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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (2 September) . . Page.. 2730 ..

MS McRAE (continuing):

The other recommendations that Mr Moore has already read out are well focused. There is every possibility of the Barton Highway being duplicated within the next five years, not the next 10. I think that that will have the immediate impact of alleviating some of the problems of Mouat Street as well as helping the residents of Gungahlin considerably, particularly with the opening of Gungahlin Drive, whose intersection with the Barton Highway will only serve to slow traffic rather than smooth it through.

I would like to put on record my sincere thanks to all the people who did appear before the inquiry. It is an issue that has been bubbling away now for 10 years. I think that today's report will go a long way toward meeting some of the needs of the residents and achieving some level of traffic sanity in that suburb. Eventually this report will become part of the consideration of a bigger program of traffic management in North Canberra which will have to include the debate about the John Dedman Parkway, the debate about the Majura ring road, the debate about the Barton Highway and the debate about all those connecting roads. This report makes it quite clear that, whatever happens with all of that, no one suburb should be the one that attracts all the traffic as people try to cut through the suburbs and speed up their journey into Civic. I commend the report to the Assembly.

MS HORODNY (11.49): The Greens originally put forward the motion requesting that the Planning and Environment Committee examine the traffic levels on Ginninderra Drive and Mouat Street. We expressed concerns that have been raised over a prolonged period of time by Lyneham and O'Connor residents about the traffic conditions on Mouat Street in Lyneham. Over the years Mouat Street has become a major connection between North Canberra and Belconnen and Gungahlin, despite the fact that the predominantly two-lane Mouat Street was not designed to be an arterial road. Over the years, as Belconnen has expanded and Gungahlin is now being developed, the traffic on this road has increased exponentially to the point where its impacts are felt widely across Lyneham in terms of noise, vibration and fumes, never mind the impact on the people who actually live on Mouat Street and who have to battle just to get in and out of their driveways. The intersections on Mouat Street, particularly those with Brigalow and Archibald streets, are also very dangerous because of the great volume of traffic, and many local residents go out of their way to avoid these intersections.

We were pleased to allow the residents and all other interested people and groups to come to the committee to express their concerns and to argue for particular solutions to this problem - solutions such as extending Ginninderra Drive - but a decision ultimately had to be made about what is the most desirable solution for the traffic problems on Mouat Street, and the committee came to the conclusion that extending Ginninderra Drive was not cost effective in providing that sort of solution. While on paper the extension of that drive did seem to be an elegant solution of sorts, there are a number of complications with this option.

We have often said that there is a need for an integrated transport strategy for North Canberra. This would not only attempt to keep cars out of residential areas better but also reduce the overall numbers of cars on the roads. We believe that the Government still needs to consider a full range of transport options for reducing traffic on Mouat Street. That would include improving public transport services to Gungahlin and to North Canberra. We certainly do not want the situation developing where all we are doing is moving that traffic problem from Ginninderra Drive to Northbourne Avenue.

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