Public transport is going nowhere fast

RATIO CONSULTANTS SAY CONTINUING DOWN THE WELL-TRAVELLED ROAD WITH A FOCUS ON CARS COULD MEAN WE WON’T BE ABLE TO SUSTAIN PRESSURES OF EXPANSION

INFRASTRUCTURE Victoria’s updated 30-year strategy was presented to the Victorian parliament in August this year.

The strategy acknowledged regional Victoria’s dependency on private vehicles and the lack of public transport options available to them. Consequently, a key recommendation of this strategy was that regional public transport needs to be redesigned for greater co-ordination, innovation and flexibility to better respond to community needs.

So how does this recommendation translate into a Geelong context? Should we be positioning our view of public transport to primarily support the Geelong region into the future?

Geelong’s preferred mode of transport is the car. Data from the 2016 Australian Census shows that 74 per cent of all travel to and from work across Geelong is by private vehicle. Instead of car usage dwindling, travel data for trips to and from work between 1991 and 2016 (as a percentage of population) shows:

Public transport use has increased from 4.8 per cent to 5.3 per cent. However, this gain has been entirely due to increases in commuter train travel – bus use has actually fallen by 25 per cent.

Walking and cycling as travel modes have reduced by 30 per cent, from 4.7 per cent of trips to 3.3 per cent of work trips.

Car travel has increased from 71.3 per cent to 73.8 per cent of trips. However, with the number of persons travelling as a car passenger almost halving, there are now additional vehicles on the road for the equivalent number of people.

Many complex factors influence our decisions for the way we travel. For public transport: availability, convenience, cost and safety are major considerations for commuters.

Geelong’s current public transport system is a relic of the idea that the city is a satellite to Melbourne, which is why we don’t stack up well on these fronts.

Local bus routes are predominantly based on a radial model focused on Geelong Station, meaning journeys along these routes are often circuitous and slow.

Regional bus routes serving the Bellarine, Torquay and Bannockburn are more direct but travel times remain uncompetitive compared with cars, while routes and destination choices are limited. In many cases, a car is required to get to a bus stop in the first place.

Train services have improved but services remain commuter focused with this sentiment exemplified by current and proposed improvements including the

Fast Rail Project and Waurn Ponds Station upgrades.

The City of Greater Geelong is experiencing significant growth with our population forecast to exceed 500,000 residents by 2050.

Regionally, population growth in

Torquay and Jan Juc has remained significant, and the Bannockburn Growth Plan will facilitate an additional 10,500 residents, more than doubling that town’s current size.

Strategic planning currently underway to cater for Geelong’s growth follows a well-established principle of supporting travel mode shifts away from private vehicles and puts forth an aspiration of 50 per cent of trips to and from workplaces to be undertaken by public transport and active transport in the future.

This is more than five times our current levels, acknowledging that those levels have been going backward.

Our current approach to public transport needs a major shake-up. If we continue down the well-travelled road, Geelong won’t be able to sustain the additional pressures of road travel brought on by our city’s expansion. Geelong must take strides to deliver true alternatives to cars for people who live and work locally, creating a smarter public transport system that responds to its community’s needs.

WE MUST CREATE A SMARTER SYSTEM THAT RESPONDS TO ITS COMMUNITY’S NEEDS