TRANSPORT HAMSTRUNG BY INACTION

IT’S that time of year: Spring is in the air, the flowers are blooming, and in any one day you can find yourself facing a heatwave, snowstorm, wild wind and rain. You have to hand it to the cyclists who brave the year-round conditions and wonder if they’re driven by the greater good or it’s simply a better option than navigating the Hobart CBD parking situation.

Hobart City Council’s recently announced Central Precinct Plan for 2042 envisages a CBD with fewer drivers and more cyclists, pedestrians, and public transport options.

The idea has met with some scepticism; one shopkeeper who spoke to the Mercury said he reckoned many people were too lazy to venture into the inner city without a car.

But surely modern society will dictate that for many working in the CBD, we’ll need to come around to living a mostly car-less lifestyle.

Part of that is because the inner city is just so hostile to drivers, with parking being scarce, expensive, and watched by council rangers who lurk like ninjas around every corner.

But if we’re to go the whole hog, public transport needs to be improved, considerably.

That said, the Mercury’s newest recruit, reporter Kenji Sato, who resides at Bellerive, was full of praise for his transport options saying the regular $2 bus trips and the river ferry trial were good options.

“Commuting to work is typically the most depressing part of the day, but it’s impossible to feel sad when you’re cruising luxuriously across the River Derwent,” he says, adding he hopes the trial is continued and expanded – a view long held by this publication.

Kenji reckons that, hamstrings aside, he’s even become accustomed to the Hobart hills and treacherous Tasman Bridge and feels a renewed sense of fitness. But there are huge improvements that still need to happen to make hopping on a bike a valid and safe option for many more.

To achieve Hobart City Council’s vision for the city as well as a successful University of Tasmania move into the CBD, we need more park-and-ride services, a sort of light rail or trackless tram from the northern suburbs, more ferries, better cycle lanes (and maybe some tighter hamstrings).

The council wants to do things such as replace parking spaces with inner city shuttle services and it’s going to require a huge shift in mindset for people to change habits.

But before the change in mindset, we need vision and investment from all levels of government and given that action to date has been demonstrably lacking, it’s not easy to see it happening any time soon.

People need to know that public transport options will be practical, affordable and work for them.