The City of Hobart has released a new “vision” for Hobart that puts people before cars, and is asking for feedback from the end of this week/start of next week, before it goes to the council for endorsement in June/July.
The vision will guide the council’s strategic plans for the next ten years, so plays an important role in determining the goals that are pursued. The draft vision was presented to the council on Monday 21 May.
The vision has eight “pillars” and seven “identity statements”. Of interest to bike riders is the “movement and connectivity” pillar.
This pillar says:
“We are a city where everyone has effective, safe, healthy and environmentally-friendly ways to move and connect, with people, information and goods, and to and through spaces and the natural environment.”
Some of the key points under the pillar include:
“We make the ecologically sustainable and energy efficient thing the easy thing … We seek out and respond to transport and technological opportunities that reduce emissions.”
“Our cityscape is easy to access and move through, encouraging the movement of people ahead of cars.”
“We all have access to a range of transport options to meet our daily needs, such as public transport, cycling, walking and driving.”
“Our transport networks provide optimised, easy seamless and safe connections and we all kow how to access and use them”.
If the vision gets through the council as is, it will provide positive guidance for active transport planning in coming years.
While the City Vision process has been underway the council has also been consulting on a new transport strategy.
The new vision will provide the overriding goals for the transport strategy which is due to be released in the next few months for public feedback. Bicycle Network expects that the transport strategy will include a recommendation to produce a new bicycle plan for Hobart as the current plan is decades old.
We’ll let you know when the various plans are open for public comment but you can also keep track of them by registering through the https://yoursay.hobartcity.com.au/ website.