By Hamish Heard
A WEEKEND punt service to ferry Hobsons Bay cyclists across the Yarra River must be extended to cater for people working in the city during the week, a survey of cycling commuters shows.
Upper House Western Metropolitan Greens MP Colleen Hartland and West Gate Punters, a group campaigning for a weekday punt, have stepped up calls for the service after 256 cyclists rode the punt during last month’s Ride to Work Day.
West Gate Punters spokesman Andrew Davidson said a survey of cyclists that used the punt on Ride to Work Day last month showed a weekday service would work.
“Cyclists said they would be happy to pay, on average, $3 per trip and would use a weekday commuter service 4.6 times a week,” Mr Davidson said.
He said cyclists from 22 different suburbs used the punt to get to work, including one who rode from Mount Waverley to Altona North.
“There is clearly a need for the weekday commuter service,” Mr Davidson said.
“The alternative is to drive and add to the West Gate traffic or get on a crowded train. And the current bicycle route involves a dangerous ride through Yarraville and Footscray before attempting to cross the hazardous Shepherd Bridge over the Maribyrnong.”
Ms Hartland said the State Government was happy to subsidise and promote other modes of public transport but was dragging its feet on safe and environmentally sustainable options such as the punt.
“I call on Transport Minister Lynne Kosky to work with the operators of the punt and the local group, the Punters, to restore a seven-day service to the West Gate Punt,” Ms Hartland told Parliament two weeks ago.
She said a trial of the weekday service that ended last year was unsuccessful because it was poorly advertised.
“However, since then the number of people cycling has increased so much that the Government should fund another trial,” Ms Hartland said in Parliament.
The number of cyclists riding to work along Footscray Rd rose 53 per cent in the year to January 2007, she said.
