A rant on Sydney roads

On Friday afternoon, I drove from Bondi Beach to Katoomba. It took nearly three hours for the 120 km journey. For the first 60 km, I was stuck in traffic jams almost constantly. Yes, I'm well aware I was part of the problem.
I saw only one bicycle on the entire trip, a person riding illegally on an empty footpath. But who could blame him? The bike lanes, which were little more than a white line between the gutter and two-tonne of angry vehicles, were a death trap.
I saw very few pedestrians. Throughout the inner-city, from Bondi to Concord, it was just a line of we stupid people in cars.
I also saw very little public transport. The occasional bus stuck in the same traffic jam as me. I wondered if there was any incentive to catch a bus for my fellow motorists.
I was astonished to see some lanes were blocked by parked cars. Legally parked cars on a major road! One person's convenience was enough to bring two lanes of traffic to a crawl. One single car owned this valuable real estate for the afternoon. How very Sydney!
I spent the journey trying to think of a worse city for transport than Sydney. I could not think of one.
Bangkok isn't much fun, but at least while stuck in a traffic jam in the Thai capital, you can be amused watching the city moving around your stationery vehicle. The motorcyclists, pedestrians and cyclists dodging in between traffic. At least someone is getting somewhere ...
In Sydney, I feel like I'm in a macabre game of dodgem-cars. Can my Renault compete with the big black BMW X5 driven by the platinum blonde? Will the guy talking on the mobile-phone while driving the Merc really try and run the red light? How many blokes in utes attempt the rat-run through the back of Concord to get to the M4?
When a NSW Government Minister talks infrastructure, he/she means 'roads'. And that's the problem.

There are a number of simple solutions.

- force cars to be parked away from major roads. It will also encourage people to walk a few blocks. Good for their health!

- put in separated bike lanes through the inner-city that connect, so that people have a safe healthy alternative (Good on you, Clover!)

- encourage school 'walking buses' for children and parents, so we can end the long line of four-wheel drives picking up Nathan and Mimi from school. Offer tax incentives to private schools who achieve this, and increase funding to public schools who do the same.

- increase public transport (remember that - it's where lots of people sit together to be moved between work and home)

- tax we motorists who want to do something as stupid as drive between Bondi and the Mountains. And I don't mean the tax I already pay. I mean a congestion tax. If I'm stupid enough to attempt the journey in a car (albeit with four passengers on Friday!), then I should pay through the neck for the privilege. And that money shouldn't go into more roads for me to do it again next week. It should go towards bike lanes and public transport, to get more people out of their vehicles. And if the traffic jams continue, than increase the tax until I get it through my thick skull that there is an alternative. 

- Increase the fuel levy. Make me pay to use my vehicle. Again, put the income towards bike lanes and public transport.

Legislate so that every cent of this increased tax income from we idiot motorists goes towards public transport and bicycle lanes.

Let's regain the true meaning of the word 'infrastructure.' That is, public utilities for the community. Not bitumen for cars.

I'd love to hear your response.