I doubt anyone will dispute your argument that introducing paid parking is ultimately beneficial to the environment, but is practical in a city such as Canberra currently is?

If we are actually serious about building a city for the 21st century, why can’t we build up that city before we start penalising the people who are simply trying to make it work for them in it’s current form? Why do we have the poorest bus service possible? Why do we have no genuine consideration being given to a light rail service to benefit the majority of Canberrans? The Gunghalin light rail proposal will probably never get off the ground and wouldn’t help the thousands of people who work in the parliamentary triangle anyway as it wouldn’t extend that far. People still need to get from their homes to work, so without there being a sensible alternative, people will still probably need to drive to their jobs. So their cost of living will just be higher. Is that what a 21st century city looks like?

I live in central Canberra and work in the parliamentary triangle. I work part time, as I have a small child. If I relied on the public bus system, getting from home to daycare to work would be a 2 hour round trip, despite the total distance travelled being only 5kms. Is that a 21st century option? Travelling a total of 4 hours a day for the satisfaction of knowing I was contributing to dropping emissions? The cost would be more than paying for parking all day in the parliamentary triangle will be. Paying $11 a day for parking isn’t ideal either, as I work part time it eats into an already reduced take home pay.

Whilst Catherine Carter’s utopian vision is an attractive picture, it’s quite naive to hail the introduction of paid parking as the solution to our problems. It’s foolish to jump 2 steps ahead and wonder why the general population isn’t happy about it, when no one’s thought about we tackle the first 2 steps.