PTCS Committee: cycle infrastructure and maintenance

The ACT Legislative Assembly has a number of standing committees that investigate (inquiry), record (transcript of evidence) and report (report). One annual inquiry is the Estimates. The Standing Committee On Planning, Transport And City Services (PTCS Committee) is one such committee. Here are the sections from their report relating to cycle infrastructure and maintenance.

TCCS fails our schools

A demonstration of a car centric culture is the preference to duplicate arterials rather than fix the infrastructure around our schools. Good local road infrastructure is what makes our suburbs walkable and rideable. For children to walk or ride to school we need good and safe infrastructure within a kilometre of all schools. First, we need to make the roads safe for kids, and only then will parents think about other alternatives to driving children to school.

ACT Labor: direction of the wind

For cycling, ACT Labor is the driving force. The ACT Greens in comparison have proven unable to deliver on their ideas. Worse still, the ACT Greens have failed to approached cycling advocacy strategically. ACT Labor is delivering on its election pledges, although the achievement humble, as ACT Labor do not plan to do much. They lack the ambition necessary to get cycling moving in the ACT.

Cycling in the doldrums: Hansard 23 June 2021

A strong political wind would push cycling forward in Canberra. The lack of political will has left cycling in the doldrums. ACT Transport’s paradigm lags behind best practice. A “one size fits all” approach fails to recognise that different modes of transport have different needs.

Vulnerable road users: Hansard 22 June 2021

Jo Clay MLA introduced an amendment to the Transport Act to encourage motorists to show more concern for vulnerable road users. The effect of the bill would be to increase the fine, but her speech was of a more general nature and sheds light on her thinking.