The Public Transport Problem
Jun. 6th, 2011 04:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
passionpop Recently I caught a couple buses in Melbourne, I caught more buses in Melbourne this latest trip over than I have in any other trip to Melbourne, including the 15 or so months I lived there. With my experience of about 30 Melbourne buses, I have begun to notice how differently they work to the buses in Perth,. Firstly they do work but they also are part of a well integrated network of public transport as opposed to the mess that Perth calls public transport
To be fair, you can compare the buses in Melbourne within their network directly to the buses in Perth. In Perth the buses are the second tier of public transport (behind the trains and ahead of the occasional ferry) . In Melbourne the buses are the third tier (behind the trains and trams). Also Melbourne’s system is designed to get people places. There are people on the Werribee line complaining about the recent changes in their services. One train line out of 16 isn’t happy with a change that puts makes more services available because they have to travel a bit longer despite this, the public transport system in Melbourne rocks, just look at how the buses work.
In Perth, all the peak buses end up being sardine cans. In Melbourne, I cannot remember the last time I was on a bus with more than 15 people. In Perth, if a service was getting less than 15 passengers regularly, they would reduce the services or discontinue the service completely. In Melbourne, they just keep the buses going regularly. Every 15 minutes, or half an hour on weekends. This all works to move people through, move them around and create a living city. As for Perth, well they do say that no one really LIVES in Perth.
In Melbourne you don’t really notice the buses. Despite the regular services, they are unobtrusive. There are bus lanes in many areas which are very effective at moving the buses through, but they don’t get in the way of the traffic. Maybe it is because there are other little things in Melbourne to move the traffic, like well synchronised traffic lights, but they just seem to move around and past traffic. Perth buses seem to get in the way of each other. One bus will be stuck behind another and it creates the issue that when you see one bus in Perth, you see 300 of them, all in a row, not going anywhere because they cant. Perth wasn’t really designed with public transport in mind, or with traffic in mind, or for that matter with living in mind, but that’s Perth
The public Transport Authority in Perth seems to have the mentality that everyone wants to go to the city, so all buses need to go there. It was only within the last 15 years that the circle route was developed buses started gong around the city. In its implementation though, they took away a heap of good useful buses that though they went through the city, didn’t terminate there and cause greater congestion. Some of these buses they semi brought back with new numbers, I say semi brought back because they made them do half their old route and then terminate in the city, which made the establishment the circle route seem ineffective.
OK, your buses are not perfect, but they are pretty bloody good. Even though English is an optional requirement for employment as a bus driver, the buses still work. You don’t need English to drive, you just need it to communicate with passengers, like when I asked a driver if this is the bus that goes past DFO, or is it the other bus. His response was a single nod and then “DFO”. Though that didn’t really seem to clarify anything, I got on the bus and it got me to the place I wanted to go, and that is all that matters.
The only other issue I have with the buses in Melbourne is looking for a bell. In Perth there would be at least 12 buttons for the bell, in Melbourne I counted 7 on one bus. There were none for the window seat. To bad if you had a window seat on a crowded bus, though I cannot recall ever being on a crowded bus in Melbourne.
Perth doesn’t have a well supported and well integrated network and that’s part of what makes the buses fail. Melbourne has 16 train lines with almost 300 trains, Perth has 6 lines with 72 trains. Perth does have about half the population of Melbourne, but having one quarter of the trains doesn’t add up. While Perth was closing train lines in the 1970’s Melbourne was developing them and making them more functional and that is a massive difference. Melbourne trains are part of a machine. Perth goes on about how it has ‘the best trains in the world’, and sure they get there on time most of the time, but they don’t get you anywhere, they cant because they don’t go anywhere. Passengers have to swap to a bus to get to a destination and the bus just isn’t there.
Instead of putting in train lines, the Western Australian Government will put in more roads. Plans for more trans are canned forcing people to drive on these roads and then justifying the idea that we need more roads. We don’t. we just need someone with a clue to design our public transport properly.
Melbourne’s system is about having the right mentality. The buses are better because they have the Melbourne public transport mentality. In Perth, I could never sit at the back of the bus and hear the radio being piped through the buses speaker system. In Melbourne, that’s up to the drive, so if it is Bee Gees or Abba, it all fits in with the Melbourne system. A simple 2 zone transport system that moves people around. Why cant we have that?
To be fair, you can compare the buses in Melbourne within their network directly to the buses in Perth. In Perth the buses are the second tier of public transport (behind the trains and ahead of the occasional ferry) . In Melbourne the buses are the third tier (behind the trains and trams). Also Melbourne’s system is designed to get people places. There are people on the Werribee line complaining about the recent changes in their services. One train line out of 16 isn’t happy with a change that puts makes more services available because they have to travel a bit longer despite this, the public transport system in Melbourne rocks, just look at how the buses work.
In Perth, all the peak buses end up being sardine cans. In Melbourne, I cannot remember the last time I was on a bus with more than 15 people. In Perth, if a service was getting less than 15 passengers regularly, they would reduce the services or discontinue the service completely. In Melbourne, they just keep the buses going regularly. Every 15 minutes, or half an hour on weekends. This all works to move people through, move them around and create a living city. As for Perth, well they do say that no one really LIVES in Perth.
In Melbourne you don’t really notice the buses. Despite the regular services, they are unobtrusive. There are bus lanes in many areas which are very effective at moving the buses through, but they don’t get in the way of the traffic. Maybe it is because there are other little things in Melbourne to move the traffic, like well synchronised traffic lights, but they just seem to move around and past traffic. Perth buses seem to get in the way of each other. One bus will be stuck behind another and it creates the issue that when you see one bus in Perth, you see 300 of them, all in a row, not going anywhere because they cant. Perth wasn’t really designed with public transport in mind, or with traffic in mind, or for that matter with living in mind, but that’s Perth
The public Transport Authority in Perth seems to have the mentality that everyone wants to go to the city, so all buses need to go there. It was only within the last 15 years that the circle route was developed buses started gong around the city. In its implementation though, they took away a heap of good useful buses that though they went through the city, didn’t terminate there and cause greater congestion. Some of these buses they semi brought back with new numbers, I say semi brought back because they made them do half their old route and then terminate in the city, which made the establishment the circle route seem ineffective.
OK, your buses are not perfect, but they are pretty bloody good. Even though English is an optional requirement for employment as a bus driver, the buses still work. You don’t need English to drive, you just need it to communicate with passengers, like when I asked a driver if this is the bus that goes past DFO, or is it the other bus. His response was a single nod and then “DFO”. Though that didn’t really seem to clarify anything, I got on the bus and it got me to the place I wanted to go, and that is all that matters.
The only other issue I have with the buses in Melbourne is looking for a bell. In Perth there would be at least 12 buttons for the bell, in Melbourne I counted 7 on one bus. There were none for the window seat. To bad if you had a window seat on a crowded bus, though I cannot recall ever being on a crowded bus in Melbourne.
Perth doesn’t have a well supported and well integrated network and that’s part of what makes the buses fail. Melbourne has 16 train lines with almost 300 trains, Perth has 6 lines with 72 trains. Perth does have about half the population of Melbourne, but having one quarter of the trains doesn’t add up. While Perth was closing train lines in the 1970’s Melbourne was developing them and making them more functional and that is a massive difference. Melbourne trains are part of a machine. Perth goes on about how it has ‘the best trains in the world’, and sure they get there on time most of the time, but they don’t get you anywhere, they cant because they don’t go anywhere. Passengers have to swap to a bus to get to a destination and the bus just isn’t there.
Instead of putting in train lines, the Western Australian Government will put in more roads. Plans for more trans are canned forcing people to drive on these roads and then justifying the idea that we need more roads. We don’t. we just need someone with a clue to design our public transport properly.
Melbourne’s system is about having the right mentality. The buses are better because they have the Melbourne public transport mentality. In Perth, I could never sit at the back of the bus and hear the radio being piped through the buses speaker system. In Melbourne, that’s up to the drive, so if it is Bee Gees or Abba, it all fits in with the Melbourne system. A simple 2 zone transport system that moves people around. Why cant we have that?