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Melbourne Transport |
Common Urban Myths About TransportMyth:
The motor car is the ultimate freedom machine
Fact:
The 'freedom' promised by the motor car is largely illusory. In the 1950s,
when roads were empty and people had a choice of alternatives, there might
have been something to it. Not so today when car use is compulsory for
most of the population and usually involves sitting in traffic jams.
Car dependence and urban sprawl has created a pervasive mythology, as planner Roberta Gratz notes:
The idea that cars define the very idea of freedom is quintessentially American, and the effect of that myth in that country is described by Gratz with reference to the social critic Lewis Mumford:
Many of the things Gratz says about American cities also apply to Melbourne. There are many parts of our city, the outer suburbs in particular, where people are denied a free choice between transport modes. It is not that the residents of these suburbs have voluntarily chosen to drive everywhere; rather, the choice has been made for them by transport planners and other government bureaucrats who have systematically distorted transport choices in favour of the car. In present-day Melbourne it's almost impossible to believe that public transport could provide the same go-anywhere-anytime convenience that we associate with cars:
And yet public transport does compete with the car in many cities of the world, some of them (like Toronto or Vancouver) very much like Melbourne. Chris Curtis' cynical take on public transport is actually a fair comment on car pools, but bears no resemblance to public transport in the places where it's actually well used. Public transport planners in these cities understand all too well that the freedom of the individual to travel as they please is paramount, and must be provided for.
Such respect for people's freedom to travel is hard to come by in Melbourne, except when road-building is under discussion. As a result, many outer suburban 'battlers' suffer financial stress because so much of their household income is spent running cars. A 2006 study by the Victorian Council of Social Service found that residents of the public transport-poor Shire of Yarra Ranges spend $233 on average travelling to and from work, while those of the relatively public transport-rich City of Yarra spend just $139. In a very real sense, outer suburbanites are less free than their privileged inner-urban cousins who can manage without a second or third car. There is no such thing as a 'free market' in transport; no transport system can function unless it is facilitated, even subsidised, by governments. This is as true of private road transport as it is of public rail transport. The CityLink project, though notionally built and operated by a private company, would not have been possible without $800 million in government subsidy via tax concessions (in 1996 dollars). The annual subsidy for public transport throughout Victoria pales in comparison. The bulk of car advertising draws on the cars-mean-freedom myth, thereby strengthening it. Cars are pictured travelling on empty country highways, without a single other vehicle in sight. The car is portrayed as giving its owner the freedom to go wherever one likes, whenever one likes, and carry whatever one likes, without concerning oneself with personal safety or exposure to the elements. The rhetoric evokes an ideal that has not existed since the 1950s. It disguises the everyday limits to this freedom in the form of traffic congestion, limited parking space, road rules, risk of accidents and the like, all of which pit drivers against one another in the daily commuter rat race. By contrast, public transport users need not concern themselves with any of these problems. 'Freedom to take charge of one's travel' means little when one is stuck in a traffic jam. As car culture becomes pervasive, even the time-saving benefits of car travel are eroded, as commentator Wolfgang Sachs points out:
Motoring freedom, moreover, is purchased at the cost of curtailing the freedom of pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users (ostensibly for their own safety), as well as those without the means to drive, including the young, elderly, and less affluent members of society. Indeed, almost everyone is affected by the pervasive pollution and noise which is a necessary condition of the freedom we enjoy as motorists. Even those who most sincerely believe that cars make us freer citizens can hardly fail to see the down side when they take to the streets as pedestrians, breathe the air on a Smog Alert day or install quadruple-glazed windows in their house.
Perhaps the most obvious limit to the motorist's freedom, however, is the fact that cars need fuel in order to go anywhere. The inescapable consequences of this fact subject the motorist to yo-yo petrol prices and thraldom to the oil industry. Talk of 'freedom' in this regard hides an inescapable dependence on a vast support structure comprising oil refineries, tanker fleets, service stations, repair shops, road crews, traffic police, emergency services, investment in road projects, manufacturing, licensing, registration, insurance, and all who work in these areas. Seen this way, even a bicycle permits greater freedom. The freedom of public transport users is at least on a par with motorists, and public transport users aren't burdened with the responsibility of driving their vehicles! © 2007 Public Transport Users Association Inc. (PTUA), Victoria, Australia. ABN 83 801 487 611. Last modified: 13 February 2006 |