Will the Federal Budget ease NSW's gridlock?

Road users across the state don’t need reminding about the poor state of our roads.The latest Federal Budget for 2012-13 released on Tuesday night gave Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan the opportunity to help NSW deal with some of the state’s most underfunded, unsafe and congested roads. So now that the dust has settled on the budget, let’s review how the nation’s spending money has been allocated to fix the many problems on NSW roads.

What’s new:

• The Australian Government said they would inject  $3.56 billion to upgrade the Pacific Highway if the State Government matches the funding, which was announced last week.

What already exists:

• $8.5 million from 2012 to 2014 for a smart technology system for the M4 motorway, which could improve congestion by informing motorists when heavy traffic is ahead.
• $30 million planning money for the M4 East.
• $150 million for planning for the F3 to M2 link, beginning in 2015-16.
• The continuation of the Roads to Recovery program ($1.75 billion nationally over five years started in 2009 – with $350 million due in 2012-13).
• The continuation of Black Spot ($300 million over five years) nationally. Black Spot projects target road locations where crashes regularly occur. By funding measures such as traffic signals and roundabouts at dangerous locations, the program aims to reduce the risk of crashes.
• $4 million to extend the Seat Belt on Regional School Buses program for the next four years.

What’s not good:

• The new Pacific Highway money is conditional on the NSW Government matching this funding.
• Although $150 million for planning for the F3 to M2 link has been promised, the F3-M2 study funding does not actually begin until 2015-16.

The NRMA has the opinion that, all in all, the Australian Government’s budget has missed a big opportunity to help fix major traffic problems across NSW. We welcome the extension of existing initiatives but are disappointed that no cash has been allocated to much needed new infrastructure projects. Apart from the Pacific Highway pledge, NSW roads were largely neglected.

We want the Australian Government to commit the $3.56 billion it announced for the Pacific Highway without condition and to work with the NSW Government to finish the highway by 2016. Both the NSW and Australian Governments made a promise to voters in their last elections and they must keep that promise.

What do you think? Will the federal budget ease NSW’s traffic problems?

Click to download the App

Since the NRMA’s foundation in 1920 as an independent advocate body for motorists, The Open Road magazine has been posted through Australian letterboxes for almost a century. During its lifetime, it has been renamed, chopped, changed colour, survived World War 2, demutualisation and a takeover attempt from News Limited. Today it proudly enters the digital age with the launch of the innovative new Open Road iPad App – the first digital motoring club magazine of its kind in Australia.

The app is an interactive publication with social sharing, live updates, more pictures, extra information and bonus videos – bringing to life travel and motoring stories and giving readers the ability to instantly enter competitions and send feedback to the Editor.

“This is an exciting, digital-age development for one of Australia’s oldest and most trusted magazines. The NRMA Open Road app will allow us to give our Members even more inspiring content in an entertaining and colourful way” said NRMA’s Head of Publishing Emma Cornwell.

The iPad edition of Open Road will be available from today, Friday, May 4. To celebrate the launch, both the March/April and the May/June issue will both be available together as a special package for Members.

Originally called Good Roads, the journal was first published in 1921 to ensure NRA (the M for motoring was added in 1924) members were reliably informed about the association’s activities. However by 1927 its literary standard had slipped and advertising revenues were falling so the journal was renamed the Open Road and a Sun journalist was appointed assistant editor to sharpen the content. With a shiny new colour cover, an improved layout, less reliance on copy from American ‘good road’ journals, and the inclusion of regular features like ‘The Care of Your Car’, the magazine was reborn as we know it today, albeit very much younger.

By 1939, all members continued to receive a copy fortnightly. However problems with finance and publication remained, so the magazine was cut from 16 to 12 pages and advertising rates were reduced. Then in June 1941, government rationing of newsprint due to World War 2, demanded the journal be published monthly instead of fortnightly.

In 2002, a boardroom power struggle threatened the Open Road as a group of directors planned that the magazine would cease to be an independent publication of the NRMA. Instead, a proposal was made that six Open Road magazines would be produced annually, including four quarterly magazines published by the Daily Telegraph and two Open Road travel magazines published by the Sunday Telegraph.

However, this proposal was roundly rejected and Open Road lived on to thrive into the digital age – today it is distributed to more than 1.6 million households predominantly in NSW and the ACT and is Australia’s fifth most read publication.

Editor of NRMA’s Open Road Suzanne Monks said the new NRMA Open Road Magazine App would be a great way to encourage Members to have conversations about content in the magazine.

“The print edition of Open Road is one of the most trusted and frequently read magazines in Australia,” said Monks.

“From today Members will be able to access not only a digital version of the magazine but also additional stories, videos and information through the NRMA Open Road app. It will be a one stop shop for every motorist and traveller.”

Members will have the choice to view Open Road either as an iPad app or to continue to read it in its print format.

NRMA Members will be able to download the app for free from the App Store by using their Membership number and surname. Non-members can purchase the digital edition for $4.49 per issue.

Let us know what you think of the app in the comments below.

Simple changes to your driving habits and regular vehicle servicing could save you over $2,500 a year and help the environment.

Try some of these tips and start saving!

1. Maximise tyre pressure
2. Regularly service your car
3. Remove roof racks and bull bars
4. Turn off air con whenever possible
5. Switch your engine off in traffic jams
6. Watch your speed on highways
7. Remove heavy objects from your car (ie don’t use your car as a cupboard!)
8. Avoid hard accerelating and braking

What are your tips for driving greener?

What beeps you off on the road?

Do you consider yourself to be a courteous driver? According to a survey NRMA recently conducted 56% of people think they are most of the time, but what does it mean to be courteous? The Oxford dictionary definition is polite, respectful or considerate in manner. Some ways of being more considerate or friendly behind the wheel could just mean giving a friendly wave to someone who lets you in or not blocking intersections.

Let me put you in my shoes for a minute…

7am Monday morning and I have managed to coax my 16 month old son into his car seat with a muesli bar. I put my seat belt on, turn the volume up so I can hear the $1000 pop quiz and off I go into the peak hour traffic heading north bound along the Princes Highway. “Which artist sung these two songs – ‘I’m Bad’ & ‘Man in the Mirror’. MICHAEL JACKSON. The traffic comes to a halt so I courteously don’t block the intersection and let another driver in front of me. No thank you wave.

Now that really beeps me off!

Having a 16month old in the car stopped me from using a number of vulgarities on that occasion but boy did it put me in an bad mood for the rest of the day.  This got me thinking, on what occasion have I done the wrong thing by a fellow driver? Have I ruined someone’s day because I didn’t give them a friendly wave or because I was too lazy to put my blinker on or because I blasted the driver in front of me just because they simply merged into my  lane on a day that I am running late for coffee with my girlfriends? I’m sure most of you can relate to this.

The survey of over 1,500 motorists in NSW and the ACT found tailgating (42%), not letting drivers merge into lanes (39%) and slow drivers hogging the right hand lane (36%) are the top three discourteous behaviours that get us hot under our bonnet. Over the last few weeks I have been more aware of some of these behaviours on the road and amazingly I have learnt (deep breaths help) to not get so hot-headed when someone merges in front of me without giving me a friendly wave and I am starting to wonder if my horn still works?

Now put me in your shoes. What beeps you off about other drivers? Do you have any warm and fuzzy stories about someone being nice behind the wheel? Shopping centre car park stories are always great…

Sydney congestion is forcing businesses to change operations

Trying to get anywhere on time in Sydney can be a lottery. Any one of a number of things could go wrong that could reduce the likelihood of you getting to your appointment at all.

You only have to look back to a couple of months ago when our city was brought to a standstill by a breakdown in the Eastern Distributor.  It caused an epic traffic jam that stretched almost 15kms.

Two hours and two tow trucks later the car was removed from the tunnel and millions of dollars was lost in productivity.

Our roads are constantly running at or near full capacity so when a breakdown occurs there’s usually no plan B. The flow-on effect sees couriers run late, businesses unable to deliver their goods on time and as a result our economy suffers.

We recently surveyed 600 of our BusinessWise Members and found that almost half had spent up to $5,000 in operational costs as a result of traffic congestion.

Worse still, 50 percent of businesses have had to change the way their company operates in order to ensure that deliveries make it to their destinations on time.

Almost two-thirds changed the start and finish times of their employees in order to avoid peak periods, while another third have had no choice but to extended delivery times to ensure they met deadlines. These changes may work in theory but for some clients early morning and on-time deliveries are not negotiable.

The results shows us that over the past 12 months businesses have had to make some very tough decisions about how they operate and when they make deliveries because congestion in Sydney is so bad.

Unfortunately traffic jams that bring Sydney to a standstill are not going to disappear anytime soon. We need a plan with funding and timelines ready to go to ensure congestion is tackled and our road network improved. Otherwise our economy will continue to suffer.

Have you had to make changes to your business in order to get around traffic congestion?

In November 2011, Mitchell Woods won NRMA Free2go’s Facebook comp – Mother of All Road Trips. His prize was a road trip designed by him and worth $10,000. He got to choose his own form of transport, the friends he travelled with, stop-offs along the way and activities like Go Karting and vertical wind tunnel-ing. Here Mitchell reports on what he and his mates got up to….

The Booiz - Mitchell, Adrian, Smyth, Nicolas, James, Ryan, Kyle, Phillip and Trevor

February 5th, and the NRMA’s Mother of All Roadtrips was finally at hand. The boys assembled at mine, ready to leave at 8:00am, probably the earliest I’ve ever been awake. Nick arrived in his bogan outfit; Bintang singlet, footy shorts, thongs and a straw hat, only to be outdone by James, who rocked up in the mettest outfit yet. We loaded the car up with the essentials, booze, chips and a few clothes.

Vertical wind tunnel in Port Macquarie

Our first stop was Port Macquarie, where we did the Vertical Wind Tunnel, which was great fun. Especially for Adrian, who went up higher than anyone else only to plummet straight back to the ground on his backside. Port itself was great, besides McDonalds which was made up mostly of scaffolding and tarp. We stayed at the Quality Sails Resort which was far classier then us. Smyth attempted to catch a hotel catfish as well. We also got Kyle to order us 10 cheeseburgers and just as he ordered we ran off with the money and left him there.  Somehow he still came out with the cheeseburgers.

Go Karting in Coffs Harbour

Day two and we were off to Coffs Harbour. First up was Go Karting, 20 laps which turned out to be 200. Nine inexperienced Go Karters with an interest in badly hurting each other was not going to end well, and it didn’t. James certainly copped the short straw. He was run over by both me and Ryan. The wheel of my kart smashed him in the face and left us both stranded in the middle of the most violent turn of the whole course. And it wasn’t long until Ryan and Adrian crashed into each other because of us. But I think it’s fair to say the karts wanted to kill us more than each other did. Smyth ripped his steering wheel clean off the kart and I had to park mine off in the hill because I didn’t have any brakes. We checked into the Aquajet Hotel to chill out for the night, where James found a freezer which had a shelf labelled ‘birds’. Smyth also let a tree frog loose in one of the rooms.

Driver Trevor (aka Dad)

We were up early and off to Byron Bay for day three. We started the day with a kayak tour, after first going to the wrong place and chilling with Woody Harrelson’s doppelganger. Many a kayak was flipped and PJ somehow survived being hit and crushed by the full force of Kyle and Smyth’s kayak. That wasn’t the end of it though; Kyle and Smyth then caught a wave in towards the beach smashing into me and PJ’s kayak as a wave crashed on top of both of us, sending us all tumbling under water. The beachgoers were surprised to see two empty kayaks ashore.

On the tour we came across a school of dolphins charging all the waves. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever witnessed! There had to be at least 30 of them all catching waves together and flipping out of the water right next to us.

A beer by the bay

We’d passed the halfway point of the roadtrip and were headed for The Gold Coast. We spent the first day at Movie World where we got to ride the most amazing rides ever – the Superman Escape, the Batwing and the Green Lantern. We also watched the Stunt Driver show which was incredible! We checked into the Mantra Bel Air in the afternoon and it was by far the best hotel we’d been too.

The next day we were off to Wet n’ Wild after having all-you-can-eat pancakes. It wasn’t the best combination in hindsight. The rides there were also great, especially the Aqua Loop and the Surfrider (possibly the scariest ride of my life). We missed Movie World so much that we sprinted across to it before it closed so that we could go on the Superman Escape once again. That night we caught a bus into Surfers Paradise to go out; there were almost too many clubs to choose from. It was such a great night in such a great city, definitely the best destination of them all.

And yeah the trip was so great. Best week of everyone’s lives!

What are your tips for driving greener?

As a mother of three children it’s fair to say that the decisions I make impact the whole family. Whether it’s the food we eat, the holidays we take or the car I drive, it’s important to me that my family is well looked after.

One of the most important decisions I can make is to be an example to my kids on how to live sustainably so my children can enjoy our planet for many years to come.

Over the past few years I’ve become increasingly aware of the need to reduce the impact my family has on the environment. These days we own a hybrid and diesel car and when I can, I’ll choose to ride my motorbike to save fuel and money.  Other things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint include taking the bus to work or car-pooling with friends.

That’s why this month I’ve decided to get onboard with the 1 Million Women program. The program created for women by women is designed to make us more conscious about our every day decisions and the carbon footprint we leave behind.

This month is all about driving and as someone who spends a lot of time on the road, I’ve decided to take on the challenge to learn how to reduce my carbon footprint and live more sustainably. As part of my challenge I will be looking to reduce my fuel consumption by the end of the year.

To make this journey it’s going to mean that my behaviour must change. I’ve got to learn and practise ways of living more sustainably. It’s all about doing things differently.

Over the next four weeks I’m going to provide readers with as many tips as possible on ways that they can save and get involved with the program. On the NRMA Facebook page you can see my tips on how you can drive smarter, leaner, less and greener.

If you’re keen to get involved but don’t know where to start head to www.1millionwomen.com.au for more information and our greener driving tips page to cut waste and save.

What are your tips for driving greener?

The NSW Government recently announced that it was abandoning the phase-out of standard unleaded petrol (ULP) from 30 June 2012. This means that ULP may remain available well after 2012. However, in many areas, particularly in and around Sydney, straight unleaded petrol (ULP) is now difficult to find, so vehicle owners may wish to switch to E10.

Before using E10, vehicle owners must check if an ethanol blend is suitable for their vehicle – this information can be found in the owner’s manual, by contacting NRMA Motoring Advice (call 13 11 22) and on the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries website.

For cars that cannot use E10, premium-grade unleaded petrol without ethanol will continue to be available.

Our May 2010 blog post about unleaded petrol contained several comments that owners found their vehicle had much higher fuel consumption when using E10 compared with ULP. If your vehicle is in good condition you should not experience much more than the theoretical 3% increase in fuel consumption.

However, if you try E10 and experience an unusually high impact on fuel consumption, here are some possible causes and things you can do about them:

• Was there water in your fuel tank from earlier contaminated petrol? If so, the E10 will take the water into solution and your car may run roughly until the first tank of E10 is used up.
• Is your fuel filter clogged? Ethanol is a powerful solvent and may loosen residues in your fuel system. Try changing the fuel filter after the first couple of tanks of E10.
• Is your ignition system in good condition? A slightly misfiring spark plug may be exacerbated by E10 leading to a severe misfire and increase in fuel consumption. If you feel your vehicle is running roughly, have your vehicle serviced if it has not been done recently.
• Is there an engine check or warning light showing on your dash? Your engine management system and fuel injection system need to be in good condition. Modern vehicles are designed to monitor oxygen in the exhaust and should be able to adjust to E10. However a malfunctioning oxygen sensor or other component may mean that your vehicle is not achieving this. Have your vehicle serviced if it has not been done recently.

Does the extension of the phase-out date of ULP help you?

Which roads frustrate you the most?

There are few things that grate more than being stuck in traffic. A former Premier once described it as like being in love, though I think most of us would agree that the most intense emotions you feel behind the wheel of a car are frustration, anger and anxiety.

The state of our roads is definitely not helping our stress levels either. If you’ve been driving in Sydney for some time I’m sure you’ve seen many near misses as a result of the poor state of our roads.

Inadequate signage and poor road conditions are always topics of interest on shows like A Current Affair, all because nothing has been done to fix the horrendous state of our roads. The story is always the same – a pot hole damaged the wheel of a car and its suspension. The reason for this damage always comes down to a road that is in desperate need of repair.

With unsafe and congested roads outnumbering the good ones in NSW, it’s fair to say that motorists are fed up with the state of NSW roads. We should all be demanding improvements.

That’s where we come in. Last year the NRMA recognised that it was time to give motorists a voice in the lead up to the State Election. We ran a campaign in order to put an end to underfunded, congested and unsafe roads in NSW. The Government listened.

Survey results showed that the Pacific and Princes Highways were the two worst roads in NSW. Less than six months later the new Government committed record levels of funding for these roads, with over a billion dollars committed to the Pacific (through Federal and State funding) and $80M to the Princes Highway.

This was no coincidence.

The fact that the Government committed funding to the worst roads in our Red Flag survey shows that they will respond to people power, especially when so many are dedicated to having their say. But the battle is far from over.

Last year over 9,000 motorists told us they had had enough of underfunded, unsafe and congested roads – this year we want to top that number. If the NRMA is going to continue delivering results we need you to ‘Red Flag’ your most frustrating road in NSW or the ACT.

Motorists are well-placed to identify the worst roads in NSW because they drive on them every day.  So make sure you go to our website and vent your frustration so we can lobby on your behalf for better and safer roads for NSW and the ACT.

The survey will remain open until 18 May and the results will be released in early June and presented to the NSW Government.

Tell us which roads frustrate you the most – mynrma.com.au/redflag