Mt Wellington Sustainable Transport System

Here are my views submitted on the Sustainable Transport System for Mount Wellington.


It would seem that the most feasible place in which to manage vehicle visiting the mountain is at The Springs. In my view it will be cost of travel and fuel supply factors that will ultimately make an impact on motorised vehicle usage, but there is no reason why the Wellington Park Management Trust cannot put in place a system that encourages better use of resources and help sustain the planet.

To this end and to overcome access in snow conditions and congestion problems I suggest:

  1. Place a barrier just above the Springs that only lets a certain number of vehicles through at any one time. This is used at Cradle Mt and is based on available car park spaces.
  2. Consider making the barrier coin operated, if point 3 can be achieved.
  3. Encourage and licence an operator or operators to provide all weather vehicle transport, which could be subsidised by point 2 and thus make
  4. Consider making the section of road between junction of Upper Springs road and the barrier one way in the down direction and funnel all up traffic through the Upper Springs road to the barrier. This would avoid problems of jams at the barrier.
  5. Make parking more efficient by making the Upper Springs angle parking.
  6. Develop overflow car park on site close to where the large shed exists, also using angle parking.
  7. Have the all weather service a drop off and pick up at various points to encourage people to walk or enjoy different locations.
  8. Restrict access to above The Springs to vehicles over a certain size, such as large buses, provided that point 3 can be achieved.
  9. Continually publicise the system as having environmental, carbon and health benefits.
  10. In heavy snow conditions where access is difficult to the Springs have the all weather vehicles start from Fern Tree and encourage a shuttle bus service from a suitable location in Hobart. Income from the barrier (item 2 ) could be sued to subsidise the service.

I think these changes would be of minimal cost to implement and should be able to operate at the very least on a cost recovery basis from the barrier fee, but there is no reason not to allow for some to be used for the management and improvement of the park. In addition by encouraging people to park at The Springs would make a cafe and visitor centre more viable.

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