1 May 2007

We're chopping the parking to save the planet?

| johnboy
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Seemingly as part of the ongoing destruction of the Corbell Legacy our Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, John Hargreaves, has announced that he’s adding an extra week to the public submissions period of the draft ACT Parking Strategy.

One imagines that a heavy hitter has specifically asked for more time to do their submission.

I was, however, intrigued by this piece of reasoning:

“Planning for future car parking needs is a complex issue. Climate change and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is clearly one of the biggest concerns facing the community. The Government must balance that critical issue with the need to ensure community and business requirements are adequately addressed.”

We’re ripping out the parking and beggaring Civic businesses for a warm fuzzy on greenhouse??

UPDATED: The ABC has the stunning news that Bob McMullan thinks shifting Government departments around is the answer, no word on what he wants done with all the office space which has been built. Public housing?

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Here’s an idea for you that will be in my submission:
Close the Belconnen Bus Depot and relocate it to cheaper land Mitchell. Establish a park n ride interchange at the northern end EPIC carparks – making use of carparks that are empty 99.9% of the year. Buses collect around Gungahlin and drop people to EPIC, or you can drive or treddle there (bicycle lockers provided). Express buses run every 5-7 minutes during peak from EPIC down Northbourne to the city.
Similar arrangement for serious park n ride at Belconnen.
The key problem with th buses is that the one bus does all the suburban collecting then runs all the way into the city. You get 3 or 4 buses all nose to tail down Northbourne all the time. Dumb. Divide the suburban collectors and the express services. Make them synch at the various interchanges to minimise changeover time. Lots of FREE parking at park n rides. Then you have the start of a bus service that could work.

There should definitely be more park n ride.

People will go to great lengths to get cheaper parking, walking to town from the Rex, Anzac Park West and the Lake, so I’m sure people would take up Park n ride. As long as the ‘ride’ is reliable.

Well Mael that rules out a lot of employment opportunities for you then doesn’ it? Like every single city in Australia. Not to mention that you are paying every time you turn the key in your car.
That home-based web business is looking good…

Al, anywhere where you have to pay to be able to go to work is rubbish.

Here we go again: “Canberra is a car city”. FFS!

A city is whatever you make it. If enough people whack in submissions to the bus review Action has been embarrassed into, then they will have to take notice and do something about making Canberra NOT a car city!

A submission doesn’t have to be much. VY’s comment above is enough – just email it to committees@parliament.act.gov.au
The bus inquiry info is here: http://www.parliament.act.gov.au/committees/index1.asp?committee=55&inquiry=712
Do it before 18 May.

As for “stunning news” JB, the city has the lowest office vacancy rates in 16 years. And putting office blocks at Gungahlin is exactly the sort of thing that needs to happen, because many public servants DO live there and if they can work where they live, they do not have to drive/park in the city. What is so hard to understand about that?
McMullen is exactly on the money and I look forward to a commitment from an incoming Labor Federal Government to do something about it.

I think people are starting to fall for Catherine Carter’s regular bleatings in the CityNews that we have a “parking crisis in Civic”. Codswallop!

McMullen didn’t say “most” public servants live in Gungahlin, he say “many”. Big difference.

He does have a point too. There is currently very little employment in Gungahlin, hence the net traffic flow in the morning is heavily weighted towards those departing. Increased employment opportunities would see this change, as many of the people living in the area would work locally.

VYBerlinaV8 now_with_added grunt10:27 am 02 May 07

I still don’t see why they can’t implement some cheaper version of park’n’ride.

there may be parking available for casual shoppers now, but what about workers? How much is all day parking in those multistorey carparks?

And I think they are still planning to demolish a couple more carparks – the one by the pool and the one to the left of Canberra Theatre.

What amazes me is McMullan’s quote that “most public servants” live in Gungahlin. There’s no way this can actually be accurate — maybe he meant that most public servants live in places outside the Inner North/South, but then again that’s true of most of Canberra, not just public servants.

Its time for action. Went to leave the motorcycle in that lane opposite Canberra Centre the other day and it was full up – with those damn vespa thingies. Morew motorcycle parking is needed urgently.

I still don’t get the problem with parking in Civic – sure it was a nightmare for a long time while Section86 was being built but since the new carparks have opened I’ve never had a problem getting a park there even at the busiest times of day.

Cnut. Sounds like public service has got to him. Or is he trying to sell of more car parks?

So will he also increase by mmmmmm 30% public transport to compensate?

I hope that’s not what’s going to happen.

Canberra is a car city. And until they improve the public transport system and make it a more attractive option, people will continue to drive and continue to need car spaces.

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