Walking, Riding & Access to Public Transport Draft Report

[Aushiker]

The Australian Commonwealth government’s Department of Infrastructure and Transport has released for public comment (comments accepted unto January 31, 2013) its draft report, Walking, Riding and Access to Public Transport.

The draft report explores how the Commonwealth government can work with other governments (state and local), business and the community to encourage and support walking and riding as part of the transport systems in Australia’s cities and towns.

I have had a go at a submission which is posted on my blog. Anyone is welcome to use it as they see fit. I must admit I struggled with this one as the report is pretty comprehensive and I found the submission questions difficult to answer. Still it is a good opportunity to give some feedback to the Federal government so please consider making a submission.

Regards
Andrew

[RobertFrith]

Great response Andrew. I particularly like your reply to Q5 about other programmes and incentives. I'm sure most of us here would agree that governments Australia wide are doing too little too late when it comes to getting cars off the road, and in fact are still encouraging car use through a variety of entrenched subsidies.

You mention salary sacrifice car purchase support, there is (or used to be) some idiot lease type that incentivised drivers of company/government cars to increase their mileage - is that still with us?? (I've forgotten the details of the mechanism but I do remember a friend of mine driving to Esperance for a weekend at the end of the financial year a few years back in order to maintain some financial benefit.)

The great thing about tax incentives is that they can be put in place quickly comparison to infrastructure. There's a world of opportunity out there! It's still pretty common for employers to offer a car parking space as part of a salary package. I'd love to see support for employers who offer direct financial benefits to their people to arrive at work by other means. Support for companies that provide cycle to work facilities would speed their creation.

[il padrone]

The great thing about tax incentives is that they can be put in place quickly comparison to infrastructure. There's a world of opportunity out there! It's still pretty common for employers to offer a car parking space as part of a salary package. I'd love to see support for employers who offer direct financial benefits to their people to arrive at work by other means. Support for companies that provide cycle to work facilities would speed their creation.

Government support..... yeah, sure I won't be holding my breath. The hypocrisy of our state governments (and the Feds) is truly breathtaking. They give with one hand and take away with the other.

Several years back the Victorian Government introduced mandatory requirements for bicycle facilities to be included in all new buildings and major renovations (including apartment/unit developments of >30 dwellings). Bicycle parking, showers, lockers are all specified. I passed this on to our manager at work as we were having a masterplan (redevelopment), with some hope that we could at last get some facilities (currently zip). Then I discovered the caveat - the rules exempted all government buildings

Today our bicycle facilities are still zip

[Mulger bill]

Thanks Andrew, it'll take more time than I have right now to digest. Lots of work in your submission, looks like some good points at a glance that need to be repeated by many if we are to have a chance of being heard.

Shaun

[Aushiker]

You mention salary sacrifice car purchase support, there is (or used to be) some idiot lease type that incentivised drivers of company/government cars to increase their mileage - is that still with us?? (I've forgotten the details of the mechanism but I do remember a friend of mine driving to Esperance for a weekend at the end of the financial year a few years back in order to maintain some financial benefit.)

It is still there. Fringe Benefits Tax. The less kilometres you do the more tax you pay.

The great thing about tax incentives is that they can be put in place quickly comparison to infrastructure. There's a world of opportunity out there! It's still pretty common for employers to offer a car parking space as part of a salary package. I'd love to see support for employers who offer direct financial benefits to their people to arrive at work by other means. Support for companies that provide cycle to work facilities would speed their creation.

Excellent points.

Andrew

[il padrone]

You mention salary sacrifice car purchase support, there is (or used to be) some idiot lease type that incentivised drivers of company/government cars to increase their mileage - is that still with us?? (I've forgotten the details of the mechanism but I do remember a friend of mine driving to Esperance for a weekend at the end of the financial year a few years back in order to maintain some financial benefit.)

It is still there. Fringe Benefits Tax. The less kilometres you do the less tax you pay.

"The less kilometres you do the higher tax rate you pay."

That deal should be changing.

The Treasurer of Australia announced in 2011 that reforms to Car Fringe Benefit Rules will remove the unintended incentive for people to drive their novated lease vehicle further than they need to, in order to obtain a larger tax concession.

In essence, instead of a fringe benefit rate increasing for lower annual kilometres, the reform will mean all novated leases will have a flat fringe benefit rate of 20% applied to the value of the vehicle, regardless of annual kilometres driven.

[ekib]

Andrew,

excellent submission. I put in my submision today.

Walking and cycling to public transport seems like an area that hasn't gotten much publicity up to now.

I suspect that the bottom line for most governments (politicians) is that there is no votes in it!

Ekib.

[Aushiker]

I put in my submision today.

Great to hear. Hopefully something of value will come from this.

Andrew

[g-boaf]

Andrew,

excellent submission. I put in my submision today.

Walking and cycling to public transport seems like an area that hasn't gotten much publicity up to now.

I suspect that the bottom line for most governments (politicians) is that there is no votes in it!

Ekib.

I'm putting a submission in myself. I won't put anything here though, it'll just be pulled apart by the anti-cycling/anti-everything people.

I suspect that the bottom line for most governments (politicians) is that there is no votes in it!

It loses votes because it's seen that investment in this area negatively impacts car drivers. Oh, those lycra-louts that run-red-lights are being rewarded for their bad behaviour, etc. You know the drill, you've heard it before I'm sure.

[Aushiker]

There is now a related CommunityRun petition which is worth considering in my view. It can be found at http://www.communityrun.org/petitions/y ... are-button

Andrew