While we love Melbourne with all our hearts, one downside of living in any big city is the headache-inducing traffic on the roads. While our city's public transport system has been heralded for its extensive tram network, there are still a few things left to be desired, meaning that a lot of Melburnians prefer to drive a lot of the time.
For example, why on earth do we still have a physical card-based ticketing system?! You'd think that in this day and age, we wouldn't have to worry about losing our Mykis (but thankfully, that will be a thing of the past soon).
But the powers that be are working to improve our public transport, with lots of upgrades in store. The suburban rail loop and metro tunnel train projects are (slowly) coming along, and next up could be a major upgrade to our bus network, too. Well, that’s if the latest report from the state government's independent infrastructure adviser, Infrastructure Victoria, is anything to go by.
Buses are definitely the ugly duckling of our public transport system. They're not a popular mode of transport, and are often plagued by delays and the aforementioned terrible traffic. But apparently, it's a system that has been set up to fail. Infrastructure Victoria's newest report has claimed that Melbourne's bus network is nowhere near up to scratch, and improving it is the remedy for our city's growing transport needs.
The report stated the main change needed would come in the form of a bus rapid transit system – which is essentially way more bus-only lanes across the city, with extra dedicated bus stations. It would mean that bus services are faster and more frequent, similar to our train system. Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide already have this… but it seems Melbourne went down the tram route instead. Trams are wonderful, but the issue is that Melbourne has grown a lot and our tram network hasn’t.
The benefits of better buses are plentiful, but a major drawcard is that it’s much cheaper and quicker to improve bus infrastructure rather than trains or trams. (Ahem, we’re looking at you, suburban rail loop.) Not only this, but an improved bus network means more Melburnians would be incentivised to jump on a bus rather than drive their own car, reducing congestion and emissions. The Infrastructure Victoria report also recommended that bus routes should be more direct and that fares should be significantly cheaper, giving commuters more reasons to use them.
“More than a third of Melburnians have never caught the bus, even though eight out of ten of us live within 400 metres of a bus stop,” says Infrastructure Victoria acting chief executive officer Dr Allison Stewart. “Melburnians face almost a 50 per cent increase in road congestion by 2036 if we don’t make changes to how we get around, including giving people more options to choose public transport where they can.”
Yes, you read that right. A 50 per cent increase in traffic. Yikes. Hey Jacinta, let’s get to work on those bus lanes stat, please.