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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Tuesday, 24 August 2004) . . Page.. 4095 ..

Of more concern, however, is that the government is not recognising opportunities to get serious about sustainable transport planning for the ACT. Earlier this year we had the release of a very disappointing sustainable transport plan for the ACT. This is a plan that understated the possibilities of light rail for the ACT and listed a series of actions which had as their foundation the continuing importance of travel by private car. The plan identified that Canberrans have the most car dependent transport system in Australia with the highest average speeds in a month and the lowest level of congestion. However, it lacked meaningful timelines and targets, identified no base lines and provided no indication of the steps to be taken to achieve integrated sustainable transport planning for the ACT.

So we have arrived at the current situation where the taxi industry is calling for the introduction of a sustainable transport commission and raising options for innovative integrated public transport provision, and the government is focusing on short-term economic gains—not only that, but putting forward proposals that do nothing to address serious and longstanding community concerns relating to services for the mobility impaired.

MRS CROSS (6.38): Mr Speaker, I echo many of the sentiments expressed tonight by Mrs Dunne, Ms Dundas and Ms Tucker, especially with regard to sustainable transport and complementary transportation solutions for the ACT. I have a number of concerns with this bill, mainly about the likely effect it will have on taxi drivers. One of the reasons for the introduction of additional taxi plates is to reduce delays and pick-up times experienced during the morning and afternoon peak-hour demand periods.

Let’s look at some of the practical implications of this approach. On the minus side, there are some points worth considering. Accepting that the introduction of some new plates would marginally ease the peak-hour demand, what will be the consequence during the off-peak hours when the demand decreases markedly, the available work is shared among more drivers and the income of individual drivers decreases? It seems that under such an arrangement the swings and roundabouts will be out of kilter.

Some of the causes of delays in trips around peak hours cannot be overcome by granting more plates. For example, recent changes in road traffic arrangements, such as the introduction of bicycle lanes, the reduction of State Circle from two lanes to one to accommodate a bicycle lane, the abolition of the 70 kilometre per hour zone on Northbourne Avenue and the removal of a second rank lane on Acton in Bunda Street have increased the waiting period for taxis.

Having more taxis is not going to ease created problems such as these. Indeed, it is likely that more vehicles on the road will make them worse. Here is another example of the effect peak hour has on availability of taxis. During non-peak hours the trip from the airport to the Kings Avenue roundabout in Russell takes four minutes. In peak hour the same trip can take 15 or even 20 minutes. More taxis will not solve this sort of traffic problem.

Already there is considerable dead time in a taxi driver’s working day. To reduce this dead time the drivers need to be responsive to local points of need. For instance, it is difficult to predict where the demand for taxis will be, and taxis cannot wait around in an

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