
How can Melbourne become more sustainable? It is not an easy question to answer, because the city’s population is not likely to start decreasing any time soon. It seems impossible to imagine any solution which does not involve extensive new public transport infrastructure, probably coupled with the development of new suburban business centres which reduce the amount of traffic heading to Melbourne’s central business district each day.