Let me count the ways...

One of the biggest reasons I love Brisbane is this: a new bridge built across the river, connecting by road for the first time two suburbs previously separated by many kilometers of choked arterial road. One suburb contains the university, the other contains a lot of uni students who previously only had choices of driving the long round trip to uni, or catching an overcrowded in frequent ferry across the river.

So, you'd think there's now a lot of traffic over this bridge, right? Well, partially right. The only traffic on the bridge is bikes, pedestrians, and busses. No cars allowed.

This is why I love Brisbane; they have a real commitment to sustainable growth. Their infrastructure is planned based on what will be needed in 20 years - not Sydney, where we get random tunnels under the city going places no-one wants to go; or we get tunnels like the lane cove tunnel, which we needed 5 years ago and which is already at full capacity during peak hour.

Oh, and the bus ride? A lot of people have to catch a bus from the city to the uni. Because there's an existing busway which runs close to one end of the bridge, the new bus services that use the busway and the new bridge shave a considerable amount of time off the bus trip, and completely avoid congestion. It's now faster to catch a bus from the city to the uni than it is to drive there. *That's* sustainable infrastructure.