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

[livelurker.livejournal.com]

About 10-15 (or more?) years ago the Bureau of Transport and Research Economics (I think that was their name), produced a study which said that making public transport free Australia wide would result in savings of $2 billion annually. Due to factors such as reduced accidents, reduced wear on road infrastructure, increased population fitness (more exercise), reduced pollution, no need for expensive ticketing systems, no need to pay for fare enforcement officers, etc.

I've since looked for the paper in the past but haven't had any success. I think it may be paper number 71 on this list from 1985 http://www.btre.gov.au/op_index.aspx but it's only available as hard copy, so don't count on it. There might be some other info on that site that's useful though.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Magnificant! I'd been using some BRTE stats but this surely is gold. I'll see if I can get a copy.

Thank you!