Suggest you have a look at the Melbourne route 246 map, and compare the Hoddle Street section (and its timetable) with the section from Queens Parade to the north.

It even beats the Canberra dictum - "What is the longest distance between two points? A Canberra bus route!"

Regards

Dudley Horscroft
----- Original Message -----
From: Tony Prescott
To:TramsDownUnder@...
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2012 8:45 AM
Subject: [TramsDownUnder] Re: Elizabeth Street shutdown TANþ

--- InTramsDownUnder@..., Andrew Cook <d3619@...> wrote:
>
> Yes Paul, the AETA motto was a good one and appropriate even today. The old question that used to be asked by transport experts was:"how do you get people out of cars?". This has been a conundrum that has been around for years. Maybe things will swing to public transport's way
>

Really our low-density lifestyle and the dispersal of activities (employment, shopping centres, universities etc) far and wide has stuffed Australia's prospects for good PT. It's down to bad postwar planning but at the same time Australians have demanded it with our lifestyle preferences over generations.

Having lived in Europe several times I can see clearly the difference. Closer settlement has justified mass transit systems like trams and PT is thick on the ground, usually with services minutes apart. On top of this city councils have imposed drastic parking restrictions so it is neither realistically possible nor pleasant to drive in towards the centre. Using PT is a no-brainer and far more pleasant and efficient.

In Australia governments seem to try their level best to turn you off PT - slow, infrequent services and sometimes high fares. Then there are the vast low density areas that barely justify being served by bus and even that has to wind around slowly trying to serve the whole catchment. We pay for it with productivity losses and lifestyle degradation. I honestly don't see a way out of it other than patch it as best we can here and there. Being in property and planning for years my advice to people was always to buy within 1 km of a railway station or tramline. (That was before Cityrail went pear-shaped!) I would still say the same.

cheers
Tony P
(who now lives more than one km from a station but it doesn't matter so much to him nowadays)

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