Story December 17, 2008
Cash for public transport
Press to listen to Clive Whitworth’s Bellarine Bus system song
THE jury’s out on whether the State Government’s recent much trumpeted $38 billion Victorian Transport Plan will have any impact on the Ocean Grove and the Bellarine’s dire public transport needs.
According to a media release from MP Lisa Neville the Plan would “boost transport and jobs in Bellarine”.
“This project will see $80 million spent on providing extra services, extended routes, enhanced cross town connections and greater connections with rail services,” Ms Neville said.
“In consultation with the City of Greater Geelong we will build a central bus interchange in Geelong, improving the network by making it more convenient to change buses.”
Local Public Transport Users Association have been told the funding would help implement the Parsons Brinckerhoff recommendations.
It is understood that the implementation of those recommendations would lead to an improvement in our local bus system, with more simplified routes and greater frequency. Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads would get a local bus service, linking with services to Geelong at an Ocean Grove bus hub.
However, according to the LPT, this hinges on the CoGG council agreeing on “a sensible and workable site” for the central bus interchange.
Story October 8 2008
Get us on the buses
Better public transport is part of the answer to soaring petrol prices, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said in June this year.
Who would disagree?
“Hasn’t the time come for some decent, decent public transport systems, invested in by the national government across our major cities so people don’t burn their petrol prices on the way to work,” he told the Nine Network.
Again that goes without saying.
That tallies with a report from the Australian Local Government Association
2008 Local Roads and Transport Congress Communiqué, also in June.
It acknowledged that the Australian Government commitment for transport funding to 2014 including $350m per annum Roads to Recovery funding, $300 million Strategic Regional funding and $60 million per annum for the Blackspots Program would help with some infrastructure.
Delegates at the congress also agreed with the Federal Government’s acknowledgement that cities must work and function well.
However, as it points out, in order for this to happen the Federal Government “must invest in the provision for urban public transport including outer urban growth areas of cities”.
Ocean Grove falls squarely in that category. With a population around 12,000 (bigger than Colac), huge growth predictions and on the end of a local public transport system described by the Mayor Bruce Harwood last year as “a joke”, surely it is time to see some action to see more frequent and quicker public transport.
With the support of the Geelong branch of the Public Transport Users Association the Ocean Grove Voice will begin running a campaign to get solutions to our public transport needs.
Founded in 1976 as the Train Travellers Association, the Public Transport Users Association is the recognised consumer organisation representing passengers of all forms of public transport. They are a non-profit, voluntary organisation, with no political affiliations.
Here’s some important stats to think about.
Research shows that residents of Geelong make, on average, 23 trips by public transport per annum. This is equivalent to the average resident making less than one return trip per month.
What’s more, many Geelong residents have never caught a bus in Geelong- even the low figure of 23 trips per year is largely made up from people who have no choice but to catch buses. According to the RACV study,Transport and Mobility in Rural Victoria (June 2000), only 24% of Barwon region residents had used a bus at all in the last 12 months. However, if you speak to many commuters, they would give public transport a go if it was more frequent and quicker.
Geelong’s 200,000 urban population compares to Canberra’s 300,000 and 89 bus trips per resident per year, Wellington New Zealand’s 320,000 with 80 bus trips per person per year and Schaffhausen (Switzerland) with its 44,000 urban population making 247 bus trips per resident per year. According to the research, 23 trips by public transport per annum is one of the lowest rates in the world.
The RACV study (mentioned above) revealed that 72% of people from our region thought that our public transport needed improvement or was not adequate and needed immediate attention.
There is no mystery about what is required to significantly improve public transport usage, even in smaller cities: direct, easy-to-understand routes; frequent services day and evening, weekday and weekend (in Schaffhausen, the maximum time between buses is 10 minutes); simple, reasonably-priced fares; full timetable co-ordination between different modes of public transport and excellent, well-located interchange facilities.
Urban buses should run at least every 15 minutes all day; Bellarine Transit buses at least every 30 minutes. A town the size of Ocean Grove should have buses leaving directly from the centre and arriving at least as quick as a car, otherwise what incentives are there?
What are your views? Do you agree, disagree. Make you feelings known by emailing news@oceangrovevoice.com or writing to PO Box 54 Ocean Grove 3226.
“The Bellarine Bus System’s Buggered“
A simple waltz by Clive Whitworth, as performed at the Piping Hot Chicken Shop
Chorus
The Bellarine bus system’s buggered,
It’s bad for the people as well,
The council should look after real people’s needs,
Make transport more public and much less like hell.
It’s bad for the planet; it’s bad for the kids
It leaves the old folk stuck at home
To party or skate or go surfing
Our teens must call mum on their phone.
(Chorus)
It may seem like quite a good setup
To have a car at your beck and your call,
But how can kids learn independence,
If they go when mum wants to, or don’t go at all.
(Chorus)
No after school movies or dates in Geelong,
The last bus goes just after seven
How good it would it be if our kids were more free,
And the last bust went after eleven.
Clive Whitworth 2008
Press play to listen to Clive’s song
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