Bus lane improvements along Haydon Drive

Bus priority along the Belconnen to Civic corridor is extremely important. It services the two busiest bus routes in the entire city. 30.5% of all boardings during Q3 2022 were on buses that travelled along this route.

As it is, there is no dedicated bus lane along the entire length of this corridor. There are segments of bus lane, but they are broken and often quite short.

A dedicated bus lane would greatly streamline the route for both buses and cars. It is important that a bus lane does not come at the expense of private vehicles, however. Half my staff take the bus to and from work and travel along this corridor. They have seen just how backed up traffic can get during peak hours. Simply turning an existing lane into a dedicated bus lane will not ease congestion.

The government often talks about their love of public transport, but their actions say otherwise. Between January 2023 and July 2023 the government has cut services for routes 2, 3 and 4 which all use the Belconnen to Civic corridor. These cuts were not just for late night services, peak hour buses were also cut.

These cuts have left people stranded at bus stops when buses pass them by due to being at capacity. This is unacceptable. But these cuts are just a continuation of their pattern for the last few years since light rail was introduced. Since that time over 10,000 people have signed petitions to protest against the government cutting their buses in areas that weren’t even going to be serviced by light rail as a replacement.

Click on the arrow button to read my speech.