Sunday, April 01, 2007

Public transport: making a difference

In various discussions about public transport, it's easy to lose sight of what it's there for - ie moving people. Society would be much poorer if everyone sat at home all day and didn't go places to work, learn, shop, socialise etc.

As mentioned before, regional Victorians have been the main beneficiaries of improvements to public transport in this state. Examples include reopened and more frequent regional rail services, better local buses and fare reform.

An example of the difference public transport can make to people's lives was brought home today through a most unlikely source; an internet forum on property investing.

As you'll read, the family concerned (on a fairly low income) was able to sell their second car because of a new bus service that started near their Bendigo home. They can then invest the savings, strengthening their financial future and lessening their dependence on future age pension payments.

Read Somersoft Forum post

There would easily be thousands of similar stories that underlie the community benefits that well-planned and operated public transport provides.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Expecting people in outer suburbs to give up their car is somewhat unrealistic perhaps but if they can do without a second car, then that is real progress.