Jesse1d ago

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

Show threadEwen Bell 📸
@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.
Mar 29 at 1:52amWeb
Show threadJesse23h ago
@ewen how much bus can you buy for $74 million? I think a lot of bus.
Show threadlucie digitální23h ago
@jessta @ewen and at least a couple of drivers