Page 644 - Week 02 - Thursday, 16 February 2017
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I conclude by saying that a few years ago the ACT government did a survey of how people of the ACT would like to see their money spent on transport. They were asked, “What percentage of $100 million would Canberrans spend per mode in their local neighbourhood?” From an average of responses, 24 per cent went to pedestrians, 19 per cent to cyclists, 37 per cent to public transport and only 20 per cent to motorists. That, as we all know, is not how the government spends its transport dollar. We would like to see a re-emphasis on maintaining what we have and putting more money into active transport.
MR MILLIGAN (Yerrabi) (4.56): I would like to make a brief comment this afternoon about what has become a serious and pressing issue for Gungahlin residents, the importance of better roads and road maintenance. This morning was another 50-minute drive to the city, a journey typically of 15 minutes. Just getting out of my own suburb took me more than 10 minutes as we waited to get onto the single-lane Gungahlin Drive, past the Gundaroo Drive intersection, a distance of one kilometre.
Despite a number of long-awaited road upgrades in the Gungahlin district, residents are suffering from years of ignorance of local commuter and road user needs. The road facilities have not matched the rapid increase in population, and any remedial action creates increased traffic gridlock for commuters at either end of the working day. Significant development has taken place, and continues, in the north of the Gungahlin region; yet the population is serviced by single-lane roads. The much-needed duplication of Horse Park Drive seems mainly to service the new suburb of Throsby, which attracted super premium prices for residential sites. Major problems still exist with the eastern segment, which connects to the attractive Majura Parkway conduit.
Gungahlin Drive had remedial work done at a choke point near Mitchell, but no action was taken to duplicate the section west of Gundaroo Drive, which experiences severe morning congestion from the expanding regions of new Ngunnawal, Moncrieff and Casey. Clarrie Hermes Drive should have been constructed as a dual carriageway to channel more commuter traffic towards the Barton Highway. Poor scheduling of the Barton Highway/Gundaroo Drive roundabout has created a major traffic problem where three southbound lanes converge into one immediately after the roundabout exit. No plans have been released for duplicating William Slim Drive to ease traffic flows towards Belconnen.
The inadequate main roads are also causing problems in Amaroo. Residents seek to avoid congestion on Horse Park Drive, but traffic backs up on Shoalhaven Crescent through to Mirrabei Drive as commuters seek a path out of the suburb. Residents tell me it takes even longer to get out of here in the mornings, whilst getting through the only two exits out of Crace is a morning nightmare.
Once out of the main Gungahlin suburbs, motorists experience more congestion on Flemington Road and through Mitchell before being forced into two lanes along the Federal Highway, Northbourne Avenue. This also impacts on city-bound traffic leaving Gungahlin Drive onto Ginninderra Drive as it is affected by the Northbourne
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