Page 2831 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 17 September 2014
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travelling in the city centre of Canberra. The path helps to separate bicycle riders from both congested pedestrian footpaths and motor vehicle traffic. Once completed, the loop will connect Marcus Clarke Street, Rudd Street, Bunda Street and Allara Street in the city centre.
Six million dollars of funding has been committed for the design and construction over a four-year period. The loop is being delivered in four stages. The first two stages were opened in March 2013 at Marcus Clarke Street and Rudd Street. Design for the Bunda Street and Allara Street stages is underway and completion is due by 2015. The Bunda Street section will be a “shareway” for bicycles, pedestrians and motor vehicles.
Canberra has embraced the motor car and invested heavily in road infrastructure, and as a result our main avenues are car thoroughfares and the city centre has declined as activity spreads outwards with urban sprawl. We have one of the highest car dependency rates of any major Australian city and we travel further in our cars than residents in any other major city in Australia. As the city grows this car and road reliance will become unsustainable and even the grandest road network plans will not allow us to keep growing sustainably and responsibly. With a projected population growth of another 200,000 by 2050 we need to change this approach.
To ensure that Canberra develops as a more compact and sustainable city the government’s transport and planning strategies are working together to manage projected population growth along high quality transport infrastructure, often referred to as “transit-oriented development”.
Light rail has been selected as the spine of an integrated transport network due to its proven ability to catalyse urban transformation with higher employment and population densities along the route. Stage 1 of the network has been chosen for a number of reasons, but importantly for the important role it will play in rejuvenating Northbourne Avenue and the city centre. But remember, Madam Assistant Speaker Lawder, that this is only stage 1, and I am really looking forward to seeing the light rail extend all the way through Woden to Tuggeranong and down to Lanyon valley in our electorate in the future.
Light rail has been used for its potential to drive urban renewal in many other cities across the world. Light rail transport and urban renewal are intrinsically linked. For example, the Docklands light railway project stimulated the opening up and regeneration of the run-down eastern area of London. The Docklands and Canary Wharf area were previously cut off from the rest of London by the River Thames, leading to low levels of new development and high levels of unemployment.
Light rail was the backbone of the redevelopment project as it connected the area to the rest of London and provided investment certainty. Light rail helped revitalise the area and changed the image of the Docklands. The light rail connection encouraged the construction of approximately eight million square metres of new commercial space and 24,000 new apartments.
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