Finding which bus to use is not intuitive. I should be able to go to google maps and turn on the 'action' overlay that shows stops and routes overlaid on the map. When I mouseover a stop a popup appears with the arrival times for the next six buses that will come past that stop. The buses should have gps in them so the map shows their location in real-time. I know if I just missed the bus because I can see it on the map. Best thing? I can do all this from my phone right now if such an overlay existed. At the moment I can't even search the bus website for the next arrival times at my stop (even knowing the stop number).

Bus: The weekend buses are very poor - they don't run frequently enough nor on the same routes as on weekdays - for example, on a weekday it's possible to get a direct bus from Lyneham to Manuka, but on a weekend (when I'm more likely to want to go from Lyneham to Manuka) it's not possible. The ACTION website also needs to be improved so that you can just pick your start and end points and be given options - like 131500.com.au.

Cycling is great - the network of paths and lanes, and the parking facilities are all very good.

Walking could be improved by putting in more footpaths - if you have a pram or a shopping trolley you basically have to walk on the road.

Strengths - Bikes able to be mounted on buses

- On Road cycling not perfect but getting better all the time.

Weakness - Bus routs change regularly (every couple of years). Needless to say, a tram would provide both perceived and real permanency, something you can rely on.

- Bus timetables also change regularly, and are not constant. A bus running every 15 mins or 30 mins throughout the day is much better than 14 or 29 mins. It makes it easier to remember the timetable - an issue that is far more important than it sounds, as many international studies have proven.

- Off road cycle paths are not well lit in a lot of areas.

- Pedestrian paths should be 1.5m wide (min) not 1.2m, an issue that also has a lot of international research if you look hard enough.

Busses between the town centers are the biggest weakness in the public transport system. The Busses between the city centers are much too slow and should be replaced by a rapid transit system dedicated to delivering directly between the town centers at the fastest possible speed. The 20 minute trip time between each town center is the real time waster in the bus system. This means that to get from Tuggeranong to Belconnen or Gungahlin will add about 50 minutes to the trip time which makes any regular trip to work or shop a nonsensical option. If you are lucky you can get a direct bus but these are rare and take about 30 minutes. There should be enough space near to the primary roads like Parks Way to allow a building of the required two way track for rapid transit without crossing other traffic. There is a very difficult problem accessing the town centers but a half a kilometer of tunnel under each town center should be enough.

A car can accomplish all or the above bus trips in 20 minutes for any two points in Canberra. Of course a car is more expensive to run and the parking in town centers is expensive or just not available. You can add another 15 minutes for the walk from satisfactory car parking to work or shops in the town center. Obviously more parking is just not possible without 1) converting all the parks into parking lots; or 2) having the same area of parking stacks as shops and offices

The local busses are just frequent enough to be useful after the recent changes to allow a rapid trip to the nearest town center and back. It is now possible to get to the closest town center in 10 to 15 minutes. Obviously more frequent busses would be nice; but even with buses spaced an hour apart there busses that run empty so this cant be improved until bus usage increases.

Cycle access in Canberra is generally excellent. The only negative comment I have is on the attempt to put bike lanes on the primary roadways. This should be avoided as the risks to cyclists of mixing with 80 to 100 kph traffic are just too high.

There is a need for more work to be done on getting the inter-town high speed cycle paths like that from Civic to Bruce to Belconnen straitened out and free from interactions with cars. The cyclists have already shown there preference to use the good ones like the Lake Burly Griffin circuit for commuting between town centers. A few more bike underpasses or bike bridges are probably appropriate to get the cyclists across some of the busy roads that cross these paths.

Pedestrian access in Canberra is generally excellent. It is especially useful to have the pedestrian ways penetrate the ends of the cul-de-sacs and any long rows of houses. This easy local access is one of the things that makes the local busses and cycle ways so usable.

Strength's-

*Intertown, but that has been a strength for many years!

*Off Road Cycle Paths

*Bike lockers at Interchanges and Stations

*Xpresso routes (However see below for weaknesses within the xpresso structure)

*Work is being done on Cycle Path improvements, including new directional signage

Weaknesses-

*Xpresso services are not limited stop, and can wind around suburbs for ages. A Brisbane like approach would be good. Brisbane have Bullet (Super Express), Rocket (Express) and BUZ (Limited Stop). These services run from Suburbs to the City, however only stop Limited stops which are well signed. This is the case for Rocket and BUZ Services, Bullets start at one point, and will normally only stop one stop before their final destination. Xpresso's on Northbourne ave should be set down only in the Morning peak to the City, and Pick up only from the City. Best idea for the Xpresso's is every two stops or so, similar to the old Commuter Express Network. Signage at stops where Xpresso's stop would also be useful to new or not so familiar commuters.

*Bus Stations in Belconnen need more shelter. One shelter per platform is not enough, especially during winter! An approach of Brisbane or Sydney with Multiple shleters or longer shelters would be the best approach, to provide the best coverage during wind and rain

*Website is good, but not great. Other companies are great, and have useful tools for journey planning. However please do not look at 131 500's tool, it will end up sending us to walk on water over Lake Burley Griffin, like it sent someone to walk over Sydney Harbour and even included harbour depth in the travel time! Canberra based Transit Graphics who also do the ACTION Timetables create websites, they have done many for smaller operators around NSW and are simple and easy to use.

*Lack of dedicated Bus Lanes, Transit Ways or Busways. The T2 lane on Adelaide ave should be extended south bound to just before the round-a-bout. The T2 lane should also be returned to it's Bus Lane status. Investigations and action should be taken on Creating Bus Way's and Transit Ways, although it was investigated a few years ago the plans were shelved. A Look into creating more Bus Lanes around the ACT, not just at traffic lights, but along stretches of main roads. Most ACT Roads have extra parcels of land to allow extra roadway for future use, maybe these could be formed into extra lanes for buses until the need to place the extra road lanes.

*Nightrider should be year round. Instead of charging $10, it should be its $5 charge with tickets being able to be pre paid with Transfer included. Even if this is just an Intertown and club connection loop on Friday and Saturday nights. The Intertown will atleast allow passengers to get to their nearest Town Centre before having to pay for a cab.

*Mapping of Cycle Paths and footpaths needs to be updated. Even working with Google Maps would be great, as they have a walking function that currently only takes you via main roads. Having Bike Path routes added into Google Maps would then show people more options.

*Bustext. A Great tool, but last time I used it it told me to get an intertown service from a street which is not serviced by the intertown, and the timetable was still the 2006 timetable!

That is all I can think of at this stage.

Buses are lousy. The 'all suburbs' approach adds so much time to journeys that it is easier to drive. Also the high cost of tickets means it is cheaper for me to drive and park than it is to bus back and forth.

You need to consider a free bus network.

Bicycle paths are nice, but there's still a serious issue with drivers not knowing what to do with cyclists on the road - particularly the many drivers from interstate. There needs to be better education on how to give way to cyclists.

There's also no enough enforcement of helmet rules. A number of children around the Belconnen suburbs are riding with no helmets all the time, and this appears to be spreading.

Roads are fine - I can get round in Canberra much easier than I could in Sydney or Melbourne.

Stengths

Road network generally good and reasonably maintained

Good bike and foot path network

Weaknesses

Lack of parking in major centres

Government unwilling to provide adequate parking and also unwilling to do so

Lack of adequate planning for new roads (design)

Government does not properly forecast traffic demand for roads

Bus system inadequate

Bus routes are unecessarily long and scenic

Not enough buses to cope with peak demand - nobody wants to be packed like sardines

Expresso services stop too often - especially in intertown corridor

Cycle lanes on roads not properly thought about and create additional dangers through narrowing of lanes and hazards

The Arterial roads in Canberra are generally excellent and they are the key to improving the bus system (Canberra's major transport weakness)- most buses should stick to the arterial roads (ie direct roads). Bus stops need to be added to these roads where they are close to the suburbs. To take the example of the intertown from Woden. to civic, there is no stop between Albert Hall and Phillip. Many people would use extra stops between these. For example there could be a stop under the bridge between Hughes and Curtin, and one or two between Deakin and Yarralumla. The same applies to the Woden- Tuggeranong express route. There is no stop between Farrer and Greenway. Many people would make use of some stops built on Athllon Drive in between Wanniassa and Kambah. I'm sure many people can think of major roads near them that they would consider walking/ riding or driving to to catch a direct bus that came. These sort of bus stops on high speed arterial roads would require some significant road works but are essential to making the Bus/public transport system a viable alterative for most people.

A bus system that was primarily based around fast- direct routes following arterial roads would take advantage of one of Canberra's transport strengths. (And it would be intuitive)

I used to ride my bike to work - ultimate in sustainable transport. Now with a move to the City from Belconnen I took advantage of riding the bike to Belco and then put the bike on the bus for free.

Making this a full fare goes against the principles of promoting sustainable transport. I can appreciate some costs need to be recuperated, so why not creat a ride fare of half price thus discouraging abusers of the system, promoting the idea of riding, exercise etc and still getting some money?

Another weakness of buses is that as more and more people choose buses, the time it takes to get them on board the bus is what slows down a ride significantly. We need more efficient ticket systems that don't take so long.

A peripheral transport system (light rail) would also be an asset. The longer we put it off, the more expensive it will be...

The bike path network is generally good. In places the maintenance is somewhat lacking, and there are areas that could use additional paths and/or on-road cycle lanes. Some of the existing bike paths are quite meandering, and priority should be given to more direct routes where possible. The cost of this is likely to be quite low (compared to building roads or additional bus services) Driver education about cyclists on roads has some way to go, though most drivers are generally good. The bikes-on-buses racks add to the usefulness of cycling as a mode of transport.

The car-infrastructure is very extensive, with low levels of traffic congestion, and still low costs for parking. This is part of the reason for our low public transport useage (and low car-pooling rate) - that it is quick, easy and cheap to drive.

Our public transport network is 3rd rate. Unless you can be very flexible about times starting and finishing work, even in peak hour service frequency is such that many people must wait for a long time (on average half the time between services, so half of 30', i.e. 15', so half an hour each day). Additionally, many services are quite indirect. Some routes have unnecessarily frequent stops, and the ticketing system is slow. This all results in long travelling as well as waiting times. The 300 series service is very good for those who live within walking distance of it, but that is a small fraction of the population. The transport plan's idea to expand frequent (and thus dependable) services to more areas seems a sensible way to progress, give finite resources. For me, the most important thing when catching a bus is the total time it will take, that is, how long before I need to be somewhere (at a fixed time, arriving early is time wasted) do I need to leave?

Strengths

. Generally well maintained roads

. Generally clean buses

. Through-block walk ways

. Some cycling infrastructure

Weaknesses

. Infrastructure and thinking over-reliant on motorised road transport (esp cars)

. Buses unreliable - you can be waiting for buses that do not come or are early or very late, not sure if you should use an alternative mode (if available)

. Bus timetabling (& routing) - can mean that it can take literally hours to do a journey that would take minutes by car. Exacerbated when you need to change buses but the 2nd bus leaves just before the 1st bus arrives.

. Bus 'shelters' dreadful - most (esp newer ones) don't provide much if any shelter from wind and rain

. Cycling infrastructure inconsistent, esp. stops, starts and styles of on-road cycle lanes - causes confusion, and danger for cyclists. Look at Melbourne/Victoria for consistency

. Difficulty in planning journeys using anything other than car, cycle or walk only. Melbourne's Metlink Journey Planner is great!

Strengths:

* Simple ticketing system (however the one price ticket for all trips will become a weakness as Canberra expands as long trips will be too cheap and short trips will be too expensive).

* Frequent buses in peak hour on weekdays in the inner suburbs.

* Fairly reliable bus service which runs on time in peak hours.

* Good network of cycle paths and bike lanes.

Weaknesses:

* Absolutely appalling bus service on Sunday afternoons. I often get a coach in from Sydney Sunday evening and its lucky I can walk home from the coach stop because there isn’t a bus in sight and won’t be until the next morning. There seems to be an assumption that no one goes anywhere in Canberra on a Sunday evening but I’d dispute that given the number of cars on the road.

* Lack of footpaths, particularly in the outer suburbs where streets there are no footpaths once you get off a main road, residential gardens come right to the edge of the road and streets are windy and narrow and therefore dangerous for pedestrians to walk on.

* The design of streets and suburbs with lots of narrow windy road that are difficult for buses to get down.

* The amount of time it takes on a bus to get from an outer suburb into the city. Trip times can be double or three times the equivalent in a car which provides a strong disincentive for taking the bus.

* The number of cycle paths which are not lit.

* Free parking in the parliamentary triangle – I know charging for parking isn’t popular but it is a big incentive not to drive and can be the tipping point to make taking the bus cheaper than driving.