Page 4943 - Week 15 - Thursday, 15 December 2005
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I think we are talking about a number of years. You may argue with it but there is no doubt about it: oil is not a renewable source.
I turn now to cars and motor transport. They will never disappear, but the government could encourage the purchase of more fuel-efficient vehicles through sales tax, registration fees and parking charges. More parking facilities can be located near bus stops to encourage public transport use, where buses are not handy to people’s homes. Scooters are increasing in use as the population ages. They should be encouraged, through path and road planning, with places to park them. There is a lot of confusion in our community about the rules that apply to scooters.
Car pooling through workplace and educational institutions should be encouraged. Shared-use vehicle systems are in place in many US and British cities, where a fleet of vehicles is shared between a group of people. Many people do not need cars for day-to-day use but they need access to a car. Other measures are car-free days, with prizes for the workplace which registers fewest cars coming to work on selected days of the month; encouraging cycling and walking; revitalised neighbourhood centres; encouraging people to shop locally; having cafes and community spaces within easy walking distance to develop sustainable communities; and reducing car use.
More people may be working at home with the new technologies. Why not have community resource centres where they can walk down, use fax machines, photocopiers and other things that have not even been invented yet but will make work easier in the next decade or so? We could have seating at regular spacings for elderly people, to encourage them to walk to the shops. Elderly people in Yarralumla complain that they cannot make the trip to the shops because they need to sit down on the way and there are not many places to do that. These are simple things. We could install a network of solar lamps to light bike and walking paths, which are quite dangerous and scary at night. Solar lamps can recharge during the day and light the night. We could plan new suburbs to include off-road walking and cycling tracks that are safe for children and non-lycra clad cyclists, which are accessible from all residences—and we could support bike hire services.
I refer to now to public transport. People are moving to public transport, but not quickly enough. Why not issue free bus tickets for a week to let people see how convenient bus services are; increase their frequency; extend night and weekend services; make them convenient; and make bus routes more flexible. I am very encouraged by the legislation tabled this morning by Mr Hargreaves to make that happen, with the inclusion of taxis in the public transport system.
We should plan for and establish light rail. Do not put in bus lanes that are going to cost millions and millions of dollars and then spend another few million dollars years down the track. Let us put the light rail in now. There are a number of routes that could be very convenient. We should make public transport easy to understand, accessible and useful for visitors; improve signage at the pedestrian level; put on buses to Namadji and Tidbinbilla on the weekends, so families can go out there for Sunday picnics; put on buses to all large public events, and lobby for better rail connections to Melbourne and Sydney.
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