Page 578 - Week 02 - Thursday, 9 March 2006
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We know that the recent rise in petrol prices saw many people switch from private car use and get onto ACTION buses to get to work, rather than pay for petrol and parking. In the longer term, if people can see that public transport covers all their needs and not just commuting to work, they will also be able to dispense with car purchase, registration and car insurance costs.
We know that an important aspect of this will be the continuing of the daytime bus services until later in the evening, because in our economy more and more people have to work beyond 5.00 and 5.30 and our bus service does not currently cater for them. Also, if more people shift out of private car ownership, reliance and usage of public transport will necessarily increase.
If demand-responsive transport services are especially easy to access in further-out suburbs, especially newer suburbs without reliable bus services, this will hopefully influence people’s car purchase decisions. Every trip not taken by car makes a difference. This means that even incremental change makes a big difference. Furthermore, if multiunit developments as a matter of course included both shared car arrangements and good links to public transport, then residents would find that they have the necessary personal convenience to operate comfortably without having to own a car.
An integrated system requires vision and might mean stepping on some toes. We might see, for instance, the rise of car drivers liberation groups. The only comparable group I can think of is the right to carry a gun in US, which is just as absurd. Will this bill solve Canberra’s public transport problems? The introduction of this legislation to allow another type of public transport to exist and evolve is a good step towards an integrated public transport system, but it is a limited step. As presented, it might be a very slow and limp way of solving Canberra’s transport problems.
Unfortunately, while this bill allows for transport providers to come up with their own options and offer these proposals to the government, it does not propose any particular incentives for transport providers to provide any necessary services. A completely market-driven proposal might work for the Canberra community but it might not, and only time will tell.
Rather than letting time tell, the Greens would rather the government work with ACTION, amongst others, to offer some guidance to potential providers and suggest particular areas, routes and services where there is demand or need which is being underserviced at present. Good cooperation between transport providers and, I might add, town planners, the road makers and maintainers in urban services is going to be essential to the achievement of a sustainable transport system.
This is a pertinent week to be debating this bill, given the uproar about the efficiency of our taxi service recently. Hopefully the introduction of demand-responsive transport will work symbiotically with both our taxi service and our bus service to create a system of public transport that enables more people to get where they want, affordably and in good time. The potential of an integrated system is enormous.
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