Page 298 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 February 2010
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older people can all walk around safely because the cars are kept at a human-scale speed.
That is something that we should look at into the future—the option of 30 kph in our residential areas. As I mentioned earlier, the risk of death to pedestrians increases exponentially as speed increases. The risk of death to a pedestrian when struck at 30 kph is half the risk of that at 40 kph. And the figures in the consultant’s report show that a reduction to 30 kph would add very little to anyone’s travel time in the ACT. As we as an Assembly move onwards and look at what we are going to do make our roads safer, to reduce road deaths, this is something we need to look at. I am very pleased that the Chief Minister has committed to a number of pilot projects. I look forward to seeing those.
Finally, I would like to say that this is only a small part of a vision zero concept and only a small part of what we need to do to make a truly sustainable transport system. It is important to start looking at these things from a more holistic point of view.
ACT Labor’s current policy platform says:
ACT Labor is preparing for the future … ACT Labor has … made it easier … to travel by road.
We would like to see ACT Labor look at road issues and transport issues a bit more holistically than that. There is climate change; there is peak oil; there are health reasons. There are a lot of reasons for looking at it. In terms of preparing for the future, travelling by road is not the best way to prepare for the future.
The government does have a lot of rhetoric around sustainable transport. I thank the Chief Minister very much for his personal interest and leadership on this issue, but the Greens have fears that the government is doing only a small amount towards this—some selective things. We must still keep the basic priority of moving the ACT’s transport into sustainable, vision zero transport. We would like to reduce the gap between the rhetoric and the action.
Mr Hargreaves: That is a widening of the gap.
MS LE COUTEUR: No, that is how it is. My arms are not as wide as yours, Mr Hargreaves, so I cannot do it quite as well as you, but, yes, we get the point: reducing the Hargreaves-size gap to the Greens’ view of a very small gap between rhetoric and action.
To sum up, let me say that the Greens are very pleased that the government is acting on an item from our agreement. We look forward to safer roads in the ACT.
MR COE (Ginninderra) (11.44): I did not intend to address this matter of speed limits today but, having heard from the Chief Minister and Ms Le Couteur, I thought I would say a few things. Firstly, I and the Canberra Liberals do welcome a discussion about speed limits in and around Canberra. I do think it is important that we take a very cautious approach to this. We do not want to be too rash when we make these decisions. I think that is why this consultation was a good thing.
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