Page 261 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 7 March 2007
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encourage a pattern of urban development that will support increased levels of public investment in public transport infrastructure to reduce the number of journeys that take place by the private motor vehicle.
So the fundamental policy setting is there. We have sought, since putting in place the spatial plan, to channel development activity to support that outcome and to do the planning work to put in place the public transport infrastructure we need to again reduce our reliance on the private motor vehicle and the energy consumption that it undertakes.
Let us be in no doubt about transport as a significant generator of greenhouse gas emissions. Outside the built form itself—outside buildings, commercial, retail and private dwellings—energy is the largest consumer. Transport is the second largest consumer. It is also the area where we can get some of the most significant gains. Dealing with energy reduction in dwellings, whether they are public buildings, private buildings or homes, is often more difficult because the buildings are already there; they were built 30 or 40 years ago; they are sited the wrong way; they often have inefficient systems of heating and cooling; and they have poor insulation and so on. That is intrinsically more difficult to tackle. That is not to say we should not tackle it; we should. I will come to that later. It is more difficult.
The issues of transport are where we can get some really significant gains in terms of changing people’s behaviour and reducing our reliance on private motor vehicles. We said, in our policy settings for the spatial plan, we need to contain and manage growth, to encourage greater levels of sustainability in transport use. We also said that, when it comes to the types of journeys to work that take place, we need to try to shift people’s behaviour. At the moment, over 80 per cent of all journeys to work are by the private motor vehicle. Actually, it is closer to 90 per cent. We said we want that down to 70 per cent by 2026. We set those targets in the sustainable transport plan and said we want to see increases in public transport usage, walking and cycling over the same period of time. We will put in place policies to achieve that as well.
Since that time, we have seen significant increases in public transport patronage. Yes, there have been issues with the off-peak services, but peak services, where we capture that journey-to-work market, are showing a significant improvement. We are on track to meet our targets on increased public transport usage for journeys to work. It is those journeys to work that make the difference. Those are the peak times; those are the areas where you can tackle congestion; and those are the times also when a large number of those journeys are simply from the home to the office and return. If we can get people using alternative transport modes, even for some of their journeys during that time, we can make a real difference.
The policy settings are strongly in place and are being implemented. If you look at the city centre at the moment, you will see intensification of uses in the city centre. It is also happening in our town centres and along public transport corridors. You will see more residential uses in the city, Woden, Tuggeranong, Belconnen and so on and more opportunities for people to live closer to other activities and reduce the need to undertake journeys by the private motor vehicle.
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