28 Jan 2012: SEQ: Be on the way! : Drewvale and the cost ...

[ozbob]

Media release  28 January 2012

SEQ: Be on the way! : Drewvale and the cost of anti-public transport location

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport passengers wishes to highlight how important road layouts and forward planning is to efficient and legible public transport.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"There are many examples in South East Queensland of developments or suburbs which have anti-public transport features and designs that will never ever allow fast, frequent, direct or efficient services to peoples homes. And Drewvale is one of them (1).

"Many residential developments have proceeded in south-east with little regard to bus access and public transport support."

"Placing a frequent bus with a decent scope of hours in the Drewvale area is possible only at a high cost of around a $1 million dollars per year, which is 1/3 the cost to fund an entire BUZ route, and would delay everyone else who uses the 150 BUZ by 15 minutes on all journeys."

"It is not TransLink's fault that the suburb is designed to be anti-public transport and is located in such a way that makes it difficult to serve with decent services. Residents should have been informed about the inability to access decent, frequent public transport when investigating property in the area."

"Public transport geared to high frequency and decent span of hours works best when it is aligned to fast arterial roads so that services gain high speed, are direct so that journey times are kept at a minimum, and making widely spaced stops so that more people concentrate at fewer stops making pickup more efficient and are 'On the way' connected in a direct way to major centres (2,3,4, 5).

"The only place where rapid transit is possible is on Beaudesert Road. All of these things simply arise from the street geometry and location."

"A local mini-bus may be the best option to connect to the existing BUZ routes.  This would give the residents public transport."

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

References:

1. Drewvale residents left stranded at home by Translink
http://www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/south/drewvale-residents-left-stranded-at-home-by-translink/story-fn8m0tyy-1226220075597

2. Queensland: Public Transport 101 - Be on the Way!
http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=4996.0

3. SEQ: Full disclosure required on developments in the middle of nowhere
http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=5565.0

4. Human Transit (2012) by Jarrett Walker, Island Press Chapter 14
Be on the Way! Transit implications of location choice
Pages 181 - 204

5. Be on the way
http://www.humantransit.org/2009/04/be-on-the-way.html

[ozbob]

Discussion thread --> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=7546.0