The state government and greater Launceston councils have banded together to produce a transport vision for the area and the good news is that cycling is front and centre.
The vision identifies more opportunitues for walking and cycling as one of its goals, with six transport liveability elements identified: sustainable; safe; efficient; attractive; connected; equitable and accessible.
The council is asking you to pick the two elements that mean the most to you and to then choose the top three actions under each one.
Fill out the survey by Friday 4 September for your priorities to be included: https://greaterlauncestontransportvision.com/
Moving people not cars
The vision will be enacted through a greater Launceston transport strategy, which councils and the state government have already done the background work on.
Launceston’s car-centric transport system is acknowledged as a challenge to the city achieving its goal of becoming Australia’s most liveble regional city. Some of the background data shows:
- 75% of people live less than 10 km from where they work
- 89% of work commutes are by car, only 2% take public transport
- 48% of households own two or more vehicles
- Launceston’s population is projected to increase by 5000 people to 2036.
Walking and cycling to work account for about 6% of all trips. The vision points out that with 75% of people living under 10 km from their workplace, there is great potential to increase the number of walking and cycling commutes.
It recognises the need to provide high quality pedestrian, cycling and public transport infrastructure to get people to make the switch, along with better land use planning to centre development closer to where people live.
Improvements to cycling are listed as objectives under each of the vision’s four transport “themes”.
Integrated Transport, Land Use and Economic Planning
2.3: Neighbourhoods strategically planned and designed to improve amenity, accessibility and foster a cycling and walking culture.
Greater Launceston Network Planning
3.4: A central Launceston and CBD core that prioritises the safety, accessibility and amenity of pedestrians and cyclists.
3.8: Enhance and create cycling and walking corridors to central Launceston and major employment, recreation and education nodes.
Transport Options
4.1: Public transport, private shared transport, walking and cycling are prioritised in land use planning and infrastructure investment.
4.6: provide a range of targeted promotion and education programs aimed at promoting the benefits of a variety of sustainable transport options.
Primary Transport Corridors
5: Optimise how well our key transport corridors move people and freight in accordance with their role in the overall network.
The success of any cycling actions under the vision and transport strategy will be measured by the increase in the:
- kilometres of bike lanes and off-road paths across the region
- number of people who ride to work
- number of workplaces with staff end-of-trip facilities for cycling to work
- number of children riding to school.