Re: Travel patterns (was Re: New form of rail transportation)

[amorton@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (Anthony Morton)]

Rod [comtrain] <Comtrain@optusnet.com.au> wrote:

>Don't you think that running a Train Service from ...say Nunawading to
>Frankston, would cause many hundreds of people, to rethink their employment
>possibilities.

It certainly would, but I can imagine the sort of thing that would happen.
Joe in Frankston is looking for a job as a computer programmer and sees one
listed in Nunawading.  Previously he might not have thought of working so
far away, but the new train service makes this a possibility.  So he gets the
job and travels from Frankston to Nunawading each day.  Meanwhile Joanna in
Nunawading, who applied for the same job but narrowly missed out, finds a
similar job in Frankston shortly afterwards that might otherwise have been
taken by Joe.  So you have two people travelling for two hours a day entirely
needlessly.

Transport planners refer to this kind of phenomenon as 'cross-commuting'.  Of
course if they were travelling by car the waste would be far more apparent.
But regardless of how Joe and Joanna travel to work, if they were both working
locally they'd have more time to use in other ways.

>I believe that rotten bus services and peak hour traffic jams would be the
>VERY REASON that so few people according to your census travel radially.

In the outer eastern suburbs, the rotten bus services prevent people
travelling any way at all.  And I think you'll find the traffic jams occur
in virtually all directions in peak hour, due simply to the large amount of
local car travel.

>Then again Fitsimmonds lane is bumper to bumper from 4 till 7 every
>nite...maybe they all go fishing along the Yarra.!

Who says Fitzsimons Lane isn't a radial road?  It's the primary access to
Eltham, Greensborough and Diamond Creek from the City via the Eastern Freeway.

Regards,
Tony M.

Public Transport Users Association        http://www.vicnet.net.au/~ptua/