You don't pay for garbage. And free garbage is still garbage.So why does Jon Stanhope think that public transport is different?
It's no secret that bus usage is in crisis. Families are dissatisfied with ACTION; people are tired of waiting an hour for a bus that doesn't go where they need to be. With our transport network in crisis, Canberrans deserve quick and intelligent action from our leaders.
But instead what we've had is a long wait followed by sub-par action.
Jon Stanhope has turned out his intellectual pockets and found nothing but lint and free buses; now he's grinning bashfully and holding up this "free buses" idea as though it's a public transport strategy. It's not what we need and it's a very long way from what we deserve.
The Labor government seems to think we're too poor for a bus fare. That's an understandable position in view of how they've mismanaged our money, but it's missing the point. We're not saving a three dollar bus fare by paying two dollars a litre for petrol. We're not using the buses because they don't get us from A to B. We need the buses to go where we want them, when we want them.
It's as simple as that. If the bus isn't there when we need it, it doesn't matter how much it would have cost. If it doesn't go where we're going, a discount doesn't make it more useful.
There is no city in Australia better designed for public transport than Canberra. We should have a system to make the States jealous. We should be who everyone else is chasing. Instead we have a network so impoverished that we're lucky to see key services running frequently even during peak hours. That's taken a special kind of mad genius to achieve, but let's not find out which other key services Mr Stanhope is looking to tinker with.
Canberrans deserve a better Canberra, and a better Canberra means buses when we want them, where we want them. Tell Mr Stanhope that we've had enough of bus policy that he found in his pocket; vote Greg Tannahill for Molonglo.
3 comments:
Here here. I moved to Canberra from Melbourne, and bought my first vehicle (at the age of 25) only because I knew the state of public transport here. There's plenty of room for improvement.
I agree, interestingly the argument used against public transport (obviously by people who don't use it) is that the city is too spread out for public transport. I am interested, if you believe the opposite why is it that Canberra is the best city for public transport?
Canberra is designed as a series of urban hubs located along what is a mostly linear central transport spine. This makes it ideal for ferrying people from hub to hub as a single route can efficiently service all hubs. Suburbs are then set out generally with a wide street looping off from the inter-suburb road, which makes it easy for bus routes to service the suburb with minimum detour.
Compare it to something like Perth, which has vast urban sprawl with very little high-density living. Perth has a very good train system but that's largely due to a lot of investment in the system, as such a decentralised population is incredibly difficult to adequately service with a bus and train network. In worst case scenarios in Perth you'll need to walk, bus, train, switch trains, and then bus again to reach your destination.
That's not a problem that Canberra needs to face and it's appalling mismanagement that our public transport isn't the envy of the nation.
Post a Comment