[publictransport] [The Age] I was misinformed on bike review: Kosky

[Anthony Morton]

> Ms Kosky said her department had told her it had undertaken a full  
> consultation and review which found strong support for banning bikes  
> at peak hours.

Oh, but they did!  They met in secret with someone at BV who said  
they'd be OK with banning bikes in return for the government building  
a bike cage at Eltham.  :-)

No, seriously, it's just another case of self-serving bureaucracy in  
action.  The exact same thing happened when Yarra Trams wanted to  
rebuild the tram terminus at Melbourne Uni: they planned it in secret  
with a petty bureaucrat at the University then sprung it on the public  
unannounced.  Said University bureaucrat no longer works there....

Bring on a public transport planning authority that isn't afraid to  
bring the public into its decision making processes.

And my two cents worth on fixing the immediate problem:

- Expand the provision of bike facilities on stations and ease up on  
the red tape.

- Fix up the feeder bus networks, to expand the options for getting to  
the station.

- Formalise a policy of restricting large items to the back of the  
rear carriage, and redo the seating in this area to be more like the  
old Hitachi layout.

- Reintroduce concession fares for bikes in peak hour?  I'm torn on  
this one - it's singling out bicycles for special treatment, but on  
the other hand bicycles aren't absolutely essential to mobility in the  
way that wheelchairs or even prams are.  If there's any move to  
introduce fees it should only be in response to hard evidence of a  
crowding problem due to bikes, and then it should only apply in the  
peak direction (unlike the fare that applied until recently, which  
applied in both directions).

- Bike rego?  No thanks - we might as well demand pedestrians pay  
registration in order to become legitimate users of footpaths.  Car  
registration exists for the same reason as firearms registration - as  
a means of regulating the possession and use of dangerous machinery.   
Motorists pay for road use through income tax, council rates and  
petrol tax, and so do cyclists, especially if they own a car as well.

In the meantime, if anyone's enthused about writing more letters to  
the papers, a good topic would be the way the Minister has been let  
down by her self-serving bureaucracy and the whole system needs an  
overhaul to bring the public interest into transport planning.

Tony