19 September 2024

ACT Greens plan to revive bus shelter bunkers as part of climate change adaptation plan

| Oliver Jacques
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Rebecca Vassarotti, Shane Rattenbury and Soëlily Consen-Lynch inside bus shelter bunker

Rebecca Vassarotti, Shane Rattenbury and Soëlily Consen-Lynch of the ACT Greens want bus shelter bunkers to be a permanent fixture around Canberra again. Photo: Supplied.

The ACT Greens have pledged to bring back Canberra’s iconic bus shelter bunkers if they lead government after the October election. It’s part of a suite of initiatives aimed at preparing the capital for a “hotter and drier” future.

“The old bus shelters were terrific for actual protection against the weather. Some of the new ones put up by advertisers are a bit flimsy, they don’t provide much shade or protection for the wind or the rain,” ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury said.

“[They were popular] because of their design and shape but also because they provided genuine protection.”

Concrete circular-shaped bus shelters were designed by Queensland-born architect Clem Cummings in 1974 as part of a program to improve the fledgling city’s public transport.

The initial structure cost $2000 to build and about 500 were erected and placed in suburbs across the ACT between 1975 and 1995. Loved by some, described as ugly by others, the shelters were gradually phased out and replaced by more compact alternatives.

But the ACT Greens say a future of more erratic weather conditions means they need to come back.

“Our climate is changing and we are already experiencing the impacts of climate change through more frequent heatwaves, more intense bushfires, more severe droughts and increased intensity of rainfall events,” Mr Rattenbury said.

“We need to put in place measures across the city to adapt to the changing climate and prepare for these extreme weather events. It’s important that we protect the most vulnerable in our community as we do this.

“With good preparation we can ease the impact of these extreme weather events on our community and make sure our city remains beautiful, safe and liveable.”

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To “build resilience to the unavoidable impacts of climate change” the ACT Greens have also pledged to:

  • Plant at least 20,000 street trees each year to increase urban canopy cover with a focus on suburbs with the least tree cover, ensuring tree species are climate appropriate and non-invasive.
  • Establish a Chief Heat Officer to coordinate responses to extreme heat events, and develop a Climate and Health Strategy.
  • Work with the community to trial and implement city cooling interventions, including active measures such as misting systems and awnings, or passive systems such as water features, street plantings, green roofs and facades.
  • Increase funding for the Emergency Services Agency and ACT Parks and Conservation Service to reflect the increased bushfire risk, longer bushfire season and increased likelihood of severe weather events.
Canberra bus shelter

Could these bus shelters be making a comeback? Photo: Nick Goncalves.

Deputy Leader of the ACT Greens, Rebecca Vassarotti said the ACT Greens would plant the extra trees to protect the status of Australia’s bush capital and reintegrate the environment back into its suburbs.

“In a climate crisis, planting more trees isn’t just an option – it’s a crucial part of making Canberra a more liveable city,” Ms Vassarotti said.

“But for too long, Labor has treated it as a second order priority, rather than a foundational element to building a sustainable and liveable city. For years, developers have been given a free pass to make a quick buck rather than creating leafy, green, liveable suburbs – and we’re still feeling the impact now.

“All this has done for Canberrans is turn our newer suburbs into hot, dry concrete jungles in the middle of summer. As the climate crisis deepens, these conditions are only going to become more extreme unless we take urgent action now.”

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Wikipedia 101… Failure of Lexan Windows, pushed out, burnt, vandalized…”Efforts to replace damaged windows were eventually abandoned, and many of the shelters are now windowless. This has led to complaints about the shelters being cold and drafty”.. add to that burnt seats, echo chamber and general bong shelter.. However, if you were living in Canberra during the 1970s, you will remember the maroon and pink buses camouflaged in the winter fog, and understand the function of the 1970s ugly orange/blue bus colours. Please do not appropriate other people’s ideas ACT Greens. If you can’t come up with original thought…. why are you still here?

The Greens using hard at it existing ideas again; with the exception of a Cheif Heat Officier (thanks for the laugh, just another way to bloat service ACT with further pointless roles/people), all these measures are being trialied or implemented now. The urban Forrest strategy which is fail in terribly was meant to make the bush capital 30% planted by 2030. They are letting developers knock down trees quicker than they can plant new ones and they have failed to budgeted for or arrange to have these new trees watered, gee what could go wrong there. The Greens and the ACT city services are masters at burning our money.

GrumpyGrandpa7:51 pm 21 Sep 24

While a few concrete shelters still exist in some of the suburbs, the ACT Government sold off the bus shelter sites to Adshel, who use them for advertising revenue, in exchange for maintaining them.
I don’t know anyone who likes the new shelters. You get wet, unless the rain falls straight down. There is no protection from the wind and limited protection from the sun.
The Greens have 3 big problems:
1. The Greens want more people to use public transport and with that comes the need to “shelter” more people. Put simply, we’d need 3 or 4 concrete shelters to replace the size of some of the Adshel shelters.
2. The government would then need to fund the cleaning and maintenance of the shelters. The concrete shelters used to be filthy dirty and covered in graffiti.
3. The Greens don’t have a snowflakes chance of leading the government after the election!

Capital Retro6:04 pm 21 Sep 24

“Chief Heat Officer”
Absolutely hilarious!

It appears that only those who have been lucky enough NOT to be directly impacted by the effects of extreme weather, have the luxury of complaining about the frequent references to ‘climate change’. Perhaps spare a thought for those who’ve most recently lost their homes and even their lives in the floods of Vietnam and Romania due to climate change. Who knows – we might be next.

Greens have had their time in power and achieved little, so why would they expect to be voted in again. They wasted the opportunities they had, ignoring Canberrans’ needs.

Chief “Heat” Officer…..a person that will have nothing to do for 9 months of the year. I also thought that using concrete and plastic seats are not very “climate friendly”

so, more of the bunkers across the city. Good but putting in windows would be good too. Also, love to see where are all these trees they keep talking about. Monaro Hwy development doesn’t reflect new plantings and yet the development started ages ago. Hopefully Yarralumla Nursery will have a few spare 000 or so growing and ready to go.

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