Saturday, January 30, 2010

I've just been day dreaming about walking to the bus stop and waiting 6 minutes for a bus, taking a short 8 minute trip to the train station where I wait 3 minutes for a connecting train to the city and then I wait 5 minutes for a connecting tram. I'm dreaming that I do all this without pre-planning and its no fluke that all the connections and times worked and what's more, its a Sunday afternoon.

In my daydream I know there are times when the car is a better option than public transport, I know there are some places public transport will never go, I know some jobs require us to drive all over town and I know that cars are a great form of transport for many things, yet in my daydream I know that for a whole range of trips; work, social and shopping the transport system I am dreaming of is a really convenient option for me.

Having been on and off public transport all my life (parents didn't drive kids everywhere in my day), its been a long held dream. Personally I think its a dream we need to bring to life over the next 30 years or things could get a little sticky.

I know there are many, many, many Australians who share that dream, but you know what, in my lifetime I don't think there's really been anyone in government who's shared that dream. How can I make such an assertion, well if there was, I reckon we would have moved just a little bit closer to it over the last 45 years, just a little bit.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I had exactly this experience in Toronto - I caught a bus to a train, a train across town and a bus to the airport sunday afternoon with only a 5 minute wait for the bus, less than 5 for the train and no wait for the airport bus. If Toronto can do it so we we. (And it only cost $2, but public transport pricing is a whole other story!)