Public Transport, Commonwealth Games, real gaming, crazy links

[tcpip]

A couple of weeks ago The Age raised possibility of free public transport (paid through rates) as a means to relieve congestion adn pollution, Prosper Australia have asked me to write a an article on said topic. Anyone have some clever ideas on how to break this proposal? (special kudos to severina_242 for some good ideas). On a related matter I've discovered that two previous articles on a similar theme have made their way to the School of Cooperative Individualism library. Prosper Australia have also approached me to do more public relations work for them.

All systems go for the Ballarat Install Fest. I've written general public and IT literate press releases and have started some modest distributions. This weekend will see it crank up a couple of notches with training on Sunday. The event itself is all happening during the Commonwealth games, which look like they'll be a bit of non-event, with the exception of the graffiti event (hat-tip to adricongirl and the StolenWealth games. Interesting reference to previous paragraph - what will be the net loss of the Commonwealth games? Will it be more than the $340 million required to provide free public transport for a year?

Three gaming events since my last post; Outbreak of Heresy last Sunday has led the party to Wallachia after escaping the castle of the lich of Vlad Tepes (hey, the body was never found!), last night was Dogs in the Vineyard which involved convincing the local Steward to let two "Mountain People" (read: Amerindians) marry and pray with rest of the faithful as his refusual was allowing demonic influences into the town (very cool narrativism), and finally, I've started composing a RuneQuest II module for RetroCon. Adventures continue on Sunday with GURPS Australian Noir. Hell that's a lot of dice-rolling and cooperative storytelling.

Want to go on SBS's Insight program? Register here. Ten worst dictators (hat-tip artbroken. Death of a Liberal Party Nazi. Korea calls for a Linux city. The USA really is going theocratic.

Comments

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

That depends what you mean by "better". It might be cheaper, but having inaccessible trams certainly doesn't count as providing fair and equal access for the disabled and providing taxis for short trips instead is extremely inefficient: Trams can be caught much more quickly and predictably in some areas than taxis. Taxis have to be booked, then they take quite some time to load and tie down the wheelchair and again to unload. The time-wasting overhead is enormous for short trips.

Consequently, according to the Department of Infrastructure, "The Victorian Action Plan aims to achieve full compliance under the Federal Disability Standards" and then goes on to say that includes 90 per cent compliance 2017 and 100% by 2032.

If they'd fitted the latest trams with lifts or ramps, they could have achieved those figures within a few years. Instead, they are planning on spending astronomical amounts to remove both parking and traffic lanes from major arterial roads to do it in 30 years.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Obviously you have ne at a disadvantage since not onlyu do I come from the Land Without Trams (or light rail), but you obviously care more about the issue than I do, and probably have a greater understanding of the issues.

Where I live, public transport is very much bus-based, and even on the four arterial train lines it is fairly rare to see the wheelchair-bound travelling.

I'm also less concerned with providing "fair and equal access" to existing infrastructure, although I do tend to agree that where possible new infrastructure should strive to achieve those lofty aims of "fair and equal access", and that light rail should be rolled out far more than it is.

(Of course, I'm one of those people who gets really annoyed when they build zig-zag, wheelchair-friendly ramps instead of up-and-down, direct stairs.)

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

I had no idea where you were from, since your bio doesn't say. Since you bothered to mention Geoff Gallop recently, I guess you're from Perth. I just got back on Thursday, having been over there for Swancon last weekend.

I don't see equal access as being terribly lofty an aim in public transport. Vehicles get replaced and can be replaced with accessible vehicles with minimal extra cost. (Buses that kneel and have extending or flip out ramps are pretty common.) Since the US has had anti-discrimination legislation for longer than most places, there are some cities there (eg. Seattle) in which all buses are accessible. Perth is pretty poor for disabled transportation, except in the city itself. Even the public bus from the airport and the shuttle bus from the airport (unless you specifically book it in advance) aren't wheelchair accessible.

I can understand you not seeing many people in wheelchairs on your trains. Many people will get to the train by catching a bus and get to the bus by going along the road. Most Perth bus lines seem to be randomly accessible and then some of your suburbs don't have footpaths on some of their streets at all, making it rather hard and/or dangerous to get to the train by wheelchair in the first place.

FWIW, I find zig-zag ramps are often a lazy way out when a better solution could have been found. I guess more architects need to be tied into a wheelchair for a few days.