Page 3391 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 21 October 2014
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tearing something apart, being entirely negative about it and refusing to accept the evidence that will come out in things like the business case that show the obvious benefits for our city, which even the Canberra Times acknowledged in its editorial today, despite the way they are approaching this issue.
Cycling and walking funding provides another example. Prior to the arrival of four Greens in the Assembly in 2008, and before the original Labor-Greens parliamentary agreement, cycling and walking received a fairly small, ad hoc amount—around $350,000 per year.
The first parliamentary agreement secured by the Greens turned this situation around, increasing recurrent funding for cycling infrastructure to $3.6 million per annum and providing $2.5 million to address the maintenance backlog and implementation of signage on the cycling network. It also provided an additional $500,000 per annum of recurrent funding for footpath upgrades and maintenance. The current parliamentary agreement ensures the focus continues, guaranteeing $15 million above current budget funding over four years for improved walking and cycling infrastructure.
The benefits these changes have brought for active transport have been significant. We have many new paths and cycle lanes all around Canberra, including major path projects such as the Civic cycle loop, the Jerrabomberra wetlands path, Cotter Road cycle paths, and shared paths at Yamba Drive linking to the Canberra Hospital, as well as many repaired and resealed shared paths and footpaths.
The Greens’ active transport plan also recommended laying out active transport infrastructure prior to or simultaneously with road design. We are starting to see that occur in a better and more coordinated way in new areas such as the Molonglo suburbs. The recent government response to the vulnerable road user inquiry agreed that the government will further assess whether changes can be made to the estate development code to support and prioritise vulnerable road users in newly developed parts of Canberra. It will also investigate the adoption of a formal ACT urban design hierarchy which would prioritise vulnerable road users over other road users and would provide overarching guidance to government planning and design decisions.
These are two very important changes for making our city supportive of active transport, because cyclists and walkers are vulnerable road users as well as active transport users. I am looking forward to working with Minister Gentleman to implement these initiatives across our shared responsibilities in our two portfolio areas.
The Greens’ active transport plan also emphasised the need for connectivity between the active transport network and the public transport network. Recently we have seen this happen a lot more effectively, especially with numerous new bike-and-ride facilities incorporated into park and rides, as agreed to through the parliamentary agreements.
The plan discussed car sharing—a system where members can share a car without having to own it—and we will now see this progressed through the recent
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