Page 3392 - Week 09 - Thursday, 24 August 2017
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feeling that the government is blocking them. Equally, it is not reasonable that the government takes on liability for unsafe constructions that people may randomly do. I am very pleased that the minister is working on some better process for this.
Next I will move on to transport. Of course, the Greens have a strong commitment to a more sustainable city, and that means a more sustainable transport system. It also means a more sustainable city form, a more compact form, if we are going to have a transport system that has any chance of working. As I have said before, I am very pleased that this is the first budget where there is more money for public transport than roads. It has taken a while to get there, but I am ecstatic about that.
I have to agree with Mr Coe’s comments about buses running on time. It is very frustrating to turn up on time and find that the bus was early or did not run at all. We can do better than we are doing at present and I look forward to improvement. The other perennial thing with the bus system where we have been looking forward to improvement for the last 10 or 20 years is having the same routes for the weekdays and weekends. Some people use buses both on weekdays and weekends and it is incredibly confusing. I am in the fortunate position where my 300 bus turns into a 900 bus and I do not have to worry too much about the other bits. But if you live in any suburban areas it is really unclear what to do. We should be able to achieve rationalisation of routes between weekends and weekdays.
I appreciate we will not have the same timetables; there is not the same level of demand. But it would make it a whole heap easier for anyone who is not a really regular user of buses and who has had to work it out. I admit that Google Maps has made it easier but, nonetheless, it is still nice to know what number should be on the bus, particularly when it is very hard to read that number until the bus is virtually there, and then they do not stop if you do not wave for them in enough time. I could rabbit on for ages about buses, but I had better move on a bit.
We are very pleased about the $300 million in the parliamentary agreement for active travel. Some of this has been delivered in this budget. I note particularly that we need expenditure on footpath maintenance. That is the first part of transport; once you get out of your house, you will be on a footpath almost certainly. I also note in terms of public transport that around a third of people in Canberra do not drive: they are too young, they are too old, they have got disabilities or they just do not like it. Public transport and active transport are a vital part of our transport system. Almost everybody is a pedestrian at some stage.
I am also pleased with the funding for safer walking and cycling around schools. We will for the first time have school crossing supervisors. I understand there will be some small infrastructure upgrades around schools. This is really important to encourage kids to walk and cycle to school. That sets them up for the rest of their lives knowing this is how you can get around and that our city is safe to get round walking and cycling. It also makes life a lot easier for their parents if they do not have to be driven to school. This is how it used to be when I was a kid in Canberra, and that is how it should be for our children and our grandchildren.
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