Jesse

RE: https://mastodon.social/@ptua/116308784078975067

Because fuel is one of the smaller costs of driving fuel probably needs to be $4/L before it makes sense for people to switch to PT based on fuel costs alone.

This will be a good test case to see how much of how little free public transport in Melbourne will increase ridership.

PT was already cheaper than driving with fuel at $1.70 if you're traveling more than 14km in a day (based on the ATO's $0.88 estimate of the per km cost of driving)

So I'm sure there will be few people that could take PT, that aren't currently, and would make the switch if it was free.

EDIT: changed the distance from 7km to 14km in a day. Forgot to change it when I changed the sentence from 'commute' to 'in a day'.

#melbourne #SpringSt #PublicTransport

Mar 29 at 1:31amWeb
Show threadEwen Bell 📸16h ago
@jessta

Buried in the back of my brain is mutterings from researchers who have concluded that if you want PT to be effective it just has to be better than driving.

And so much of Melbourne's outer urban zones are poorly connected to the rail network. The buses aren't great. The timetables aren't great. The bus stops aren't great.

It's a difficult problem to fix after a century of urban planning that focused on urban spread and building quarter acre lots where cows one grazed.
Show threadJesse10h ago
@ewen how much bus can you buy for $74 million? I think a lot of bus.
Show threadlucie digitální10h ago
@jessta @ewen and at least a couple of drivers
Show threadHailey16h ago
@jessta I don't understand the maths behind PT being cheaper over 7km than driving with fuel at $1.70, are you going by TCO? my view is people who already have a car see most of that cost as already sunk, and PT is far more expensive than the marginal cost of driving which is dominated by fuel
Show threadTursiae16h ago
@hailey @jessta Especially with the intervals often available by PT in the burbs. People value their time way more than fuel, for now at least.
Show threadMary-Anne14h ago

@jessta I think not needing a Myki card will help get people to try PT
If you don't have one it's a pain to buy one particularly if you're in the burbs and/or you're not sure you'll use it much

#PublicTransport #Melbourne

Show threadPinky13h ago
@jessta In Melbourne, it costs us $5.70 per person to get the train. My car doesn't use $11.40 worth of fuel to travel 7km. Apologies if I've misunderstood your point