Tackling transport woes

YARRA Ranges councillor Samantha Dunn attended the Eastern Transport Coalition public transport summit at Manningham City Council on Friday 4 July.
The summit discussed the changes needed to accommodate current and future public transport use and featured keynote speaker Professor Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability at Western Australia’s Curtin University.
Cr Dunn described the summit as terrific, with over 200 people attending. “It was really good to see people there from Yarra Ranges because you knew they’d travelled a long way,” she said.
Professor Newman, who specialises in planning, is credited with developing the now common expression – ‘automobile dependence’.
“It was an incredibly insightful presentation,” Cr Dunn said.
Other speakers at the summit included Professor Graham Currie, Monash University Chair of Public Transport.
Mr Currie spoke about the role of planning and land use, and keeping cities compact around rail transport services.
“He presented good examples from other states and countries, and expressed his disappointment that none of those things were happening in Melbourne,” Cr Dunn said.
She said ideas from the summit would be used to develop the basic requirements of a transport plan for Melbourne’s eastern suburbs and to lobby the state government to undertake a more comprehensive public transport study.
“The summit was really good from an Eastern suburbs perspective to highlight what was important for the Eastern suburbs,” she said.