CITY of Greater Bendigo mayor Peter Cox is calling on residents to get their skates on when it comes to being involved in planning for the city’s future transport needs.
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In particular, Cr Cox wants more people to their say on the Connecting Greater Bendigo: Integrated Transport and Land Use Strategy (ITLUS), which was put up for public comment four weeks ago.
"Council is providing ample opportunity for people to have their say on issues that matter to them and ITLUS should matter to everyone," he said.
"It is no good coming to council once ITLUS has been adopted and saying that you haven’t had your say. Now is the time to get involved."
Cr Cox said the transport strategy had the capacity to shape Greater Bendigo’s future liveability like no other.
"For example, if each employee at the City, Bendigo Bank, La Trobe University and Bendigo Health walked, cycled, car shared or used public transport for a day a week, we could take 1000 cars off our roads – each day," he said.
The eight-week public consultation period draws to a close on December 22.
So far, about 250 people have had their say in addition to the 1500 who helped develop stage four of the ITLUS report, and others have provided their comments via an online survey.
City strategy manager Trevor Budge said 74 per cent of survey respondents supported the recommendations put forward in the report by GHD Consultants.
He said of the negative responses, many questioned whether some of the things outlined in the strategy were realistic.
"Some people thought it was unreasonable to expect all the activities given state of footpaths, bus service frequency etc," he said.
"Some said the rail network would never happen, won’t solve the problem.
"But our answer is we can point to many cities in this situation many ears ago who have embarked on this sort of thing... and become a much more healthy, sustainable city."
Mr Budge said overall he was a little surprised, four weeks into the eight-week period, there weren't more submissions.
"Perhaps we have hit the mark, but also we think a large number of people have been silent," he said,
"We think there’s some controversial things in the report.
"For one, we think people should reduce reliance on cars, and secondly, that the City shouldn't sprawl all over the place."
He said behaviour change was the real goal of the report and such changes, historically, could be difficult to accept.
"We’re calling for substantial behaviour change, yet making the point it doesn’t have to be dramatic, we want people to think about how they can change the way people move around Bendigo," he said.
"People might think it would be great if everyone drives their kids to school less, but I’ll keep driving my kids to school.
"We can form the idea behaviour change is happening to others, not us."
Mr Budge echoed Cr Cox's call for residents and businesses to come up with incentives to use cars less.
"The volume of traffic is growing about two per cent per annum," he said.
"If each year four per cent of people who drive chose to do something else, it actually can reduce the growth.
"If you take four large employers in Bendigo, and get them to persuade one in five employees to do that one day a week, we can get 1000 cars off road."
Residents can discuss the strategy at Kangaroo Flat Champions IGA from 11am to 1pm on December 6, at the General Store in Marong from 9.30am to 11.30am on December 9, at Heathcote Visitor Information Centre from 3.30pm to 5.30pm on December 10 and at Elmore Post Office at 10.30am to 12.30pm on December 11.
To have your say, visit the online survey at www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/transportplanning, email the strategyunit@bendigo.vic.gov.au or send a letter to Trevor Budge, Strategy Manager, PO Box 733, Bendigo Vic 3552.