Making it happen
In the past, most of Canberra’s growth pushed outwards through new suburbs at the edge of the city. With this urban growth pattern came a significant need to improve mobility by investing in building new roads and widening existing roads and intersections. This period of expansion left a legacy of arterial roads that provide Canberrans with a high level of mobility by car compared to other Australian cities.
As more of our future growth is accommodated within and around the city, town centres and central links, our investment in transport needs adapting. The focus of investment will be on a sustainable transport network that supports a compact and efficient city with better access to jobs and services.
Going forward, we will continue to invest in Canberra’s road network but more of this investment will be focused on improving the safety and efficiency of existing roads and intersections to keep the city moving. Our network management focus will shift towards better coordinating our land use and transport, optimising the use of our current network and putting people first by making safety a priority through the Safe Systems approach.
At a strategic level, we will employ three main avenues to bring about the transport system of the future:
- Future-focused investment
- Refocus network planning and design
- Getting the most out of our existing transport infrastructure.
These strategic actions will be supported by an operational ACT Transport Recovery Plan, to steer transport back towards a sustainable and healthy path, as we overcome the impacts of COVID-19 on our community.
