Page 1820 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 5 May 2010
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work that will be generated by the design and feasibility studies, by the work that is at the heart of the $97 million package. I foreshadowed that yesterday. It was reported today that we acknowledge this as the first steps, the building steps.
But I do not know how much more comprehensive you want a government to be than to go to issues around street lighting; to go to issues around pavements and footpath upgrades; to go to issues about how we design and improve our cycle ways; to tackle the hard issues of dedicated transit ways and busways, to actually fund two of them, to plan for a range of others; to increase to 100 the number of bus shelters that we push out this year and in subsequent years; to introduce up-to-date, modern, state-of-the-art technology to our bus fleet; to continue to grow the bus fleet; to embed Redex, to extend it to Fyshwick; to provide half a dozen park-and-ride facilities for cars, the same number for bikes; to provide for bike lockers across the town; to install 25 large, in other words multi-capacity, bus stations along busy routes. There are none at the moment. We have just funded 25. We propose another 100 bus shelters through this budget over this next year.
We are funding half a dozen park-and-rides, planning others, and tackling the difficult issues particularly around areas like Northbourne Avenue, dealing with the transit way to Queanbeyan, beginning the design and feasibility for dedicated transit ways all the way from Gungahlin town centre to the city. That is at the heart of the proposal. We have undertaken in this budget and funded design work for bus or dedicated transit ways from the city to Gungahlin town centre.
We are funding bus transit ways on Barry Drive to complete the entirety of Barry Drive. We have funded a design study for how to deal with the issue of a dedicated busway from Macarthur Avenue through to Calvary Hospital. And do not tell me that is not a difficult issue, a vexed issue, a controversial issue. We have suffered that controversy over recent years. We have funded in this budget the study.
As for Northbourne Avenue, as I informed you this morning, Ms Le Couteur, the government have funded a feasibility and design study of what to do. We do not have a predetermined position. We do not have the answer when asked what sorts of options will be looked at. The last study that was undertaken in relation to this identified 10 options. And I responded to that question, as I explained to you this morning, by saying, “One of the options, of course, is to provide a dedicated busway in the middle.” That is one of the options. I am not sure it is the preferred option.
Another option, of course, is to remove the bike paths from Northbourne Avenue—I am not saying that is a preferred option; it is problematic; it looks like a backward step but it is one of the options—into a shared path. One of the options would involve probably the removal of every single tree on the outside verge of Northbourne Avenue. I look forward to those that actually endorse that particular option ultimately—and I have to say I think road engineers think it is probably the most feasible option, to actually pinch a bit of both sides of Northbourne Avenue and face the wrath of the community as you mow down every single one of the significant trees all the way from the city to Dickson—and I look forward to you leading that particular community consultation, Ms Le Couteur, as the first chainsaw hits the first tree.
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