Page 1868 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 22 June 2021
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
70 kilometres an hour. The situation is even more dangerous as our vehicles get larger and heavier.
My family and I are keen on active travel. I ride my bike to the Assembly most days. My daughter rides to school, with me or my partner walking or riding behind her. I have never been on a motorbike, but e-scooters are a lot of fun and I went e-mountain biking last weekend. I have been walking and riding around Canberra for 30 years without incident, but not everyone has this experience.
I would like to talk about one story in particular. On 3 October last year, there was an incredibly serious collision in Belconnen, quite close to my house, at an intersection I have ridden and driven down many times. A car towing a trailer knocked a cyclist off their bike. The victim of this incident was left with lifetime injuries. Out of respect for that person and their family, I will not go into the details, but I imagine many of you remember it in the media at the time.
It took months for a penalty to be handed out, despite dash cam footage clearly showing that the driver was at fault. That driver received a $393 fine. The community was outraged. I will read out a few of the comments made. That driver was in charge of a “lethal weapon”. It was “negligent or even malice”, “attempted manslaughter”, “aggravated assault” or “vehicular homicide”. The penalty sent the message that in the ACT you can nearly kill a bike rider riding lawfully on our roads and only receive a relatively light fine. A fine of $393 for driving negligently and seriously harming another human being! This does not meet community expectations. It sends a bad message to drivers, it makes vulnerable road users feel as if our lives are worth less than other people’s and it discourages people who might otherwise choose active travel.
This is a terrible outcome for our vulnerable road users, but it is equally bad for all of Canberra, Australia and the planet. Driving a car has become an ingrained habit, to the point where many people get behind the wheel to pop to their local shops instead of walking there. There is a consequence to that for all of us. I remember when I was a kid we laughed at Sydney friends caught up in morning traffic and we heard with horror their tales of one-hour commutes. That is true for Canberra now. We are a growing city, and cities choke on cars.
It is not possible to solve congestion by building more roads and car parks. They only fill up with more traffic. The way to solve congestion is to get as many people as possible out of cars. Every single person that you see on a bike, walking to work or catching the bus or the light rail is one less car you will wait behind at the traffic lights. It is one less car you have to compete with for parking.
I welcome our move to electric vehicles—my family have an Ioniq—but we still need more people out of their cars. Canberra will not work if most people drive for most journeys.
As well as solving congestion, active travel cleans up our air. We breathe in less diesel and less petrol pollution from combustion engines, as well as less particulates from the tyres and the brakes. Most importantly of all, we tackle climate change. Now
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video