Article: City's drivers going far sitting still

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From the Melbourne Age click here!

City's drivers going far sitting still

City's drivers going far sitting still
CLAY LUCAS
May 8, 2010

MELBURNIANS travel more than eight times as far in their cars as they do on public transport - and it's not sustainable, says a report from three public transport groups.

Moving People, a report by the Australasian Railway Association, the nation's bus industry and the International Association of Public Transport, makes it clear that the car remains Australia's predominant mode of transport.

Melburnians average at least 1000 kilometres a year more behind the wheel of their car than people in any other Australian city, the report shows.

According to federal transport department figures, Melbourne drivers on average travel 11,500 kilometres a year

This compares to Sydney where they do 10,500 kilometres a year and Adelaide, where drivers cover 10,750 kilometres.

Public transport - where patronage levels have increased in recent years in Melbourne - still lags a long way behind the car.

The average Melburnian travels 1328 kilometres a year on public transport, compared to 1880 kilometres in Sydney.

The Moving People report also shows that road transport is the nation's third largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions.

This week's state budget showed that, for Victoria's 5.5 million inhabitants, there were 4.7 million registered vehicles. This would grow by almost 200,000 next financial year, budget papers predicted.

The budget also contained government figures indicating trips on trains rose by 3 million in the last year to 217 million, that trips on trams had risen by 4 million to 182 million and that bus journeys had increased by 2 million to 102 million.

Simultaneously though, satisfaction with the city's trains and trams fell slightly, likely as a result of continued overcrowding at peak times.

Reliable figures on journeys to work by bicycle and walking are less conclusive. The last census, in 2006, showed just 1.3 per cent of workers took their bike and 3.6 per cent walked.

That same census showed that the number of cars driven to work had risen substantially between 1976 and 2006, with an increase in the percentage of people driving to work up from 67.7. per cent to 78.1 per cent.

The Moving People report points to population growth as a key factor that will put Australia's existing transport systems under increasing pressure.

The report recommends that state and federal government pour more money into public transport, that governments come up with better ways of moving freight than the current reliance on trucks, and that drivers are charged for the amount they use the roads.

It also says that Australia's cities must be made more compact to make them more walking and cycling-friendly places.

The Bus Association of Victoria, which represents more than 500 operators, recently found that one in four Melburnians lacked public transport on Sundays.

Policy manager Chris Loader said this meant that 900,000 Melburnians did not live within 400 metres of a train, tram or bus stop with Sunday services.

''Government investment since 2006,'' he said, ''has introduced Sunday public transport to 1 million more people in Melbourne.''

But there were still many gaps.

''Census figures show that 10 per cent of households in Melbourne do not own cars, and these people are heavily dependent on public transport to get around,'' he said.

BY TRAIN
ELOISE GARDNER: Ask about her twice daily public transport ritual - on the Belgrave Line between Upwey and Flinders Street - and Eloise Gardner recites the stations in a mantra: ''... Mitcham, Nunawading, Blackburn, Laburnum ...'' Luckily for her, she mostly catches an express train that goes straight from Box Hill to Richmond. Otherwise it would be a much longer list.

Gardner works in a city art shop. She began her public transport regime three years ago, the 7.43am into the city and the 5.26pm out, five days a week. The trip takes 55 minutes. She sits in the same carriage every day and reads. ''I enjoy it in a weird kind of way. I get an hour each way every day to myself. It can be stressful when it's crowded but usually it's all right, it's not too bad at all.''

BY CAR
REBECCA DOWSETT: For her public transport is not an option, even though she lives relatively close to the city.

''Where I live, it is a logistical nightmare to get from one bayside suburb to another,'' she says. To get to St Kilda (where she used to manage a store) she had to catch a train into the city and then backtrack by tram.

She now works in St Kilda Road and tried public transport again a month ago.

''It was a nightmare. I took the train from Cheltenham to South Yarra station. I had to walk 15 minutes to the train station and then at the South Yarra end, it took me another 10 minutes.''

The 40-minute trip is about the same in the car, she admits.

But the difference is ''generally if I go to the station to get the train, I can't get a seat''.