In mid-July, SOS sent this urgent letter to Moonee Valley and Yarra City Councillors:
“Save our Suburbs Inc. strongly opposes the East West Link proposal because of its potential damage to the fabric of inner city life, and because building more freeways attracts more traffic and soon creates more congestion than before. This is confirmed by Melbourne’s own experience with the Monash Freeway, the Westgate Bridge, etc.
But building rail links in parallel with freeways attracts commuters back to rail, lowers rail costs/head and frees up arterial roads for those who need to use them – trucks, commercial vehicles and multi-destination vehicles. This is explained scientifically by the long-established Downs-Thompson Paradox:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downs-Thomson_paradox
SOS is a city-wide community-based group dedicated to the maintenance and improvement of urban residential amenity in its widest interpretation. That includes improving the quality, extent and frequency of public transport and minimising traffic congestion with its resultant economic, social and health impacts, including particulate air pollution which kills hundreds each year in Melbourne. Our stance does NOT include more freeways.
Moreland City councillors are holding a special meeting tonight to consider a legal challenge to planning approval for the East West Link. We urge you to contact them and lend your support. We also encourage you to join this legal challenge“.
Yarra Council decided to support Moreland’s legal challenge to the validity of the EW Link process. For more detail, see: