RMIT University lecturer Paul Mees, who has studied Canberra's transport extensively, also criticised light-rail advocates, saying their refusal to countenance alternatives had muddied debate for years.

Dr Mees revealed his submission to Environment Minister Simon Corbell yesterday, saying the Government's plan ''is fundamentally flawed, because it perpetuates the policy mistakes that have seen public transport in Canberra decline at record rates over the last 20 years''.

Mr Corbell issued the draft plan last month, a 20-year strategy to improve the ACT's public transport.

At its heart is a ''frequent network'' of transport corridors across Canberra, through which buses would pass every 15 minutes and along which most housing would be units and townhouses. Yet buses would only service areas outside the network every 30 to 60 minutes.

Dr Mees says the ACT disproved the ''myth of density'' - that public transport fails if the population is spread out - in the 1970s and 1980s, when it developed one of the nation's most successful bus networks. His paper explains how Canberra went from being Australia's most car-dominated city in 1961 to having the second-most used public transport system in the country.

''When the Whitlam government decided that it was going to fix public transport in Canberra, it did not alter the urban form at all. Yet it managed to double usage in 12 years.''

The success came from providing 15-minute services across all of the ACT, and synchronising timetables at interchanges ''with guaranteed connections and a maximum wait of five minutes''.

But, from the late 1980s, planners had focused on improving roads, with little coordination of bus routes, Dr Mees said.

''Since then, they've effectively halved passenger levels and doubled the [bus] subsidy at the same time. That shows just how badly recent policies have failed.''

He said Canberrans would neither catch buses nor ride bikes if the Government continued to spend ''the vast majority of its funds improving freeways, which is effectively what it plans to do''.

''The first thing you need to do is stop making is so easy to keep driving. There needs to be immediate action against free parking.''

He was disturbed the Government believed ''the great majority of Canberrans should be grateful to get a bus near their home once an hour''.

''Every city has suburbs, and Canberra's are no more spread out than in other places. Yet other [Australian] governments are making serious efforts to service those people, while the ACT isn't.''

Dr Mees also said public transport advocates' obsession with light rail had been ''an enormous distraction and has held Canberra back''.

''What matters is that public transport routes are planned well, not whether it's buses or light rail.''