Page 1183 - Week 04 - Thursday, 26 March 2015
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It is also costly to productivity and the environment. In 2007, the federal Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics estimated that the costs of congestion in the ACT were already about $110 million a year. This is predicted to worsen sharply. As an example, Northbourne Avenue is Canberra’s most congested road. Its travel speed at the morning peak is 20 kilometres per hour. Travel speed will continue to deteriorate and become more unreliable as the city to Gungahlin corridor’s population grows. Even in a business as usual scenario, the population of the corridor is expected to grow by about 50 per cent over the next 20 years and employment by about a quarter.
Ignoring the issue is simply not an option. If we want to ensure people can travel around Canberra safely and effectively in the future and if we want to protect the productivity of our economy and the health of our population and environment, now is the time to take action. This is, of course, what the government is doing with its pioneering light rail project. It will provide a fast and reliable transport alternative in this corridor and, over the next decades, right across Canberra. It will also encourage the development of more compact, walkable neighbourhoods and embed a transport system that can run on renewable energy.
An important part of the transport reform portfolio will involve transport integration. Light rail must be integrated with other forms of transport to ensure its maximum benefit, just as different transport modes must be integrated with each other. Bicycles, pedestrians, buses, taxis, trucks and cars all play an important role as a transport network in moving people and their goods around our city. The government has invested in integrated new facilities such as bike and ride, park and ride, the Civic cycle loop and the shared zone in Bunda Street. These are all good examples of how transport modes can be integrated to the benefit of all people. The introduction of capital metro will provide an excellent opportunity to build further on these initiatives and make Canberra’s transport system one of the best.
Effective integration needs effective cooperation across various parts of government. Both transport integration and transport reform involve different parts of government, such as planning, road safety, infrastructure and a variety of agencies, from ACTION to the LDA. To ensure effective integration and cooperation, the transport reform portfolio will cut across agencies, with select areas of those agencies working on transport reform and reporting to me, as the minister. I will also lead an interagency committee to ensure good coordination, reporting and progress on transport reform. At the ministerial level, the Chief Minister now convenes a cabinet subcommittee on transport reform. Lastly, in recognition that reform must involve the community and that the community is also a well of good ideas, government will engage community groups in a series of transport reform discussions.
Active transport—or walking and cycling—must be a major part of Canberra’s transport future if we are to be a healthy and vibrant city. It is one of the keys to ensuring Canberra is a city that values and prioritises people and helps them get around. It is a priority for me and for this government. I am pleased to announce that the ACT government will establish an active transport coordination office, which will ensure better integration of the policy and implementation aspects of active transport across government. The office will operate as a single point of contact for walking
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