That sounds like quite a sensible approach. One of the problems in Australian cities is the high car mode share of around 70-80 percent of travel, which makes the politics of transition to sustainable urban mobility policies difficult. EVs are seen as an unproblematic and easy switch.
New Zealand is introducing an odometer-based universal road user charge to replace fuel excise, based on its long-standing RUC for diesel vehicles. Though NZ hypothecates excise/RUC to a roads fund, like the US Highway Trust, which biases investment towards roads.
The externalities of conventional car use are hugely under-taxed/priced. But at least a fuel excise provides some redress (tho Australia has one of the lowest excise rates in the OECD). Business fuel use should also be priced/taxed to internalise social costs.
Because car use, whether electric or conventional drivetrain, imposes an array of negative external costs on cities and their residents that should be internalised through pricing or pigouvian taxation. Excise, though woefully inadequate, serves that function for ICEVs as would an RUC for EVs.
Why not? There's near parity in purchase cost and the differential in operating cost between EVs and ICEVs is the highest ever. Ideal time to bring in a new charge to show EV owners there's no free road access. Or at least let the states choose.
Disappointing to read the Australian government is backing away from an EV road user charge.
Having wrestled excise powers off the states the commonwealth has a responsibility to implement a national RUC.
If not it should hand the powers back to the states.
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04...
Following the GFC oil prices dropped back to around $40-60/barrel. Enough to make US shale profitable to develop as a major new unconventional oil source, that limited price spikes for the next decade or so, but not high enough to motivate transport policy change.
Thanks for posting. I never knew the VAMPIRE index made it into NSW plans.
The Works Department point deserves further investigation given the extensive shortage of skilled labour, and the fact that the gendered construction sector tends to draw on only half the labour force.
Here's an incisive article in Fifth Estate by my RMIT University colleagues Professor Julie Lawson and Dr Liam Davies assessing the weaknesses of the Australian Government's Housing Affordability Future Fund and potential reforms to improve housing provision.
thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spin...
New paper on migration patterns, labour markets, housing and commuting, in Journal of Transport Geography, by Terry Li and me.
Tl;dr: Metropolitan expansion is driven by existing residents more than new migrants, and weakens housing-jobs connections.
O/A at: doi.org/10.1016/j.jt...
Not my area at all but Sam Dalrymple's 'Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia' (William Collins) might be a general start.
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...
Also by slowing traffic, speed limits potentially make PT and active modes relatively slightly more competitive, thus in turn generating emissions-reducing mode shift.
Congratulations to my cultural studies colleagues for one of the sharpest 'on trend' conference titles ever posed in any discipline.
Details and registration here: csaa.asn.au/csaa-confere...
The level of non-performing residential property loans with >90% loan-to-valuation ratios in Australia is rising but at less than $4bn is still very low in the context of the overall $2.2tn value of housing loans in Australia.
Data via AIHW dashboard: housingdata.gov.au
The TMK podcast partially addresses the overaccumulation question in discussion around 25:00 onwards.
podcastaddict.com/this-machine...
This is very sad news about the death of Professor Michael Burawoy in a hit and run car incident.
www.mercurynews.com/2025/02/04/o...
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Watching Canada and the US announce mutual tariffs portends a rapid divergence from the economic geography observed in Nth America during the last four decades.
Observers in the 1980s and 1990s described a 'sea change' in political economy in the 1970s. Is this a comparable such moment?
Has anyone done an analysis of the AI boom through the framework of Harvey's theory of overaccumulation?
I am hypothesising that the overaccumulation (crisis) of the technology sector has resulted in a capital switch to AI, chips and data centers as a form of built environment.
Even in car-loving cities the demand for #activetransport is there, once you provide low-risk routes and networks. Good news from #brisbane.
www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/que...
Request for help on accessing journals via OpenAthens.
My institution has moved to OpenAthens from EZproxy. In Zotero EZproxy would automatically login to publisher platforms to access articles. OpenAthens however requires platform-by-platform manual login for authentication.
Any suggested fixes?
Interesting. GS has become an essential and appreciated tool for researchers and academics but sadly doesn't see much development.
Welcome to 🦋! Do you have any involvement in the development of Google Scholar at all?
Unlike prestige federal domains such as economic or foreign policy, perhaps even social policy, urban affairs has until only recently been a sustained federal policy concern, and still very marginal, as the recent national urban policy process and ministerial portfolio allocations demonstrate.
There's almost no student demand for (traditionally interdisciplinary) urban studies programs in Australia (cf US/UK). Most students come to it via geography or urban planning programs. Content of the latter is shaped by the accreditation requirements of the professional institute.
A deep breath for the big end of year browser tab closedown...
I suspect editors are also grappling with greater time demands and maybe haven't the attention to attend to these nuances. Perhaps in your next revision you could emphasise the divergences of view in the literature so they appear as field-level issues rather than problems internal your work.