Sharon and Adam Gray are proof life in the capital without a reliance on a car is more than just possible. From their perspective, it's preferable.
Ms Gray works from home in Downer or from the Australian National University campus. Mr Gray works in the Parliamentary Triangle. The pair take turns picking their son William up from school in Majura. All that travel happens on two Dutch cargo e-bikes; the couple's car leaves the garage three or four times a month.
A two-car family prior to moving to Canberra a couple of years ago, the pair first purchased an e-scooter, then upgraded two e-bikes, to save stress and to save money.
A parking pass for ANU staff was going to be $950 for the year, parking in Barton goes for $17 a day.
"It was mainly trying to avoid those parking fees at the start," Ms Gray said.
"We just reached that psychological point that we were just used to using the bikes for the vast majority of our transportation. From then on, it was, "OK, can we ride the bike first and then use the car as a secondary decision?'."
The e-bikes have been used for Bunnings trips, to deliver Christmas lunch and for getting around when the family goes away to the South Coast.
"We hadn't really ridden since we were teenagers," Ms Gray said. "We kind of reintroduced ourselves back into cycling and then just completely embraced it afterwards."
The Grays' experience may not be anything like the norm. As residents of the inner north, with work in central Canberra, they are in a fortunate position to make their lifestyle work.
But it's one the government thinks Canberrans will favour in the future.
And that idea underpins a contentious proposal announced this week that would see the removal of minimum car park requirements at some new apartment buildings.
So is a car-free future a realistic ambition for the average Canberran? Or is it a pipe dream, the consequence of which will be more profits for developers and people stranded without somewhere to park their essential vehicle?
In outlining a draft planning reform early this week, Planning Minister Mick Gentleman pitched a vision of people living in apartments or staying at hotels served by excellent public transport routes. They wouldn't all need a car - or at least not multiple cars - and therefore wouldn't need the expensive-to-build car park, he argued.
The ACT government's transport strategy makes clear its intention to end the car-as-king era in Canberra.
Its plan for an "innovative and future-ready" system speaks to the "urgent imperative" to re-balance investment from roads to public transport, cycling and walking.
"None of us want to be like Sydney or Melbourne, where hour-long commutes to work are the norm," Planning Minister Mick Gentleman wrote in The Canberra Times this week.
Mr Gentleman's opinion piece followed two days of heavy criticism of the planning reform giving developers a green light to build apartments with vastly reduced car parks. It was a proposal many interpreted as a stick for drivers rather than a carrot for public transport users.
Community groups expressed concern making it harder to park at home would unfairly impact lower-income earners, not driving being a luxury afforded to those able to live close to the city. A readers' poll in The Canberra Times indicated uptake of public transport wasn't occurring among all demographics, with 80 per cent of respondents choosing cars over catching buses or light rail.
"The government is working to reduce Canberrans' dependence on cars," Mr Gentleman said. "Not eliminate them entirely."
Fiona Veikkanen is deputy director of the Canberra Environment Centre, which runs The ReCyclery, a community bicycle workshop aiming to make riding more accessible.
She said not owning a car was not realistic for many Canberrans, but even as a mum of five it was very easy to be a one-vehicle family in the ACT.
Ms Veikkanen rides 15 kilometres to get to work on her e-bike and her children all ride to school.
"This combination is realistic in Canberra, but also empowering not to have to rely on cars completely," she said.
Reducing reliance on cars and transitioning public transport to zero-emissions vehicles is key to meeting the territory's target of carbon neutrality by 2045, as transport is the largest source of greenhouse gas in the ACT, accounting for about 60 per cent of emissions.
Zero-emissions light rail to Woden, then to Majura Park, the airport and Queanbeyan, will be the core of the network. The ACT transport strategy details plans to complement the service by feeder and local route zero-emissions buses - with services to increase alongside demand.
A time frame for the next stage of light rail, however, is not yet clear. Bus timetables have faced cuts recently rather than seeing the service improved, with Canberra still awaiting the delayed delivery of its low-emissions fleet.
Lee White is a research fellow at the Australian National University. Her work has focused on understanding how systems can be changed to increase clean technology adoption, including policy to support a just energy transition.
Like Ms Gray, Dr White has also recently moved to Canberra and begun biking to work from the inner north, carefully picking a route that avoids roads where possible.
She said an attractive public transport system meant transit running every 15 minutes and few transfers. She said having to walk or cycle more than that to get to a bus or tram stop was also a deterrent.
"There's a rule of thumb, if it takes more than twice as long to take transit compared to a car, people are more interested in the car. Certainly, if it takes more than three times as long to take transit compared to the car, people are definitely going to be choosing the car," Dr White said.
Parking issues on campus and surrounds are so bad they limit access. The cost of parking is one thing, don’t even get me started on trying to find a parking spot after school drop offs. And no, buses and bikes aren’t always an option for people with disability, caring needs etc. https://t.co/KzeZLvwznI
— Dr Liz Allen (@DrDemography) February 8, 2023
Dr White spent five years living without a car in Los Angeles. She said the city, infamous for its car use and traffic jams, still had a much better public transport network than Canberra.
She said Canberra's cycling network worked if you were just one person going to and from work on a sunny day.
"It becomes more challenging if it's rainy, if you've injured your leg, if you need to transport something heavy or drop off children," she said.
Dr White said while people would think of alternatives if owning a car became more difficult, making it easy to switch was crucial to get people to change.
"If your only other option is a bus that runs very infrequently, 30 or 40 minutes or something - that's not a very good option," she said.
Simon Copland, Pedal Power executive director, said the ACT government was saying all the right things about wanting to become a city like Amsterdam, or Paris or even New York. He said they were seeing a real shift in modes of transport, to cycling, walking and scooters.
"The problem that I'm seeing is the shift from saying the right things to actually doing the right things," he said.
"Implementing it means finding money to put into it, it means changing our mindset to be thinking that infrastructure for walking and cycling is a higher priority than infrastructure for roads.
"We need to really change that mindset in Canberra and we're not quite there yet."
We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.
