Canberra residents will be encouraged to use public transport to prevent road congestion over the next two decades, according to the Transport for Canberra draft.

The ACT Government has invested $120 million in the 2010-11 and 2011-12 budgets to rollout Transport for Canberra projects in addition to the $1 billion already spent in the past ten years.

Minister for Sustainable Development, Simon Corbell said the policy document has the goal of getting 23 per cent of Canberrans to use public transport, walk or cycle to get to and from work by 2016.

“Another key service guarantee in the draft policy is that by 2013, Canberrans would have a maximum wait of 15 minutes when leaving a frequent service to a coverage service, and 7.5 minutes when transferring from a coverage service to a frequent service,” Mr Corbell said.

Mr Corbell said congestion will grow on Canberra’s roads as the city continues to grow, so congestion will be managed at an “appropriate level”.

According to Mr Corbell, Canberra’s traffic congestion will double by 2031 if the government adopts a “business as usual approach”.

“The draft policy aims to manage demand across the transport system, including managing parking, pricing, increasing the number of people per vehicle, and promoting alternative transport options to help reduce our transport emissions,” Mr Corbell said.

He said the policy provides options supporting the ACT economy’s growth by creating a safer and sustainable transport system with further work around Canberra’s freight and light rail connections for cross-border support.

The transport options will include coverage service feeding into the frequent network; transport fleets with modern ticketing and real-time passenger information; more bus stations and every home within 500 metres of a bus service of at least 60 minute frequency.