2013 fare rise

[somebody]

MyBus single: up by 10c
MyBus TravelTen: up by 80c
MyFerry/MyTrain single: up by 20c
MyFerry TravelTen: up by $1.60
MyTrain/MyMulti weekly: up by $1
MyMulti Daypass: up by $1

So the high flag fall becomes an even greater portion of the fare.

http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/fares-increase-line-cpi

[somebody]

What?  So you suggest short distance commuters subsidise people living less sustainable lifestyles?

[Stillwater]

It is too generalised and sweeping to assume that someone who lives some distance from where they travel regularly (and it may not be for work always) are somehow living 'unsustainably'.  If that person lives on a block of land twice the size of an inner suburban plot, or maybe on an acre of land, they have a greater opportunity to grow their own veges, use solar power from an array on their land, keep chooks and harvest rainwater.  Likewise, it is possible to do these things on a small city plot.  A rural community, or village, generates less power and is cooler than a big city, with its concrete and reflective office tower windows.  Small communities encourage walking and bicycle use, both sustainable modes of transport. 

People here sometimes use the term 'transporting air' when referring to an empty bus.  Some decry the operation of three or four buses a day to a semi-rural community where the bus is only half full and fail to comment about the suburb with 50 buses a day that are half full, or contain fewer passengers, during off-peak periods.  Perhaps a comparison of passenger-kilometres would be more helpful to an informed debate.

Sometimes it is worthwhile looking at things as various shades of grey (dare I say 50 Shades of Grey) rather than just as black and white.  For instance, running a relatively small number of loss-making passenger trains on a railway line that carries a considerable quantity of profit-making freight could be said to be 'sustainable' rather than running a bigger number of passenger trains on a line that does not carry freight at all.

We should celebrate and debate the grey, not seek to reduce everything to conflicting black and white.  It's too simplistic, and it distorts the debate unduly.  It can debase the wider consideration of an issue, such as sustainability.

http://www.sustainablelivingguide.com.au/

[somebody]

What you are saying is that perhaps they are making up for it in other ways.  A possibility, but I imagine it pretty hard for growing some of your own food to make up for your commuting footprint.