Outer suburbs, cycling and walking

I find it very interesting that the advertising for most of the new residential developments on the urban fringe emphasise walking and cycling in their advertising. Most of these developments have good cycling and walking networks within the developments but are too far from most employment to make cycling or walking to work viable.

This article in The Age highlights the problem in Melbourne based on a report by the Institute for Sensible Transport. Residents in wealthier inner suburbs travel as much as four times less per week by car (50km vs over 200km in outer suburbs) due to distance from employment and services and lack of public transport.

If the cycling and walking facilities in these new outer suburbs were integrated with high quality, frequent public transport services to the major centres the level of transport disadvantage in these areas can be significantly reduced. We should be building massive cycle and ride facilities at these line-haul stations and minimising the amount of park and ride provided.