Our infrastructure is not keeping up with population growth. We need to drastically rethink how we plan and service our suburban areas. The suburbs in the outer growth corridors of Melbourne are growing fastest, with large increases in young families and school-age children. The current approach to social infrastructure planning encourages car dependence, social isolation and stark inequity across our cities.
Reason supports:
- improvements in traffic management for faster traffic flow and increased capacity in outer areas that have no public transport
- improved planning for outer suburban infrastructure for electric vehicles
- maintenance of green corridors and strict planning to protect wildlife corridors into metropolitan Melbourne to protect wildlife from increasing risk of bushfire and flood
- improved planning and access to pharmacies, medical, dental, and allied health services
- improving waterways management to maintain water supplies and safe drinking water for regional areas and outer suburban Melbourne, Geelong, Bendigo, Warnambool and Ballarat.
- facilitating access to local employment via local jobs action plans, and audit regional employment networks and their success
- restricting urban boundaries and urban sprawl, while protecting the tree canopies of outer suburban areas.