What could be coming to Queensland - State Gov

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/baillieu-slashes-construction-of-cycling-projects-20120521-1z1ed.html

This article was in the Victorian Age a few weeks ago and it was a first of a number of articles highlighting the fact that the Victorian Government is cutting spending towards cycling infrastructure in the name of cost cutting budget. There is no doubt the economics at the moment are tough world wide but cutting funding to cycling infrastructure comes under the "Short sighted & stupid category".

Well what has this to do with the people of Queensland that ride bikes. Well like the Victorian Government the new Queensland Government is also a Liberal Government that seams so far to be a cost cutting. As of this month 40 000 temporary staff have been told there assistance is no longer needed and other smaller things including contracts for indoor plants in offices have been cancelled. This all leads to me being a bit nervous as to whether the State Government will be cutting the budget to cycling infrastructure.

As I said in a previous post cutting funding to cycling infrastructure is terrible short term thinking because installing infrastructure right from the outset makes financial sense. No only does it remove the fact that retro fitting is highly expensive it also means that other long term benefits and savings start later eg. health & increased productivity.

With the Queensland State Budget being delayed until September now it means that there is a prolonged wait and see game now. I only hope that the Government has some long term thinking and sees cycling for what it is, a valuable, quick, cost effective form of transport that benefits everyone.