We’re still fighting city freeways after half a century
Andrew Butt, Crystal Legacy, Gerry McLoughlin and Ian Woodcock
Like the modernist plans of its time, the 1969 Melbourne Metropolitan Transportation Plan was bold in ambition. Major motorways have been built across the city as a result of the plan. For Melbourne, the aspiration of the 1969 plan lives on in our relentless pursuit of new mega-road projects.
From the start, these projects met with community resistance. And, like the roads of the 1960s and ’70s, the roads proposed in recent times for Melbourne, Perth and Sydney can still mobilise communities. As Australian cities continue to build massive urban freeways and toll roads half a century after the heyday of modernist planning, it is time to pause and reflect.