Projects — Peak Oil Watch
We are updating this page less than previously. In particular, we won't be fixing some of the broken links in older parts of this page. We were one of the first Australian websites to cover Peak Oil, back in 2000, and achieved the top ranking in Google Australia. Now, however, Peak Oil is entering the mainstream media and much better websites are covering it, such as Energy Bulletin. We feel we have achieved our goal of raising awareness, and now leave it to others with better resources than us. We recommend you continue to follow this very important issue, and encourage decision makers to see cycling as a vital part of addressing it.
Interview with Limits to Growth Author
This is an interesting interview with Dennis Meadows — co-author of Limits to Growth.
Fuel giant chief denies oil crisis — The West Australian
16th September 2006
The West Australian has published an interesting article where ExxonMobil Australia chairman Mark Nolan wants us to think that there is no problem with the supply of oil.
There was an interesting response sent to the newspaper by Brian Bucktin:
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 1:01 PM
Subject: Fuel giant chief denies oil crisis
It is all very well for these oil executives whose livelihood and that of their investors is reliant on the ability to extract and produce oil to say that there is still stacks of it in the ground. But no where do I hear them mention EROEI, a term well known to the peak oil theorists. EROEI is an acronym for Energy Returned Over Energy Invested. Quite simply it means that when it takes the energy equivalent or more than the energy equivalent of a barrel of oil to extract a barrel of oil from anywhere, there is no sense in doing so unless the oil is very valuable for another purpose other than for providing fundamental energy. The much mooted oil from tar sands and shale oil, even stranded very deep sea oil is approaching a negative EROEI according to some peak oilers.
I look forward to a follow up article asking this vital question about EROEI.
Our own CAMWESTie Danny Hannan has this to say:
I will believe there is plenty of petroleum (oil, gas tar, bitumen etc left) when the yearly volumes of discovery are near the yearly consumption. Since 1978 the yearly volume of new discoveries has declined and is now between 10–25% of consumption despite record tax breaks for and investment in exploration (US$100 billion in 2005) and the use of modern technology. These are the oil industries own numbers and at this rate we must have a production peak at some time.
Data complied by Citigroup, Barclays and Lehman Bros (separate reports) indicate that there is a high probability that demand will exceed supply this decade, with little new production on the books after 2008 due to a lack of significant volumes of new discovery since 2003, their numbers though indicate that 2007 should have a good surplus of production.
News Flash Sept 4th, 2006
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) have released the world oil production data for June 2006. They always take 2 months to compile the data. Here is the graph of the 2006 production so far, month by month, compared to the record production month of Dec 2005. The emerging trend that is appearing is a month of big fall, followed by a month of small recovery. A drop of 0.5% seems quite small, but expressed as a 500,000 barrel per DAY drop since Jan-Feb 2006 it's an awful lot of oil that needs to be found somewhere else. It looks like the global oil industry is doing it's best to keep up with demand, with limited success. If the trend continues, expect more increases in the price of petrol. The EIA did not create this graph, the numbers are buried deep in the data archive and take some digging out.
Here's where the data is buried if you're interested: www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/ipsr/t14.xls (Note that this is an Excel spreadsheet).
BP Shuts Biggest U.S. Oil Field
Bloomberg have published an article about how global warming is causing BP major problems.
Is the Government listening?
Danny Hannan pointed to this Hansard excerpt; he says it indicates that our government is not paying attention to the good information it is getting from the experts.Recent Articles
July 2006: Danny Hannan has written a few articles:
- Where are fuel prices going?
- Is the World heading for a major Murphy's Law Event?
- A letter from "The Great Energy Depression of the 21st Century"
Introduction
Many oil scientists calculate that world oil production will peak sometime in the next decade. Non-OPEC production would peak earlier, making us more and more dependent on OPEC. America peaked in 1970, UK in 1999. Australia peaked in 2000, according to an oil industry paper. This doesn't mean that we'll suddenly run out of oil, but that we will have less and less of it. Demand would overtake supply, leading to steep and permanent increases in oil prices. Even if we found large new fields, which is unlikely at this stage of the game, this would only shift the peak by a few years.
High petrol prices have a particularly strong impact in Western Sydney due to poor public transport and strong car dependence. It is also an area with many people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
Read More:
Peak Oil Primer — Energy Bulletin
A Simple introduction with Questions and Answers, in lay terms (Magoon)
Are We Running Out of Oil? A poster by L. B. Magoon, explaining graphically the oil situation.
Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage, by Kenneth S. Deffeyes, Princeton University Press. Deffeyes is Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, and a geologist with extensive personal experience in the oil industry. You can see a free sample chapter, which is a good overview.
See Colin Campbell discussing oil depletion. Mr Campbell is a leading oil and geologist expert.
Wikipedia's entry on Peak Oil is also helpful.
In The News Lately
Anderson
fears for oil reserves (20.5.05, ABC Online)
"While people talk about new technologies and they say as
soon as oil reaches a certain price everybody will switch
over to hydrogen and what have you. The reality is that it
may not be as simple as that and you have to wonder whether
over the next decade we won't start to get towards peak
production and that could be a very interesting time and a
very challenging time."
Record petrol prices plague the country (12.4.05, SMH)
We're running out of oil, says Costello (9.4.05, The
Age)
Treasurer Peter Costello has delivered a blunt warning that
Australia is running out of oil as existing fields near the
end of their productive lives.
Running on empty (2.4.05, SMH)
Get your foot off the gas — it's black gold (2.4.05, SMH)
Australian
Politician Goes on record about Peak Oil and Gas
(27.2.05, Global Public Media)
Andrew McNAMARA, member of the Queensland parliament, is
probably the first mainstream pollie to speak out on Peak
Oil.
(previously at http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12127071%255E28737,00.html, a copy is here) Oil debate revving up (3.2.05, The Australian)
The Good Oil (14.2.05, ABC's Counterpoint)
Is the world running out of oil, and if so what does it mean?
Meet Kenneth S. Deffeyes, author of Hubbert's Peak, and Peter
R. Odell, author of Why Carbon Fuels Will Dominate the 21st
Century's Global Energy Economy.
(previously at http://webdiary.smh.com.au/archives/margo_kingston/000654.html, copy now at) Peak oil and our government: what energy crisis? (6.2.05, SMH's Webdiary)
Why the West
is riding for a fall (15.1.05, SMH — Paul Sheehan
Opinion)
Today, instead of responding intelligently to the dangerous
dependence on oil from the hair-trigger Middle East,
consumers in the US and Australia, with the encouragement of
government, have reacted with a historic boom in sales of
four-wheel-drives and other heavyweight, fuel-guzzling urban
combat vehicles that have become symbols of this era. If ever
there was a metaphor for complacency… Jane Jacobs
regards the cultural addiction to the motor vehicle as the
single biggest contributor to civic decline: Not TV or
illegal drugs, but the automobile has been the chief
destroyer of American communities … One can drive
today for miles through American suburbs and never glimpse a
human being on foot in a public space, a human being outside
a car or a truck … While people possess a community,
they usually understand that they can't afford to lose it;
but after it is lost, gradually even the memory of what was
lost is lost. In miniature, this is the malady of Dark
Ages.""
Staring down
the barrel of a crisis (15.1.05, Australian Financial
Review)
The world's oil production may be about to reach its peak -
forever. Such apocalyptic prophecies often surface in the
middle of the northern hemisphere winter. What is unusual is
that this time the doomsday scenario has gained serious
credibility among respected analysts and commentators.
China and India's thirst for oil brings new dynamics to the market (16.12.04, ABC's PM)
“The huge economic growth in the world's two most populous nations has already started to put extra strains on the oil market. Could the newly voracious Chinese and Indian thirst for oil also have dangerous strategic implications?”
Finite
fuels threaten life as we know it (27.11.04, ABC's
Lateline)
If predictions are correct, no future generation will forget
2005 — the year the world began eating into the second half
of its oil reserves.
Australian Focus
World Oil Markets and the Challenges for Australia - ABARE OUTLOOK (Woodside, PDF, 260Kb). A key oil industry paper acknowledging that Australia peaked in 2000, and we now face a steep oil production decline:
“Projections by Australian Government
forecasting agencies indicate that Australia is
facing a rapid decline in liquid petroleum production over
the next decade. Liquids self-sufficiency is
expected to decline from an average of 80–90% over the past
decade to less than 40% by 2010.
“The economic implications for Australia are
significant including a rapid deterioration in
Australia’s trade deficit on liquid
hydrocarbons (from a surplus of $1.2 billion in 2000/01 to a
projected deficit of $7.6 billion by 2009/10).
“Declining production over the next decade
appears inevitable. However, options to reduce the
longer-term decline are available. These will take time to
implement so urgent action is required.
“During the next ten years the rest of the
western world will also be facing declining indigenous
production and increasing reliance on oil imports,
particularly imports from the Middle East.
“Economies can adapt when the changes to supply are
gradual but the costs from short term disruptions to supply
can be substantial. With increasing reliance on Middle
Eastern oil, the risk of such disruptions will also
increase”.
WA Minister Acknowledges Oil Depletion and initiates
Transport Energy Strategy.
Alannah MacTiernan, WA Planning and Infrastructure
Minister, has recently acknowledged that “oil
will be in increasingly short supply in the coming 10 to 20
years” and has as a result launched a
Transport Energy Strategy. This strategy will seek to shift
Perth away from its high car dependence towards more
sustainable modes, such as rail, cycling, and walking. See
Transport
Energy Strategy home, which states that “It is
widely recognised throughout Government, industry and the
community at large that … Oil is finite and cheap
commercially exploitable oil will be increasingly in
short supply in the next one to two
decades.”
The committee has released an interim
report, which states “… We do believe that
there is a problem coming, and the best course of action for
the community, is to:
- Understand the issue;
- prepare for the problem; and
- plan, as far as possible, for a smooth course through the coming events.”
In a media release launching the report, Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan said “We must start reducing our dependence on oil, so that we are not vulnerable to the great price increases expected over the next decade as demand outstrips production.”
ASPO
Newsletter, Australia Featured (PDF, 400Kb)
The regular newsletter from the Association for the Study of
Peak Oil (ASPO) outlines the oil situation of a country on
each issue. The April issue looks at Australia.
“Production peaked in 2000, some
thirty-three years after peak discovery. It is now
set to fall steeply, as is recognised in Australia
itself, having been confirmed with surprising frankness by
the industry (Akehurst,
2002) … Australia already imports about 25% of its
oil, but with even static consumption, the percentage is set
to pass 50% by around 2015. The cost of imports will rise
steeply following the now near certain surges in price from
Middle East wars and the conflicting demands from the other
countries for scarce supplies.”
The Future of Energy — Future Dilemmas, CSIRO Sustainable
Ecosystems (PDF, 361Kb)
This is the chapter on Energy from a comprehensive CSIRO
study into Australia's future given our environmental,
economic, and population constraints. “Analyses
presented in this study suggest that domestic supplies of
easily available or traditional oil may become constrained
around 2020. A large body of work suggests that world
production from traditional supplies of oil will soon peak,
and that the production decline will force difficult
transitions in many modern economies”
(Blanchard, 2000; Simmons, 2000; Duncan and Youngquist, 1998;
World Resources Institute, 2001). In a local context the
Australian Geological Survey Organisation (2000) notes that
“by 2010 Australia will have produced somewhere between
about 64% and 73% of the average estimate of its ultimately
recoverable crude oil resources.” Fleay (1998) quotes
an industry source, The Petroleum Gazette in 1998 which shows
total Australian oil and condensate production
declining from the year 2000. Recent media releases
from the industry (APPEA, 2002) now promote this issue more
widely. Since oil is the central input into the nation's
goods transport and personal mobility, the possibility of
constraint represents a strategic issue that is considered in
the inter-generational timeframes of this study.”
Western
Australia: Beyond Oil?
Government, business and community groups meet to examine how
to deal with shrinking world oil supplies. “The WA
Government is leading Australia, and possibly the world, in
acknowledging world oil vulnerability and our role in
contributing to growing oil consumption.” Beyond Oil
will include discussion by WA State Government ministers
and bureaucrats about practical policies to begin
reducing our oil dependency. Companies such as BP and
Wesfarmers Energy Ltd will look at how business can lead
the development and adoption of alternative energies.
Oil Vulnerability Background Paper (MS Word-495k). A discussion paper for the Western Australia: Beyond Oil? “Reliable recent predictions by GeoScience Australia (previously the Australian Geological Survey Organisation) and Woodside indicate that Australia's oil and condensate production will fall substantially in the next decade.”
Global Oil Vulnerability and the Australian Situation by Bruce Robinson (PDF)
Natural Gas- "Magic Pudding" or Depleting Resource? (PDF-180k)
Greg Bourne's (Regional President BP Australia) Beyond Oil Conference speech (PDF 200kb)
APPEA 2002. “A Crude Oil Development Strategy for Australia” Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association
Climaxing Oil: How will Transport Adapt? A good overview of the current oil situation by by BJ Fleay (B Eng, M Eng Sc, MIEAust, MAWWA), Associate of the Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy at Murdoch University, Western Australia.
Why Are We Still Building Roads? A Synopsis of Australia's position in the World petroleum situation by CAMWEST member, Danny Hannan. Also see his letter to Senator Nick Minchin, the Federal Minister for Industry, Science and Resources.
Oil Production Curve Causes Concern (Australian Energy
News, Dec 01)
From a government newsletter.
Oil
Production Curve — Cause for Concern (PDF, 165Kb)
Les Magoon from USGS visited the Petroleum Exploration
Society of Australia; a Report taken from "Australian Energy
News" 12/2001, a news magazine published by the Australian
Government department responsible for energy policy.
General Papers
Oil as a
finite resource: When is global production likely to
peak? (World Resources Institute, March 1996, Updated
March 2000)
A comprehensive report on oil peak.
A Simple introduction with Questions and Answers, in lay terms (Magoon)
The End of the Oil Age, by Dale Allen Pfeiffer. A good, shorter summary.
Colin Campbell (ASPO) discussing oil depletion (Videos, sound, and transcripts of interview)
M. King Hubbert and His Heirs (PDF, 260Kb): A Hubbert Peak Half-Bibliography is a substantial bibliography of documents by Hubbert and his adherents, by Chris Kuykendall, Austin,
The Big Rollover: World oil production decline predictions. Bruce Robinson, CSIRO Exploration & Mining.
The Petroleum Plateau, by Richard Heinberg, author of The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies.
The Imminent Peak of World Oil Production, by C.J. Campbell, a Presentation to a House of Commons All-Party Committee, on July 7th 1999.
The End of Oil (Scientific American, October 2001)
A review of Deffeyes' Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil
Shortage
Analysts claim early peak in world oil production (Oil
and Gas Journal Editors)
Reviews ‘The World Oil Supply Report
2002-2050’, produced by energy analysts. They warn
that most non-Middle East, non-OPEC countries have already
peaked.
Download
report Description (PDF)
From the authors: “This important new report forecasts
individual countries future oil reserve depletion, and the
year and level of peak production. It includes all known and
‘yet to find’ oil reserves including onshore
& offshore, deepwater and shallow water. All 95 existing
and potential producing countries are analysed. Half
are already well past peak and all the remainder will see
peak within the next 20 years. Using four demand
growth scenarios; zero, 1%, 2% and 3%, the study gives for
each individual country the likely year of peak production
and its volume and maximum production level for world oil
supplies. The data is then combined to give a view of the
limits of global oil production and considers the impact on
oil prices.”
The yawning heights — looking out from the great oil peak
(Letter From Earth, Jan 2003)
A series of Internet radio talks by Julian Darley for general
distribution and syndication.
Permaculture and the Third Wave of Environmental Solutions — A paper by David Holmgren, co-originator of the Permaculture concept, refers to oil production peaking and the role that permaculture can play in 'energy descent. Based on a book Holmgren has written titled Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability.
General Knowledge in the Post-Carbon Age (Lecture by Julian Darley to MENSA, Vancouver, Canada, 10.11.02)
The Last Oil Shock — BBC News, The Money Programme, Nov 8, 2000: “Britain faces the prospect of closed filling stations … There are scientists who believe that the recent problems are just a foretaste of what is to come … [that] from 2005, the world will face a permanent … shortage of petrol…”
End of Cheap Oil Poses Serious Threat to World Economy, Experts Say (Environmental Media Services, 6.1.03)
Bush Energy
Adviser Discusses Oil Production Peak at Conference (ASPO
website, 12.6.03)
Matthew Simmons, an investment banker, energy
analyst, and energy advisor to the Bush Administration,
discussed the peak of world oil production at a recent
conference by ASPO (Association for the
Study of Peak Oil & Gas): “the worry that
peaking is at hand; not years away”.
Revisiting The Limits to Growth — Matthew Simmons
Analysts claim early peak in world oil production (Oil
and Gas Journal Editors)
Buy report: The World
Oil Supply Report 2002-2050
Download
report pamphlet
From publishers, analysts:
“This important new report forecasts individual
countries future oil reserve depletion, and the year and
level of peak production. It includes all known and
‘yet to find’ oil reserves including onshore
& offshore, deepwater and shallow water. All 95 existing
and potential producing countries are analysed. Half
are already well past peak and all the remainder will see
peak within the next 20 years. Using four demand
growth scenarios; zero, 1%, 2% and 3%, the study gives for
each individual country the likely year of peak production
and its volume and maximum production level for world oil
supplies. The data is then combined to give a view of the
limits of global oil production and considers the impact on
oil prices.”
The International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook 2000, the authoritative report on world energy trends, has been released for 2000. Have a look at the World Incremental Oil Production chart, which shows how we will depend more and more on Middle East OPEC oil. If you look carefully, you'll also see that production will be less in the future scenario, hinting at a peaking in production. There's an Executive Summary (PDF, 154Kb) and a press release which says: “…rich and poor alike will come to depend heavily on a diminishing number of gas and oil suppliers. Middle East OPEC countries, which furnished 26% of world oil in 1997, will be called upon to produce 32% in 2010 and 41% in 2020.” Robert Priddle, the IEA Executive Director, says about the document: ”It sounds important alerts, particularly in the areas of oil-supply security and climate change. But, by laying out the facts in rich detail and by proposing a number of alternative cases, WEO 2000 can help us come to grips with reality and make some difficult choices.” Transport is one of the areas the report puts forward as an opportunity.
WORLD ENERGY PROSPECTS TO 2020, a paper prepared by the International Energy Agency, for the G8 Energy Ministers' Meeting (Moscow, 31 March — 1 April 1998). Look at the Oil Supply Prospects section in particular, figure 9 shows oil production peaks: 2000 for world excluding OPEC Middle East, 2015 for OPEC Middle East, 2012 for world oil supply. This conservative organisation states that “a peaking of conventional oil production could occur between years 2010 and 2020, depending on assumptions for the level of reserves. Oil production outside OPEC Middle East would peak before OPEC Middle East production implying a greater reliance on OPEC Middle East supply between the two peaks. A plateau in oil production for OPEC Middle East of 47.9 mbd has been assumed, rather than a sharp peak, following an IEA study.”
Research by Canadian Imperial Bank of
Commerce:
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) is the second
largest bank in Canada and one of the 10 largest in North
America with assets of USA $182 billion and a market
capitalization of USA $10.5 billion. CIBC relies on
Petroconsultants' analysis for its energy research.
Occational Report #28, Feb 2, 2000: “While the
world is not running out of oil, the region outside the
Persion Gulf is fast running through the cheap
oil.”
Running on Empty, Forecast, Sept 19, 2000: “After
rising for 140 years, world oil production is about to
peak.”
Cheap oil: enjoy it while it lasts — Howard Banks, Forbes Magazine, 06.15.98
Background Briefing — 3/09/00: The Cars That Ate Our Wallets
List of papers by Matthew R. Simmons, from Simmons and Company International, a Consultancy
Mired in crude: The end of Oil — New Internationalist, issue 335 - June 2001
Transport in England — The Guardian Special Report.
ABC Lateline: The almighty petrol pump. Daniel Yergin, author The Prize; Colin Campbell, author of The Coming Oil Crisis and Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, of the Centre for Global Energy Studies (2/9/1999): “The almighty petrol pump. It fuels our desire for ever greater mobility. But fuel prices are going up. Are we heading for another oil crisis?”
Just when you thought it was safe…, by David Fleming, Australian Financial Review, 23/4/1999, Review section, page 11.
Books
Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage, by Kenneth S. Deffeyes, Princeton University Press. Deffeyes is Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, and a geologist with extensive personal experience in the oil industry. You can see a free sample chapter, which is a good overview.
The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies, by Richard Heinberg. See a book description.
Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict With a New Introduction by the Author, by Michael Klare.
Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil, by David Goodstein. Goodstein is a professor of physics and vice provost of the California Institute of Technology, one of America's headiest institutions. Newsweek review.
The Oil Factor: How Oil Controls the Economy and Your Financial Future, by Stephen Leeb, Donna Leeb: “A storm is coming — an inflationary “perfect storm” whipped up by skyrocketing oil prices that will lay waste to millions of portfolios if investors don't prepare. Renowned financial analyst Stephen Leeb asserts that in this perilous period, oil prices will drive all other economic indicators.This book will show you how to diversify yourself away from potential disaster!“. Amazon Page.
The Decline of the Age of Oil, Petrol Politics: Australia's road ahead by Brian J. Fleay, published by Pluto Press, Locked bag 199, Annandale 2038. ISBN 186403 021 6
The Coming Oil Crisis, by C.J. Campbell, 1997, published by Multi-Science Publishing Coy, London & Petroconsultants S.A., Geneva.
Organisations and Reference Sites
Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) — The monthly newsletters are a must read.
Hubbert's Peak — The Coming Global Oil Crisis: Editorials, opinions, assessments, and debates from experts on this international topic of concern. Discusses the background of the issue, and provides details of research programs and possible alternative solutions.
Energy Bulletin - The best way to track coverage of Peak Oil in the media.
GlobalPublicMedia.com: An excellent resource, with many interviews covering oil peakwith a variety of experts.
Environmental Media Services — More information on Oil Depletion
Ecotransit's Oil Reports Page. Pointers to papers on oil from an Australian perspective. Ecotransit is a group working for better public transport in Australia, and Sydney in particular.
The End of Oil — A site with links to many other oil related news items.
International Energy Agency: An authoritative body in the field of energy, it informs governments on what is happening in oil production. It produces a number of statistics which are available on the web site. It has recently launced a dedicated site to cover oil issues and news.
International Workshop on Oil Depletion
The Economist, Index of articles re Oil
Oil and Petrol — Special Report — The Guardian
Sustainable Transport in Sustainable Cities — The Warren Centre
Oil and Gas Journal — An industry journal.
Critics
U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WORLD PETROLEUM ASSESSMENT 2000 – DESCRIPTION AND RESULTS
The Importance of Reserve Growth to the Nation's Supply of Natural Gas
Global Petroleum Resources: A View to the Future, by Thomas S. Ahlbrandt and Peter J. McCabe
Campbell replies to USGS: Global Petroleum Reserves — A View to the Future
Preparing for Peak Oil
The Role of Bikes
Most of the injustices in the world arise through unfair distribution of resources. The most important resource by far is energy. The most important, rich, and versatile source of energy is oil. Our biggest waste of this precious resource is in our cities, particularly in transport. Within transport, the big waste is in short trips in cars with a single driver.
Australia Cycling, the national strategy paper, states that 35% of car trips are under 5Km, a distance that takes about 10 minutes to ride. Ironically, it is these short trips that waste a lot of petrol (and create more pollution) since the engine is still cold.
Although it's not a panacea, cycling can play a significant role in making us less dependent on foreign oil and giving people alternatives to the car. When we consider other problems we are facing, such as obesity, heart desease, noise and air pollution, congestion, etc, it makes sense to take bikes seriously.
CAMWEST — Riding to Work
Key Priorities:
A much better alternative to reducing petrol taxes would be to lock some of these into public transport and cycling infrastructure.
Integrate bikes with public transport. This is a
great combination since bikes drastically increase the reach
of the train by increasing the 'customer base' around a
station.
We need better bike storage in trains. Unfortunately,
it looks like the new Millenium trains have none in spite of
many requests from cyclists.
We also need more storage lockers at station. These
need to be in a good, well-lit position. More Info.
Cycleways to train stations need to be improved to
allow people to get there safely and quickly.
Accelerate the implementation of BikePlan 2010, so it
is finished by 2005.
Build key public transport infrastructure now, while energy costs are relatively low. For example, the State goverment should link Parramatta to the Parramatta-Link. The Link needs to be completed as soon as possible, so as to make Parramatta a truly second CBD and take out some of the demand on transport to Sydney CBD. At the very least, they could build the section between Parramatta and Carlingford as a first stage. This would connect the Carlingford line with a major CBD and a much better interchange station than Clyde.
Place a memorandum on the building of motorways. This money (and energy) should be used to build railway lines and cycleways.
Build light rail lines instead of transitways. We need to use electricity instead of diesel or gas.
What you can do:
Write to the Minister for Transport, The Hon. Michael Costa, as well as your local MP. Ask them to accelerate the implementation of the BikePlan 2010 so as to finalise it by 2005. Ask them the following:
- In what year or range of years will Australia need to import 90% of its crude oil needs?
- In what year or range of years will the world demand for oil permanently overtake the world's oil supply capacity?