On 5 December 2022 the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services called for submissions from individuals, businesses and community groups on their views regarding priorities for the 2023‑24 Budget.
Streets Alive Yarra has made a submission:
Streets Alive Yarra Inc. calls on the Albanese Government to improve:
- freedom,
- access, and
- public health and wellbeing;
by supporting investments in walking and biking across Australia.
We suggest the following actions:
- Redirect funding from commuter car parks at train stations toward walking, e-biking, bike parking, and buses.
- Link federal road funding to state governments with requirements to upgrade all roads in their jurisdiction to a 5-star safety rating, defined by AusRAP.
- Manage congestion on federal highways with demand responsive driving charges.
- Support 30 km/h for local, non-arterial streets.
- Lead the adoption of uniform national best-practice design guidelines for networks of footpaths and bike lanes.
- Offer targeted subsidies for the purchase of electric bikes, especially electric cargo bikes.
- Subsidies for electric bikes offer more benefits per dollar than subsidies for electric cars, including improvements in population health, and reductions in congestion, air pollution, and road maintenance costs.
- Fund walking and biking on council controlled streets via recurring grants of $100 per person per year to each council in Australia.
Further information is available at:
- https://streets-alive-yarra.org/actions/
- https://streets-alive-yarra.org/freedom/
- https://streets-alive-yarra.org/better-for-health/
- https://streets-alive-yarra.org/better-for-our-climate/
Posted 10th January 2023