It involves creating a system where technology can be used to open and close lanes, change speed limits, and control traffic in response to incidents and changing road conditions. However, Curtin University Professor of Sustainability Peter Newman, who sat on the Infrastructure Australia board when the ‘smart freeway’ idea was first pitched, now laments its "un-smart" rollout. Rows of cars are a common sight on the Kwinana Freeway. Credit:File photo “We agreed because it was something that’s simple, inexpensive and seemed to be very clever,” he said. “I have a lot more doubt these days about it. I thought it was probably fairly limited because it was just squeezing a few more cars onto a busy road at peak time.

“The basic idea is you extend the on-ramp so that people are allowed on at certain times in order to keep the flow of the freeway going. Keeping a freeway flowing, even if it’s not very fast, is a better way of managing the freeway.” Loading But Professor Newman said what he has seen now is an “un-smart” way of carrying out the project, which has been “invasive” for surrounding suburbs where the system stretches back into. “It has been very disruptive, it has not been simple to implement,” he said. “It appears to me to be not as smart as first thought, and in terms of the outcomes, well let’s see, but I expect that like when we build an extra lane onto a freeway, it lasts about 18 months before you have returned to the situation you were in before.”

No one can criticise the state government for trying to address congestion on Perth’s busiest roads. But, as an Infrastructure Australia report released mid last year highlights, things are going to get worse over the next decade as Perth’s population grows. And road upgrades can only do so much. Now we’ve ticked over into 2020, 2031 seems suddenly a lot closer. And according to Infrastructure Australia, by the time the next decade rolls around we can expect congestion to have worsened and spread. "Despite widening of the Mitchell and Kwinana Freeways, these roads will experience severe congestion in the citybound direction in the AM peak period, with the opposite expected in the PM peak period," the report says. "Motorists on the Kwinana Freeway are also forecast to experience high levels of congestion in the counter-peak direction."

The report points to a key part of the problem: jobs in Perth or, specifically, their concentration in the CBD. Loading Trying to avoid the daily commute crush via public transport is great – if you live close to the city. As the report notes: “on the urban fringe and in other outer areas this is not the case”. “The concentration of jobs in Perth’s city centre means residents of central areas have significantly more employment options within a 30-minute commute, especially by public transport, than residents of outer areas,” it says. As RAC general manager corporate affairs Will Golsby puts it, managing growing congestion needs more than just road investment.

“An integrated approach that considers how people live, work and get around will be critical,” he said. This is a point Professor Newman, a leading expert in urban design and sustainable transport, hammers home. “You can move 50,000 people an hour down a kilometre of lane with a train,” he said. “You can get a maximum of 2000 with everything you’re doing right with cars ... what is happening with the southern railway, for example, that is carrying the equivalent of eight lanes of traffic. That’s smart. “Adding this little smart bit on the side, it’s just continuing to try and appease the car driver who gets stuck in traffic and hates it.”

The problem lies in the commute of motorists to the city, and Professor Newman said that number had to decrease over coming years to avoid future pain. But how do you do that? Loading "Driving at peak times, especially into inner-city areas, has to be declining each year, it has to be phasing down," Professor Newman said. "Those areas need to have more and more people and jobs, but less and less cars, because that’s the way they will be economically competitive." Building up living areas near public transport hubs – a key aim of the government’s Metronet policy – helps the situation, making it easier to live and work in Perth without a car.