You'd think that a new, supposedly enlightened, Labor government, combined with worsening air quality, a virtual asthma epidemic, and the intellectual bankrupcy of the roads lobby, would have turned Sydney away from the path to motorway madness.

Not at all.

The State Government has two built two new motorways (the M5 West and M2), two more are about to be approved (the Eastern Distributer and the M5 East - as of Feb 97) and the M6 is sure to follow.

So this story is as relevant as ever.

The story has 76 action-packed frames, which also make excellent fillers for anti-freeway publications.

P.S. You can download this story for any bona fide freeway-fighting purpose. If you want a real copy, include some reasonable sum to cover mailage, and write to: Les Robinson, C/- Social Change Media, Locked Bag 199 Annandale, NSW 2038 Australia.

If you want to contact me, send an eMAIL.

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* The report, entitled "Road Transport - Future Directions" really exists! When the Roads and Traffic Authority realised it had no strategy for the future of Sydney's road system, it commissioned a major study by respected consulting firms. The report, finished in 1990, so embarrassed the RTA that it was shelved for many months. Finally an activist, Caron Morrison, 'launched' it at a government smog summit in 1992. The report concluded that "if current trends continue [i.e. if roads continue to be built to satisfy demand] there would be catastrophic increases in congestion (600%), and smog (36%). These figures have never been challenged by the RTA or the roads lobby.

(ICAC = Independent Commission Against Corruption.)

That's all folks!

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