It seems bizarre that anyone would think that reducing public transport fares is a good way to reduce cost of living pressures. It's not going to get people out of their cars because it's a minor saving on the already huge savings of not driving.
So this becomes a handout to people that can already take public transport.
$150 million could get you a lot of extra services. Either expanding services to places not currently catered to or expanding frequency on exisiting routes.
If you want people out of cars and on to public transport then accessibility, convenience and flexibility are what you need to target. Affordability isn't as important because public transport is already always cheaper than the alternative.
@keira_reckons This is the thing that I find most disappointing: I can catch either a single tram or a bus to my folks' place (which include only 20min or 10min total walk time one way, respectively), and it's still less worthwhile than driving.
@mattcen Public transport can be a fixed cost too making each individual trip no additional cost.
But If this is the only public transport trip you would make then it's very unlikely you'd do it even at the lower price. A trip cost savings of $0.80 probably doesn't make up for the habit shift required.
But I do agree that they should bring back the short trip ticket.
@danielbowen also, related:
“Throughout this installation phase during October and November no fares will be collected from passengers to allow a seamless switchover to the new service expected for full launch in November.”
Queensland to slash public transport fares to 50 cents for six months from August. A brave experiment, Premier.
Prediction: It's never as simple as they claim. We'll probably see heavy use/crowding on the services with useful, usable timetables. Little difference on the services and in the suburbs and towns where PT is slow and infrequent - in those areas almost everyone will keep driving. https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/100402#Queensland#PublicTransport
The Ghost of the Subway (Le fantôme du métro) (2022) [6 min] by Eliott Meyer, Morgane Ghionga, Alexis Gougeot, Mahery Ramarlah and Waysson Mouret | #France
When overcrowded buses replace train services, they should be free of charge. It's nowhere near the same quality of service, and charging for it is kind of rude. If it's free, it encourages train operators to do everything they can to avoid replacement bus situations.
@strypey
This is what happens in Sydney. But probably because the 1980s-era buses we get don't have the technology. Ripped seats, hint of cigarette in the air, yes. Opal card terminals no.
@negative12dollarbill
> the 1980s-era buses we get don't have the technology. Ripped seats, hint of cigarette in the air, yes. Opal card terminals no
What your government needs to do is redirect huge swathes of public transport funding into Roads of Dubious Significance with no allowance for bikes or pedestrians in the budget. Like our enlightened coalition is doing #FacePalm.
@timrichards@luciedigitalni@danielbowen@ThermiteBeGiants precisely… but equally damning when comparing the size and complexity of Victorian/Melbourne system to one tram and a few buses in ACT. Supposed to be possible to use credit cards in Victoria in 2025, but like all these projects (including in ACT) take that a large scoop of salt.
Sabi nga, masama ang mainggit. Pero, mahirap gawin ito. Nakakainggit ang mga bayan kung saan gumagana, mura, at komportable ang #PublicTransport, at hindi lang 'yon, magaling din ang pagpapaunlak ng #ActiveMobility.
I could've comfortably taken a train (or a bus), but the public bikes are just as easy to find, and they simply let pedestrians and bikers share the sidewalk.
If one decides to venture on public roads, the drivers are polite and respect the priority of peds and bikers.
@Zyfdnug
Honestly, our society needs to do more to reduce the perceived "glamour" of driving your own car. I understand that sometimes it's necessary, but in many cases, where adequate transit infrastructure is in place, it should be a luxury -- and should be taxed accordingly.
"Barbarela" is surely the oddest station name of the Malaga Metro. Most of the stations are rather predictably named after the barrios they serve, but there is no barrio called Barbarela.
It's tempting to invent a sequence of random events in which the 1960s comic book character played by Jane Fonda somehow ends up inspiring the name of a metro station in a Spanish provincial city.
But invention is not required: it turns out that really is what happened.
Walking in the city at night without fear, sustainable #PublicTransport, wider foot and cycle paths in the immediate vicinity to make it easier to "zigzag" throughout the day, or better lighting - women would do a lot of things differently when it comes to #UrbanPlanning.
#Trajectools continues growing. Lately, we have started expanding towards #PublicTransport analyses. The algorithms available through the current Trajectools development version are courtesy of the #gtfs_functions library
With the recent conversations about the Royal Family (Britain unfortunately) I was, with a little time to kill having to work on a document this Saturday morning, pondering the term ‘Council Tenant’. It seems ridiculous to have had to add ‘that is perfectly ok’ to my comments.
But Thatcher and the Tories managed to make it necessary - just like using public transport, it has become in many minds something to be pitied.
Why don't city buses form loops at the end of their outward run from central transport hubs? That way, with almost the same resource use, people could bus between the neighbourhoods at the end of the lines. Without coming all the way in to central interchanges, or the orbiter services, which usually connect the suburbs halfway between the centre and the end of each line.
@strypey yeah, that's sad. I wonder if there's a belief that because it's all run by volunteers, non-volunteers should ignore it. Whereas almost the opposite is true, especially with regard to contributions from official sources. At least the public toilets in New Zealand are pretty reliable - it's weirdly become one of my core uses of OpenStreetMap as I get older :-)
@karora
AFAICT the only thing missing is regional councils publishing up-to-date public transport information using open data standards. The NZ map data in OSM is very accurate because LINZ releases the official data is under CC licenses, and there are folks in the kiwi OpenGeo community who make sure updates to the LINZ data get uploaded to OSM.
The social psychology of card reader location. Local buses in most parts of the country have their card readers on the opposite side of the aisle from the driver.
But in Canterbury they're located next to the driver. Which means even though the driver doesn't have to do anything to receive payment, they're more likely to have interactions with passengers.