I speak with insightful commentator Robert Lechte about how many commonsense things like helmet laws, superannuation and paying full price for school lunches a public transport, aren't sensible at all
Regarding cheap or free PT, i really like the 50c idea. By way of comparison, I live in Adelaide and paid $12.40 return for a train to work in the city today.
We’re very much a driving city and from most parts of the metro area it’s much quicker to drive than use PT. This is even more the case on weekends, when i’ll sit (in my car) at level crossings and see practically empty trains travelling in and out of the city.
That said, i have a few thoughts having been in Melbourne when Victoria made PT free in the CBD.
First, it led to trams being completely overfilled, slowed the service down, and made trams uncomfortable and cramped to the point where they were practically unusable at certain times of the day. The lesson being you need to boost (or ensure sufficient) network capacity at the same time as you drop prices, or you’ll just jam the network up.
Second, if a CBD-only policy contributes to any mode shift at all, it replaces active transport trips with PT trips, so arguably a net cost to public health.
Third, a large share of beneficiaries of that particular policy were tourists and visitors, so i was never clear why we should be subsiding their visits and foregoing the revenues.
This helmet law discussion is so stupid. First of all, many countries allow newborn babies to travel in cars without a carseat. It’s a beggar thy neighbour argument and who cares what stupid law other countries have or don’t have. Secondly, accident rate comparison to countries with significantly better bike infrastructure needs to be normalised and stripped of other effects.
Interesting episode.
Regarding cheap or free PT, i really like the 50c idea. By way of comparison, I live in Adelaide and paid $12.40 return for a train to work in the city today.
We’re very much a driving city and from most parts of the metro area it’s much quicker to drive than use PT. This is even more the case on weekends, when i’ll sit (in my car) at level crossings and see practically empty trains travelling in and out of the city.
That said, i have a few thoughts having been in Melbourne when Victoria made PT free in the CBD.
First, it led to trams being completely overfilled, slowed the service down, and made trams uncomfortable and cramped to the point where they were practically unusable at certain times of the day. The lesson being you need to boost (or ensure sufficient) network capacity at the same time as you drop prices, or you’ll just jam the network up.
Second, if a CBD-only policy contributes to any mode shift at all, it replaces active transport trips with PT trips, so arguably a net cost to public health.
Third, a large share of beneficiaries of that particular policy were tourists and visitors, so i was never clear why we should be subsiding their visits and foregoing the revenues.
This helmet law discussion is so stupid. First of all, many countries allow newborn babies to travel in cars without a carseat. It’s a beggar thy neighbour argument and who cares what stupid law other countries have or don’t have. Secondly, accident rate comparison to countries with significantly better bike infrastructure needs to be normalised and stripped of other effects.