Bikeways and job creation
By Alan A. Parker
If Bob Hawke wants to provide jobs in 1992, especially for many of the low-skilled breadwinners who have little chance of finding work, and before projected major infrastructure projects come on line in 1993-94, he could re-establish the Commonwealth Employment Program (CEP), which operated between 1983 and 1986.
One proposal is for the federal government to provide $17 million to "fast-track" the Melbourne Bikeway plan (completed in 1986), which is proceeding very slowly. This would provide a metropolitan-wide network of safe residential street routes linked by bicycle paths, already in existence and yet to be built. It would enhance Melbourne as a place to raise children and a tourist destination, and reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging people to cycle more and drive less.
This proposal is feasible. The last CEP, set up in response to the 1983 recession, included 380 bikeway projects, which used $38 million of CEP funds and provided 3500 people with a job for several months, and sometimes a year.
This proposal is based on my experience as a bicycle planner working on one of these projects — a $2 million CEP bikeway construction project in Melbourne in 1984. As a former long-time representative of cyclists on the Victorian State Bicycle Committee, I have an intimate knowledge of the Melbourne Bike plan and know this project can be made to work.
The CEP required that projects have a minimum of 50% direct labour costs, and building bike paths is very labour intensive, using between 50% and 70% direct labour depending on construction methods and terrain.
Apart from extending the network, other work could include the repair of existing bicycle paths, painting bike lanes, repairing the edges of roads which are bicycle routes and building small bridges or underpasses across physical barriers to open up shortcuts for cyclists and pedestrians. Most of these would also be labour-intensive projects.
Bicycle plans have been prepared for most large Australian cities, and are supported by numerous more detailed local government plans. What needs to be built has already been established, and the preparatory design work can be done quickly. State governments can in any case set up small CEP design teams to assist local government, as was done by the Victorian ministry of planning in 1984. In all states there are now State Bicycle Advisory Committees, so the coordination at state level should be a lot easier than it was during the last CEP.
Far less progress has been made with bicycle facilities in Sydney than in Melbourne, and I estimate that $21 million would be required there. Around $15 million could be spent in Brisbane and around $8 million in Adelaide and Perth with another $12 million spent in provincial cities, most of which have prepared bike plans. This $85 diture provided on the basis of five CEP dollars for every local dollar, should create 7000 jobs for around six months and provide some relief to those hardest hit and least able to cope with this recession.
On the basis of experience with the last CEP, it should be possible to implement this proposal in the next two financial years, if the government can pull its administrative finger out before next March.
Alan Parker is vice-president of the Town and Country Planning Association.