Re: Perth - Southern Line of Route

["David & Jan Winter" <winterd@nospam-icenet.com.au>]

Goldie

Transport planning in Perth WAS relatively progressive into the 1970s. In my
MSc research (1977), out of the whole worldwide corpus of research data
available to me, oddly one of the few effective sources was a study done in
Perth by the then MTT and the federal Bureau of Transport Economics. Coming
from Perth, and studying in the UK, this was very much a shock and surprise
(cultural cringe!)!

The attitudes that prevail today, led in part by economic rationalism and in
part by sectarian bias (transport ministers in coalition governments are
NP - country - and road trains now run on suburban single carriageway
residential streets), is not so benign. Now, I'm not a member of any
political party, and am best described as a "swinger", so I'm not making a
swipe at the Libs here - just to note that the planners and politicians no
longer have the clear sense of vision and continuity of direction that seems
to prevail prior to the 1980s.

DW