I was a fan of the light rail. Canberra needed better public transport to not have the car-clogged roads of other cities.
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But that support was because I mistakenly thought getting Canberra's children to and from school safely and as directly as possible would remain a core priority.
Incredibly, that's not true under the new "Moving Canberra: Integrated Transport Strategy".
I found this out at a consultation event with Transport Canberra at a high school one evening last week.
The experience was the nearest I've come to being in Kafka's black satire The Trial, where you know you're guilty, but you don't know why, or being the victim of the mad Russian bureaucrats in Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector.
The language in the strategy is forward looking and modern. It uses a "movement and place framework", is "smart, customer-focused, sustainable and integrated" and "explores our drivers for change" - all while "building momentum". That old-fashioned "point to point" approach has been replaced by a beautifully drawn "hub and spoke" system full of happy people.
There's a world of multi-modal excitement and active living in the strategy - and it's emissions conscious.
What matters to school children and their parents, though, are the outcomes.
It was the nearest I've come to being the victim of the mad Russian bureaucrats in Nikolai Gogol's 'The Government Inspector'.
And that's where the trouble starts. Buried on page 29 is the "service hierarchy for Canberra dedicated school bus services'.
Kids that now get to and from school on buses that take them direct to a number of Canberra schools won't be able to do this from April 29.
That's not a mistake. As the Transport Canberra official explained to us, this is the result of the service hierarchy which is a key part of the new plan's design.
The service hierarchy for getting kids to school is:
- Encourage active transport
- Use the general public transport network
- Provide school S trips on general public transport routes
- Provide hub and spoke services
- Direct dedicated school bus services
You'll have noticed that dedicated school buses are the lowest priority. Gogol and Orwell help here. I used a double think translator to makes sense of this otherwise asylum-like fact:
Encouraging active transport actually means: Public transport was making you lazy. We've cancelled your direct school bus to help you. Walk there or ride your bike along busy roads. Being 7 or 12 years old or having a disability will just make your trip more exciting.
Use the general transport network means: Your previous bus that went direct has been cancelled. Take two or more buses with or without the light rail and leave 45 minutes to an hour earlier than you did last term. Young children can meet new friends and strangers at our exciting new multi-modal interchanges.
Provide S trips on general public transport means: Coincidentally, there may be a bus going somewhere near your home and school. Not all plans are perfect. We apologise. But at least it will be at a less convenient time and on a more complicated route than the bus we cancelled.
Direct dedicated school bus services means: Your previous direct bus service has been cancelled. It was our lowest priority when designing the new timetable. It feels great to get our actual priorities clear face to face with parents and children. We suspected most wouldn't have made it through to page 29 of the 70 pager we put out.
No one had an answer to why buses all over Canberra that take children directly to and from school - and are full morning and afternoon - are being cancelled. This is apparently no one's fault or desire. It's just that the "service hierarchy" puts our kids last, and for some reason that can't be changed.
The honest answer is the new strategy is all about pushing people on to the light rail "hub". Without proper connections between the spokes this forces everyone into hub bottlenecks.
That'll make many public transport journeys deeply inconvenient or not viable. Perversely, it pushes more people into their cars. In the case of many parents whose kids' direct bus services are cancelled, we'll make school trips we don't now, adding to car congestion.
The officials at our community meeting gave us many other Kafka moments, several from the new online "journey planner".
It advises my 12-year-old daughter not to catch a bus to school - because her current direct bus that took 10 minutes is cancelled and new options mean two buses and time at the vibrant Civic interchange. The planner says she should ride her bike along Constitution Avenue, through the centre of Civic and up Northbourne Avenue-presumably to maximise her contact with traffic on busy roads as part of an interactive multi-modal experience.
More perverse advice flowed from the planner as it was demonstrated to wondering parents. Children were advised to ride their bikes to more distant bus stops and put their bikes on the double bike rack on front of the bus. When the kids said there would be more than two kids with bikes just at their stop, officials had no answer, saying "let's take that off line".
Kids with disabilities that currently get put on the bus by their parents and met by teachers will instead need to navigate busy hub interchanges, as will seven-year-olds. Apparently, CCTV cameras and some "customer service" folk at crowded interchanges will make this OK.
The official took all the unanswered problems and the planner's bizarre advice in his stride, saying, "The planner gives you options, but it's not intelligent, so it needs a human to make the right decisions."
How right he is. We need some humans to make the right decisions for Canberra's school children. The doublethink at the heart of the new timetable and transport strategy needs to end.
- Michael Shoebridge is a parent of three children, one at Merici College. He is Australian Strategic Policy Institute director of defence and strategy, although his views here are personal ones.