Talk of a diet and I generally run a mile. I enjoy good food too much. And the conversation that generally goes with it. But this one included a free lunch.

International road design expert Jennifer Rosales was speaking about diets at the Urban Development Institute of Australia Sunshine Coast branch’s Women in Development luncheon late last year. Road diets.

The Parsons Brinkerhoff American Pacemaking Group consultant would put busy roads such as Maroochydore’s Aerodrome Road on a “road diet” and take away some of the lanes used by traffic.

She would also make sure the state government and local governments spent less money on building and widening roads for cars and put it towards improving public transport or getting people on their bicycles to ride or walk safely to work.

Ms Rosales spent only a short time on the Sunshine Coast but was able to see room for improvement.

The Mooloolaba Esplanade is great street, she said, but the new Maroochydore Boulevard does not accommodate bike lanes. The long-awaited duplication of the Maroochy River Bridge shouldn’t be to accommodate more cars but to include bicycle and bus lanes.

Ms Rosales said people who live in Transport Orientated Developments (TODS) are twice as likely not to own a car, and five times more likely to commute by public transport.

Experience with traffic projects in Dubai, San Francisco, Miami, Canada and New Zealand have shown her that if there is a good mix of transit uses – car, rail, bus, walking and cycle – there can be significant decreases in vehicle motor trips (VMTs).

Initially, Ms Rosales thought this would show a trip reduction of about 33% but it tended to be more like 50%. And there were crash reductions of up to 50%, no significant traffic diversions or rat running, and an increase in business for those along the precincts.

The streets were more user-friendly and people took more pride in the projects.

When we look at the Sunshine Coast and the provision of well-designed transport corridors for people to get around, it is like an open book. The challenge is there to create the best transit precincts in the world.

It is essential to bring the inter-modal corridor from Caloundra to Maroochydore to fruition as soon as possible to counter our growing pains. In the interim there should be more thought to extra bike paths and express bus services.

We need to utilise our open space more efficiently, create a better environment for all modes of transport.

Like life itself, make the journey more enjoyable and don’t concentrate solely on the destination.