Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.) Inc.

Introduction

Action for Public Transport (NSW) Inc. is a transport advocacy group which has been active in Sydney since 1974. We promote the interests of beneficiaries of public transport - passengers and the wider community alike.

We make this submission on the August 2025 options paper published at https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/system/files/media/documents/2025/review-of-the-roads-act-1993-options-paper-august-2025_1.pdf.

Discussion

We have no opinion on the several reform models discussed in the Options paper.

Generally, we would have preferred to see more attention paid to most of the suggestions in our earlier submission¹ to you.

In particular:

• Apropos of safety, is there an intention to reduce speed limits on sealed regional roads? We understand that regional fatality rates by population are higher than in urban areas.
• Again apropos of safety, is there an intention to do something about level crossing safety? For instance, AI can be used to make clever cameras which can recognise dangerous situations in advance.
• Again, is there an intention to do more to reduce heavy vehicle accidents in regional areas?
• We note that funding is expressly excluded in this review. Is there an intention to work with Victoria, and perhaps also Queensland and South Australia, to press Canberra to introduce peak-hour road access pricing in urban areas? We don't want a re-run of what happened² to Victoria's ZLEV tax.

Conclusions

We think more could be done to control and reverse a culture of favouring motor vehicles over issues such as safety, pollution and the development of good public transport. A review of the Roads Act should be an opportunity to address these matters.

Recommendation

We suggest the present Review should be re-framed to take in strategic issues like those above.