Page 1305 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 23 March 2010
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Effective design of infrastructure, particularly combined with urban design concepts which encourage walking and cycling to and from public transport hubs, can create neighbourhoods where it is both more pleasant and convenient to use public transport. As well as this, identifying public transport routes prior to construction is an opportunity for the government to invest in infrastructure in the form of dedicated bus-only lanes or routes to the city, Barton or Russell for frequent and peak express routes. We are pleased that the government is planning with John Gorton Drive to have a dedicated bus-only lane, but we are proposing to go further than this.
Mr Coe this morning described building suburbs without bus and other services from the beginning as a tragedy, and I have to agree with Mr Coe’s sentiments there. I also agree with Mr Coe’s sentiments that a well-serviced suburb would actually sell for more and thus would be more profitable for the government. I would have thought that that statement also was true.
We have recommended that the government should investigate the cycling highway concept—that is, creating stretches of smooth cycling paths with limited traffic lights, and where cyclists have right of way at any point where they cross motor traffic. These highways are smooth and better maintained than regular bike paths. Cycle routes travelling out of the new suburbs being developed in Molonglo are an ideal spot to use cycling highways for commuting to the city, Barton or Russell. These should be integrated into the structure and concept plans. We would propose that the east-west arterial road leading to the Tuggeranong Parkway be a bus-only access road, with a cycle highway co-located with this into the city and parliamentary triangle area.
A precedent was set in the Dutch city of Assen, which has a population of about 70,000, just a bit more than Molonglo will have when it is finished. When a new suburb was built on the edge of the city around five kilometres from the city centre, the local council was concerned that new residents would be put off cycling if there was not an adequate route to the city. The council decided to plan a cycle highway that took the most direct route to the city. It has no traffic lights and is shorter than the driving route. The route is easy, safe and pleasant for cyclists, and since the building of the new development the cycling rate in Assen has increased, and 71 per cent of all journeys in the city are now by bike. We could do this in Canberra, too, in Molonglo.
Other transport proposals we have put forward to encourage sustainable and active transport include: prioritising pedestrian and cycle movements rather than car movements, which will help people using public transport; park-and-ride and bike-and-ride facilities from day one; public transport infrastructure designed to adapt readily to potential future non-bus public transport options; embedding lower car-use targets in Molonglo compared to the other parts of Canberra into the sustainable transport plan; and considering 40 or 30-kilometre-per-hour speed limits for all residential areas.
I am unfortunately running out of time, so I will try and summarise this. One of the things is we need to restrict the unlimited provision of car parking spaces in town and group centres and increase the bicycle parking facilities. One of the areas which has been most controversial is that we are suggesting to modify the proposal for John Gorton Drive. We suggest the following: maintain the local car access road; move the
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