A NATION OF BIKE RIDERS

Transcription

1 A campaign by A NATION OF BIKE RIDERS Federal Election Policy Paper 2016 votebike.com.au #votebike2016

2 The next Federal Government must seize the responsibility and opportunity to transform Australia from a country in the grip of a sedentary lifestyle crisis into one where physical activity is part of every day. Our inactivity crisis is killing more than 14,000 people a year a cruel personal and economic burden for Australians to bear. And many more are at risk of preventable diseases such as type-2 diabetes, cancer and heart disease. The fix requires a new approach that coordinates transport and health policy across all levels of government. Our best shot at making Australians active and healthy is to get them exercising on a bike as they go about daily life. All we need to do is to give the Australian people the opportunity to ride and they will respond with hearts pumping. It s easy to build bike infrastructure, and amazingly economical when compared to other options. The nation can easily pay for what we need out of the savings from making people healthy. And then, we reap all the additional benefits from getting people active on bikes: healthier environment, less congestion, easy access to employment, and more liveable, connected cities and communities. The future development of our nation s transport infrastructure should be seen as a primary preventative health mechanism. Government policy and infrastructure projects must incentivise physical activity and deter sedentary behaviour. Our young people, if they are to develop into strong, vigorous Australians, need a big boost to their dose of daily exercise, and the opportunity to rediscover the freedom of riding a bike safely to school. 2

3 WE CAN MEET THESE CHALLENGES IF THE NEXT FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF AUSTRALIA DELIVERS THESE THREE KEY ACTIONS: COMMIT TO A BIKE FUND Provide a $240 million annual bike fund BUILD FOR BIKES Provide bike infrastructure with all transport projects GET AUSSIES ACTIVE Fund a national preventative health program that targets physical inactivity, particularly in young people 3

4 1. SEPARATED INFRASTRUCTURE Fund 1.1 Establish a $240 million a year bicycle infrastructure fund. a. The fund should be available to states and territories on a dollar-for-dollar basis. Note: $240 million equates to $10 per head of the Australian population and would represent 2% of the 2016/17 federal budget line item for expenditure on transport and communications. Mainstreaming 1.2 Develop stringent criteria that all land transport projects receiving federal funding must provide bicycle infrastructure. Rail trails 1.3 Continue and expand the Stronger Regions Fund over the forward estimates. a. The criteria of the fund should make explicit mention of rail trail proposals that will draw tourism dollars, but also provide benefits to local communities from a transport and recreation perspective. 4

5 2. STRATEGIC DIRECTION Liveable cities 2.1 Develop a liveable cities strategy backed by a fully-funded action plan. The strategy should: a. Lead to integrated land use and transport solutions that facilitate significant uptake in walking, bike riding and public transport in major cities; b. Have targets for growth in bike riding for transport in urban areas; c. Facilitate the development of last-mile freight solutions for space-constrained central business districts; d. Recognise the associated high value-for-money offered by bicycle infrastructure; e. Facilitate the strategic transport actions of regional centres to help them avoid the transport planning failures of Australia s major cities National Bike Riding Strategy 2.2 Develop a new national bike riding strategy backed by a fully funded action plan. The strategy should: a. Set ambitious but realistic targets (unlike the previous failed strategy); b. Include monitoring and evaluation to track progress toward targets. Infrastructure Australia 2.3 Instruct Infrastructure Australia to identify: a. The value of bike riding infrastructure in delivering improved transport outcomes in high density employment areas; b. Funding streams for value-for-money bicycle projects that improve transport efficiencies to and from nationally important employment areas. Productivity review 2.4 Instruct the Productivity Commission to conduct research into: a. The benefit to cost ratios of developing bicycle infrastructure to facilitate transport compared with heavy rail, light rail and road infrastructure; b. The potential national health savings of investing in high quality national bicycle infrastructure networks. Tourism 2.5 Develop a national bicycle tourism strategy. a. The strategy should recognise the value for money provided by bike riding tourism infrastructure in that it can also serve the transport and recreation needs of local residents. Australian Bicycle Council 2.6 Completely overhaul the Australian Bicycle Council (ABC). Transport Infrastructure Council 2.7 Instruct the Transport Infrastructure Council to lead Australians from a life of sedentary behaviour to one of physical activity by significantly increasing rates of active travel. 5

6 Parliamentary Secretary for Active Transport 2.8 Appoint Australia s first Parliamentary Secretary for Active Transport to coordinate health and transport policies that reduce the burden of disease related to physical inactivity by increasing rates of bike riding for transport. 3. SAFETY National Road Safety Strategy 3.1 Direct states and territories to implement the actions of the National Road Safety Action Plan but in particular: a. Action 1. Prioritise and treat high-risk rural and urban roads, focusing on the main crash types and vulnerable road users; b. Action 13. Expand the application of lower speed limits in areas with high pedestrian and cyclist usage. 3.2 Direct states and territories to identify and prioritise for investment locations where bike rider friendly intersection design, separation of bicycles and motor vehicles and improved road surfaces will have the greatest impact in reducing bike rider trauma. Australian Design Rules (ADRs) and new vehicle technologies 3.3 Immediately adopt Global Technical Regulation 9 on frontal offset impact as an ADR. 3.4 Act as an international leader and advocate for the bike riding community by lobbying for new safety assist technologies that benefit vulnerable road users, to be adopted through the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (Working Party 29). 3.5 Actively pursue technologies to improve the safety of heavy vehicles on Australian roads such as: a. Electronic Work Diaries should be implemented to ensure compliance with fatigue laws; b. Phase II of the National Heavy Vehicle Braking Strategy must also be actively pursued by the end of 2015 with a view to adopt a new Australian Design Rule by early 2017; c. Adopt side underrun barriers as an ADR. Australasian new car assessment program (ANCAP) 3.6 Fund until After this point ANCAP ratings will align with Euro NCAP Requirements and Euro NCAP can be relied on for safety testing 3.7 Develop a policy position to swiftly adopt the Euro NCAP (and ANCAP) requirements that are proven to reduce serious injuries and deaths as ADRs 3.8 Work with ANCAP to lift the Minimum Pedestrian Rating requirement for a 5-Star Rating from Acceptable to Good by 2017 Road rules 3.9 Instruct the National Transport Commission to review the Australian Road Rules from the safe systems perspective and with particular emphasis on the safety of vulnerable road users. Speed limit 3.10 Instruct the Transport Infrastructure Council to apply safe speed limits on local streets and other streets used by bike riders. 6

7 4. STATISTICS AND DATA 4.1 Instruct remaining states and territories to complete Action 19 of the National Road Safety Action Plan : a. Action 19. Examine and progress options to improve measurement and reporting of non-fatal and disabling injury crashes, particularly through the development of matched crash and hospital database systems. 4.2 Instruct states and territories to complete the following actions from the National Road Safety Strategy: a. Action 55. Work towards the adoption of nationally consistent road crash classification definitions and the development of an improved national serious injury database; b. Action 56. Work towards the creation of a national vehicle safety database to provide real-time research data on the characteristics of the Australian vehicle fleet and crashes; 4.3 Instruct Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) to provide an annual report that focuses specifically on road trauma of bike riders by local government area. 4.4 BITRE should report annually on the length of on- and off-road bike paths across Australia (like they currently do for road infrastructure). 4.5 Instruct Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) to release publicly available death and serious injury data more frequently and at no cost to members of the public. 4.6 The Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS) should be provided funding to release Australian Health Survey: Physical Activity reports annually. 5. SOCIAL NORMS National preventative health program 5.1 Provide funding to state and local government programs proven to increase rates of physical activity, with a particular focus on young people. This program should provide a Commonwealth contribution to a nationally coordinated Ride2School program Fringe benefit exemptions 5.2 Abolish the fringe benefit tax exemption for private motor vehicle use. 5.3 Abolish the small business car parking fringe benefit tax exemption. End-of-trip facilities 5.4 Show leadership in healthy living by implementing end-of-trip facilities at government owned and leased buildings 5.5 Amend the Building Code of Australia to include provision of end-of-trip facilities 7

8 234 Crown Street Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Level 4, 246 Bourke Street Melbourne VIC Collins Street Hobart TAS 7000 Phone: (03) Freecall: bicyclenetwork.com.au