More carrot and less stick

HOBART TRAFFIC BLUEPRINT

IT was very disappointing to read the details of the Hobart City Council transport blueprint ( Mercury, July 10). The blueprint is based on higher parking fee, lower speed limit and private carpark levy sticks to beat commuters and motorists into alternative modes of transport. Carrots are much more effective yet the blueprint offers no incentives for motorists to leave their cars at home. I proposed a free city circle anticlockwise shuttle (Argyle, Burnett, Murray streets) and a clockwise shuttle (Harrington, Burnett, Elizabeth streets). They would make the city blossom and attract workers, shoppers and tourists who would be confident that once they arrived at a bus mall or ferry terminal, they could quickly access most of the city at no extra cost.

An anticlockwise loop could use Metro bus stops apart from a proposed stop outside Myer in Murray St. This route brings most of the city to within a 200m walk and places North Hobart only a few minutes from the wharf precinct. As a footnote, I was dismayed to find there aren’t any Metro bus stops in Harrington or Murray streets so a clockwise route there would be more problematic and is indicative of a lack of commitment to public transport carrot alternatives.

Anti-car ideology

TRYING to ease traffic congestion by making it even more difficult to drive through the city is not a solution. The first task of genuinely progressive government is to not make a bad situation worse. This Greens proposal to punish drivers will only further exacerbate our traffic issues, all in the name of furthering the ideological ends of the Greens aldermen who see cars as an evil they want banned by micromanaging every facet of ratepayers’ commutes. It is but more evidence of the hightaxing, high-spending mentality of the Greens. Many people need to drive to perform their daily duties, whether it be taking kids to school, going to shopping or work.

Perhaps the carrot is more effective than the stick. Perhaps rather than making it impossibly difficult to use a car and punishing drivers, a more effective strategy would be to work with state government to increase the flow of traffic to alleviate congestion, and increase the effectiveness of public transport to make it a more appealing option.

Cater to hospitals

HOBART City Council could do and charge whatever they like for whatever they think is needed to ease traffic congestion in the city. But a designated 24-hour carpark with easy quick access for the CBD’s hospitals’ staff and patients ought to be calculated into its transport strategy.

Shuttle buses

IF the council would like to start thinking outside the box (literally), and make a big carpark on the Domain, with shuttle buses to the city for workers and shoppers, this will remedy all. It has been in European cities for years. But I still can’t get my head around the one-way system. It drags the A new way to have your say themercury.com.au readers have a new way to have their say. It’s free to use, just register and have your say. For more details and to register, visit the website. traffic back into the city for it to go out, eg Hill St traffic.

Don’t get me on the Bruny Island ferry! No consultation with the locals! My wife says I am always negative, but I say I have positive thoughts.

Money-grubbing

PEAK hour levy plan? More like peak hour money-grubbing gouging scheme. Price signals? What rubbish. It is nothing less than an opportunity to put yet another tax on those who have jobs in the city.

Over 70 per cent commute by car. Why? Because the 19th century horse and buggy era public transport systems in place and those being proposed do not and will not and never will meet 21st century needs. Come on Minister Peter Gutwein, it’s time to railroad the Hobart City Council out of all aspects of traffic management.

Parking shuffle

THE parking in inner-city suburbs has now reached the point where all-day commuters are shuffling their cars around the two-hour parking spots once the unrestricted spots are all taken by 7.30am. This is causing additional issues for residents who have no off-street parking. One hopes the Hobart City Council, in deciding to raise parking fees in the city in peak hours, have taken this untenable situation into account?

Suspensions

LAST year 3117 students were suspended from primary and secondary schools in Tasmania and more than 330,000 Australian students are estimated to be on Centrelink before their 25 birthday. If the cane was reintroduced those figures would be far less.

Beam me up

JUST when we are realising that Park and Ride will become essential to alleviating Hobart traffic problems, one of the best possible sites for this, the DEC, is to be sold off to private enterprise for another hotel. Beam me up Scotty! They’ve lost the plot down here.

Tax-free, I assume

SEVENTY-FIX churches slated for sale by the Anglican Church: I assume that all money garnered from these sales will be tax-free, like everything the churches, no matter the denomination, are exempted from paying. This disgusts me more than anything else they may do in the community. By the way, I am a non-practising Anglican.

Ratepayer rebate?

SO if the GCC decides to sell the DEC, do its cash strapped ratepayers get a return for being slugged a 12.5 per cent rise in rates for 2018-2019? Don’t hold your breath.