for everyone over 60 is the latest in a string of rather odd electoral policies being offered in the attempt to get votes in the upcoming state election.
It won't happen.
If you happen to have a "Seniors Card" you can already travel free between 9.01am and 3pm on weekdays and at any time on weekends. Yes, some of us use the "privilege". Many more still rely on their cars because public transport takes time. It doesn't always take you where you want to go. It is often infrequent.
At weekends our train service only runs once an hour. I have to be somewhere before 10am on the 24th March, a Saturday. It is about a twenty minute train journey into the hills behind me. The train I will need to catch leaves here at about 8:40am or 9:40am. If I catch the 9:40am train - likely to be running late - I will be late. I will get the 8:40am and arrive early instead because I will need a few minutes to set up a simple information stand before the doors open on the event.
A train each half hour would have been much more convenient.
I can understand why no such train exists. Not many people use the train at that time.
If the weather is good there will be a great many boys and bikes on the next few trains. They catch the train into the hills and then race down a long winding road at great speed. Some of them do it every weekend. It's not safe but it isn't so dangerous that it isn't tolerated. Middle Cat, being more than something of a tomboy, did it in her bike riding days too. I would not attempt it on the tricycle.
But, back to the "old" and public transport. Yes, they should be using it where possible. "Free" transport like that gets some people out and about. I know one man who rides the buses each day. He just enjoys sitting there watching. He knows some of the drivers. They know him. He might stop somewhere and have a cup of coffee and catch the next bus going in the great circle around the city. He will catch another bus into the city and wander into the Art Gallery for a bit. He told me once, "It doesn't cost much - just the occasional coffee - and I like to watch people."
There was someone else who used the buses and trains to visit all the charity shops she could find. She would buy things, repair them, and then sell them on e-bay at a profit. The money went towards supporting her "children" - children she had "adopted" through a charity. She would sometimes come into the library and show me photographs of the children as they grew up.
But free public transport for the elderly isn't just about getting out because you are lonely, or because you have a purpose in mind. It is making it possible to do those things and still live within your means. A car is an expensive thing to run. There are elderly people who simply should not be driving any more. They are not as physically fit or mentally as sharp as they feel they need to be. They don't want the responsibility of driving any more. Yes, free transport is a good thing if it helps such people.
But, I wondered about "free" public transport for everyone. What if our madly car dependent economy could find a way of reducing the need for so much car ownership?
"Think of all the people it would put out of work Cat!" I was told in absolute horror by someone who once worked in the car industry.
Well yes, it is a problem. We would need to find other industries and other means of employing such people.
But free public transport might also mean that buses, trams, and trains ran more frequently. In reduced traffic they would take less time. There would almost certainly be fewer accidents and the cost of those would be reduced to a point where we could once again have conductors on trains and buses - people who could help the very old and those with the very young. People might walk a little more at each of their journey.
And, rather than driving the car, you could read or do any number of other things. For some years I caught two trains in the morning and two in the afternoon. There was a wait between each one. I knitted all through those journeys and waiting times. I also read. I wrote three plays for the school I was working in - so that every child had a part no matter how disabled they happened to be. I thought about other writing.
Yes, some people just want to sit there and do nothing. That's up to them. But, think of how much more productive and perhaps active we might be if public transport was free for everyone all the time.
I think the "problem" of finding employment for those in the car industry might soon start to sort itself. We would need other things.
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3 comments:
You say that your train only runs once an hour possibly because not many people use it at that time. Our neighbourhood has been begging for a train service, any service, on a weekend because we currently have none and the weekend is the time when all the free family events happen to be on around the city that we might want to take our children to for cheap entertainment and education. I agree that once an hour is not sufficient in a modern city.
I wonder, if your service were more frequent than once an hour, would it be more convenient and thus entice more people to use it? Do you know that some people drive their cars down to my branch line in the morning because they don't like the service you use? I wonder if timetabling is part of that.
Our branch line service ends too early on weekdays. There's no point in catching a train out of our suburb for any significant journey in the afternoon because the train finishes so early that there's no guarantee that one will make the last train home! Consequently, those who have the means drive their cars to another station on the main line.
When we ask the rail people to increase our service, they say there's no demand because 70% of the passengers come from stations on the main line with the increase beginning at the neighbouring railway station; but this is only reflecting the people who migrate out of our suburb by car who start their rail journey at that station. If we had the right timetable, the patronage on our line will increase but it is a chicken and egg scenario when it comes to convincing the rail controllers.
The people in my area have been begging for improvements to our rail service. People like rail and want to use the train but our timetabling makes it a difficult choice. We have been pushing the issue with our local members of parliament for years and nothing ever gets done. You see, my neighbourhood is a poor neighbourhood. We don't have money to spend so we don't count as far as government attention goes.
Here's a scenario: a large industrial site becomes vacant and the government owns the land. It needs a new tenant to bring in revenue. It especially needs lots of money to pay for the clean up of the site after decades of industrial contamination. Different investors come out of the woodwork, seeking an opportunity but will only invest if they can see profits at the end of it.
Residential developers say they need community amenities like shops to get property buyers to move in. The retail shop developers say that the people in the immediate vicinity need to be able to support a retail district but there isn't enough room to have a big enough property development to support it. The people already living in the target market immediately surrounding the site do not have a lot of money - in fact, retail researchers believe that they have a 'lower than average expenditure per person' and there are already a number of competing retail interests within close range.
How can the government prove to potential investors that there will be enough shoppers and money to support a shopping centre where there isn't enough money to go around? Increase the frequency of the local rail service and extend it further to convince retail investors that they can reach more potential shoppers and visitors to the new shopping centre!
And while they are at it, those dowdy poor people next door might not be a good look for our brand spanking shiny new development that we want to present to the world, so let's just take their train station away so they cannot get to the new shopping centre or anywhere else - keep them contained in their suburb. That way, the wealthy privileged classes don't need to see those less fortunate - they can ignore the plight of those who are doing it hard (in part due to government social policies) and not have their guily consciences pricked.
Cynical? After what I have observed, I sure am!
I was looking at the timetable a couple of days ago and I need to catch a train at 8:36 to teach at a venue at 9:45. The train journey takes about 8 minutes at most but I can't catch a later train because there isn't one. Now someone is wondering whether to organise transport for me which would not be necessary if the trains ran even every half hour. The same thing will occur twice over the next couple of months. It's infuriating.
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