Myth: Public transport can't work unless it runs from door to door

Fact: Even most trips made by car don't take people from door to door. This isn't what stops most people using public transport; factors like waiting time and service availability are much more important. In cities where these aren't a problem, people use public transport, even if they have to walk a little.

When road planners try to shore up the myth that people won't be persuaded to leave their cars at home, one of the more common arguments they find is that public transport can't take people from door to door, the way cars supposedly do.

This argument falls down on two points: first, cars don't take people from door to door any more than public transport does; and second, most people will tolerate walking distances sufficient to bring them within reach of a reasonably comprehensive public transport network, no matter where in the suburbs they live.

The vast majority of motorists do not have the luxury of parking their car right next to their chosen destination. At a large shopping centre like Chadstone, parking spaces extend more than 200 metres from the nearest entrance, which may itself be a further 200 metres from the desired destination. For less mundane trips, such as a Saturday football outing, people will tolerate walking even further. Carlton fans will park at the Zoo and walk to Optus Oval a kilometre away; MCG patrons similarly will park in Victoria Parade.

Available evidence suggests that even habitual motorists, on a typical journey, will tolerate walking up to 500 or 600 metres between vehicle and final destination. A public transport network that brings every point of the metropolis within 600 metres of a tram or bus route will provide a similar level of convenience, assuming the route itself has plentiful stops, spaced so as to keep the parallel walking distance as small as practicable. But even the existing bus network in Melbourne is quite up to this task, as a glance at a comprehensive bus map will show.

So why does Melbourne's extensive network fail to satisfy people? Not because it doesn't go past everyone's front door. The reason is poor frequency and bad connections, as explained in other PTUA documents. This is evident even in the inner suburbs that government planning documents describe as public-transport rich.

Consider Kate, who lives in Viva Street off Tooronga Road in Glen Iris, halfway between Wattletree Road and High Street. Kate is 20 metres from a bus stop and 300 metres from each of two tram routes. Kate takes the tram to work in the city, and Chadstone shopping centre is a short bus trip away. But in the evenings and on Sundays there are no buses, and the trams are up to half an hour apart, so if Kate wants to go anywhere by public transport without the possibility of a half-hour wait, she has to walk 1.5 kilometres to the nearest railway station. It is the prospect of a 1.5 kilometre walk that has made Kate decide to use her car for all but the trip to work. Doubtless if the trams and buses ran with reasonable frequency at the times Kate wanted to travel, she would make more use of them. It doesn't bother Kate that the tram doesn't go past her front door, as long as it runs frequently enough and is within reasonable walking distance.

© 2007 Public Transport Users Association Inc. (PTUA), Victoria, Australia. ABN 83 801 487 611.
General copying and distribution on a non-commercial basis is permitted subject to proper acknowlegement.
Authorised by Tony Morton, 247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, for the PTUA

Common Urban Myths About Transport