Page 3851 - Week 10 - Thursday, 27 August 2009
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paths and footpaths, as I have said, and supporting programs such as the walking school bus and the ride to work day. I must say I have enjoyed my times with schools in my electorate, walking with children on their walking school bus.
The government is also encouraging its departments to take up the bike 4 work program, where bicycles are made available by departments for staff use, for work or recreational trips during the day. The latest department to take up this program is, fittingly, the Department of the Environment, Climate Change, Energy and Water.
The 2006 census shows that many Canberrans continue to travel to work as single-occupant drivers. Even a small increase in car occupancy rates would reduce our transport emissions and help mitigate congestion. I must add here that, as I travel to work every day, I do note how many people are by themselves in cars as single drivers with no passengers, and it does concern me greatly that we continue to do that. The government has been working hard to encourage Canberrans to increase vehicle occupancy rates and, where possible, to choose lower emission transport modes like buses or walking.
Members interjecting—
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Le Couteur): Ms Porter?
MS PORTER: I was just waiting for the conversation to finish, Madam Assistant Speaker.
In 2007, the nationally recognised travelsmart Belconnen program was run in Belconnen. That provided participants with tools to make lower carbon and more sustainable travel choices. The ACT program targeted 11,000 households in the suburbs of Belconnen and achieved a 12.7 reduction in vehicle travel—a great result. This represents an estimated reduction of about 9,700 tonnes of CO2 during that time of the program. Encouragingly, a follow-up survey showed that these households were maintaining the more sustainable travel habits that they had developed during this program. Again, I think that is a very pleasing result. The travelsmart Belconnen program, run by the ACT Department of Territory and Municipal Services, was the overall winner of a sustainable cities award at keep Australia beautiful in 2008.
Initiatives like the travelsmart program aim at educating and changing behaviours. However, they cannot be used alone to improve our sustainable transport options. This is why we need improvements in transport infrastructure and services, such as, as I was saying before, improvements to cycling and walking infrastructure and improvements to our public transport provider. That is why this government is committed to improving our sustainable transport options on an ongoing basis.
MR COE (Ginninderra) (3.40): It is a pleasure to talk on this motion moved by Ms Porter, because it is important that the ACT opposition highlight this government’s commitment, or lack of, to public transport in the ACT and the lack of solutions they have to solving our growing transport problem here in Canberra. When it comes down to it, the rhetoric of those opposite does not match what is actually happening on the ground here in Canberra, whether it be the roads maintenance backlog, the capital works shambles, the dilapidated bike paths, the cracked footpaths,
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