Is road rage on the increase in Queensland as a result of our worsening traffic, or is it merely that more people are using dashcams and recording what is happening?
It sure seems to be on the increase if you drive on Brisbane's main roads, but that may be the least of our worries. Evidence now suggests that traffic fumes might actually be driving us crazy.
![Queensland needs a new approach to funding public transport.](/web/20161025074332im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/k/q/6/x/n/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grkq8v.png/1474972726611.jpg)
Twenty years ago, road rage was hardly ever encountered. Queensland drivers were generally friendly, and the traffic was nowhere near as bad in south-east Queensland as it is now.
Nowadays it is a different story. South-east Queensland's major roads seem a constant construction zone. The Gateway Arterial going north of the river is a case in point. It never seems to be finished. This alone is enough to cause many drivers to lose their cool, as the RACQ points out.
However, recent research suggests that traffic fumes themselves might be doing longterm damage to our brains, and may actually cause Alzheimers Disease. An international study has found that tiny nanospheres of magnetite are entering our brains. These are different from magnetite that occurs naturally in the body, and can be traced directly to high temperature combustion of fossil fuels in car engines.
The study found that the particles are small enough to enter the brain directly through the nose. These particles have been implicated in chemical processes in the brain that cause degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimers.
Obviously sitting in traffic is a real risk, but it is also a danger to people who might live or work near areas with busy roads.
All the more reason for us to have a better public transport network. I have always been a big advocate of public transport, and believe using it makes good sense.
However, our train system from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast is too slow, and trains are too crowded at peak times.
In Brisbane, rail and road uses compete at level crossings, and buses carry much more traffic than should be the case. All the while, the slow moving traffic releases more particles into the air and into our brains.
What Queensland needs are new public transport ideas, and new funding. Just endlessly asking the federal government to bail out Queensland, isn't a realistic option. In fact it is just poor leadership.
Queensland governments need to get serious about funding public transport, and taking the big decisions necessary to pay for it.
We also need to seek solutions from people outside the public service. After all, so-called "solutions" from the public service have have created the problems we have now. I'd like to see an international prize for the best public transport master plan. This was how Canberra was planned, and how the Sydney Opera House was designed. It can work for us too.
Until then we are stuck with our increasing traffic disaster, and the increasing pollution that comes with it.
It is all enough to send you around the twist, to be honest.
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