SYDNEY - Australia opened its newest carpark this week - a 1,000-lot "pop up" facility in parkland on the edge of Sydney's central business district.
This temporary carpark at Moore Park is part of an urgent attempt to accommodate the city's return to work as the Covid-19 lockdown ends. Hundreds of thousands of commuters who previously used public transport to travel to work are now expected to find alternative options such as driving, cycling, walking, or working from home.
The mass shift in commuting has been caused by new limits on the number of passengers on buses, trains and ferries, as well as people's attempts to avoid social contact. But analysts believe it could cause traffic gridlock and lead to a shortage of car spaces in the city centre.
The New South Wales (NSW) state government has started opening a series of pop-up carparks and is planning temporary bike lanes to accommodate the post-pandemic changes in commuting.
It has limited buses to carrying up to 12 passengers while train carriages are allowed 32 people and ferries, 45. City office towers have also been improving shower facilities for people who cycle or jog to work.
But transport experts have warned that it will be impossible to find the extra capacity to allow the city to safely return to work in large numbers. Instead, the government may need to try to reserve public transport use only for those who have no other option and encourage people to work from home or change their travel hours.
Dr Geoffrey Clifton, a transport expert from the University of Sydney, said a sudden shift from public transport to private car use would clog Sydney's roadways.
"You can't shift everyone who was taking public transport," he told The Sydney Morning Herald.
"You can't fit any more on the roads. Unless people stay home it's not going to work."
Australia has had 7,150 cases of Covid-19 and 103 deaths as of Thursday (May 29), with 3,090 infections and 48 fatalities in NSW, the most populous state.
Lockdowns have been rapidly unwinding across Australia in recent weeks. Cafes, bars and restaurants in NSW will be allowed to serve up to 50 people at a time from Monday (June 1), compared with a limit now of 10. The State Government also announced on Thursday that 50 people will be allowed to attend religious services and funerals, and 20 people will be allowed at weddings.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was pleased that people have not been rushing back to their pre-Covid-19 work routines: "People are still working from home, and I anecdotally know that many businesses are considering some staff coming back and some working from home on a rostered basis.
"We have to live with this pandemic and I am very pleased that there hasn't been a mad rush, that people are considering their options, are doing it in a very considered way."
A report by the Institute for Sensible Transport, a consultancy which advises on transport planning, found that 597,013 people in Sydney typically used public transport before the pandemic. Under strict social distancing restrictions, about 500,000 of these will need to find other options.
The institute suggested about 214,000 people would need to avoid peak hour transport, 206,000 would need to work from home, 83,000 would cycle and the remainder - about 94,000 people - could use public transport.
"It is difficult to overstate the scale of this challenge," the report said.
"Never before in Australia's history has there been a requirement for peak-hour public transport to shed seven out of every eight passengers."
So far, however, Sydney residents appear to be only gradually returning to their offices.
Photographs of the new Moore Park carpark at 9am on Monday showed that it was largely empty with just five cars appearing to be using it. Critics said the carpark is too far from the city centre - more than 3km - to suit hurried commuters.
Sydney Morning Herald journalist Matt O'Sullivan observed on Twitter: "Sydney's newest corona car park at Moore Park ... still resembles .... a park."
