Re: Re: Melbourne's free tram zone - time to go
  Daniel Bowen

Tony P> That would be because the quality of the public transport services
from the suburbs to the city and vv are poor, thus encouraging people to
drive

It's a bit more nuanced than that. Some trips increased PT mode share at
the same time, as a result of the zone 2 changes.

I'd also add that some car parks actively promoted the FTZ as benefiting
motorists.

Good point about car park land becoming more valuable for other uses. I
think most of the ground level car parks in Melbourne CBD have now
disappeared, though there are still plenty nearby.


On Tue, 26 Jul 2022 at 19:29, TP historyworks@...> wrote:

> That would be because the quality of the public transport services from

> the suburbs to the city and vv are poor, thus encouraging people to drive.

> I know you're well onto all those issues Daniel. When the quality of those

> services improve, the incentive to park and ride will diminish. This has

> happened in Sydney a huge lot in the last decade as a result of all the

> major investment and service expansion here.

>

> The other factor that will progressively come into play is that the land

> on which car parks are located eventually becomes too valuable for that use

> and they will be closed and the land redeveloped. Again, this has happened

> a lot in Sydney. Melbourne should follow not too far behind. In the

> meantime, there should be a progression that involves, as a first stage,

> encouraging people to at least drive to public transport rather than

> undertaking the whole journey by car, in cases where public transport can't

> provide their whole journey, either because it's not available or the

> service is too poor. The progression should lead eventually to people

> undertaking the whole journey by public transport when the latter is

> eventually (hopefully!) up to standard.

>

> To me, the desire to abandon the FTZ is a symptom of the failure over

> years to invest in the tram system, so it's short of capacity. The decision

> to go for smaller trams exacerbates that and will eventually come to bite

> Melbourne in the bum.

>

> Tony P

> On Tuesday, 26 July 2022 at 14:09:33 UTC+10danie...@... wrote:

>

>> Tony> encouraging parking to move out to the peripheries rather than

>> encouraging people to drive all the way to their destination

>>

>> The data shows the reverse happened. After the FTZ was introduced, the

>> numbers of people driving to the CBD and surrounds from Zone 1 increased,

>> with PT mode share dropping.

>>

>> (In contrast the Zone 2 fare cuts introduced at the same time had a

>> positive effect on PT mode share from zone 2 to the CBD.)

>>

>>

>> Daniel

>>

>> On Tue, 26 Jul 2022 at 13:22, TP histor...@...> wrote:

>>

>>> This is a particularly Melbourne thing and very much down to the chronic

>>> lack of investment in public transport there. There simply isn't enough

>>> capacity for the existing and latent demand (capacity being a combination

>>> of vehicle size, fleet size and service frequency). Moreover, they've

>>> decided to downscale the size of the trams, a decision of epic stupidity,

>>> but I've promised to stay out of that debate as much as possible!

>>>

>>> Needless to say, free transit zones are widespread around the world,

>>> including other Australian cities, and features such as encouraging parking

>>> to move out to the peripheries rather than encouraging people to drive all

>>> the way to their destination are seen as a good thing. Only in Melbourne

>>> are they seen as a bad thing, which may be why you have people wanting to

>>> drive to and park in centres.

>>>

>>> Tony P

>>> (Who has visited and lived in Melbourne over many years and still

>>> doesn't understand how Victorians think. It's another country!)

>>>

>>> On Tuesday, 26 July 2022 at 12:02:31 UTC+10 Mal Rowe wrote:

>>>

>>>> Daniel Bowen has had an opinion piece published in today's Age

>>>> newspaper.

>>>>

>>>> See:

>>>>

>>>>

>>>> https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/why-the-free-tram-zone-needs-to-be-cancelled-20220724-p5b456.html

>>>>

>>>>

>>>> I agree with all that he says and experience what he describes, but am

>>>> not holding my breath for change - especially with an election coming

>>>> up.

>>>>

>>>> Mal Rowe in a city that has a busy heart

>>>>

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