First published in Column 8 on the 27th May, 1992
Believe it or not, we didn’t even consider the silly idea of
adding a couple of cents onto the petrol prices in order to make people use the
buses. Whatever dream-world economist came up with that one ought to go back to
the first year commerce class. Petrol prices have gone up and down so often in
the past few years that a couple more cents per litre are hardly going to be
noticed. Just another tax to bear.
To make motorists sit up and take notice, the price of
petrol would have to triple, or worse, petrol would have to be completely
rationed.
In the past, my neighbour and I agreed, the city’s approach
to public transport problems has invariably been to reduce the buses and increase
the prices.
Our solution, which needn’t involve the Government at all,
is to increase the buses and cut the prices. My neighbour, more radical than I,
even said, ‘Make the buses free!’
People go for something free, after all. That’s why we think
it’s cheaper to pop in the car to go to town. We have this mental block about
the cost of running our cars: because nobody makes us pay as we get in the door
we think it’s free. As for kids brought up with wheels for legs, they think
cars run on fresh air.
The great advantage of our own private motor vehicles is
that we can drive from door to door. In fact, if we can’t, we say: Parking’s
such a problem in the city.
Cars are preferred over public transport because in the city
they’re acceptable, parkable and convenient.
In that case, let’s cut out their acceptance and parkability
and convenience. Make cars illegal in town. Make a belt round the city area
(the Seat Belt?), and only let vehicles through that have commercial reasons to
be there, or which are needed to transport people with disabilities.
Remove all parking buildings, and parking spaces. In one
stroke you’d remove an awful lot of the hassle of going to town in the first
place. Gone would be that dreadful searing of the soul: where will I find a
park? Gone would be the aggression engendered by vying with another driver for
the single parking space left outside the shop you want to visit, or the confrontation
with a parking officer.
In fact, the city could save a good deal of money on parking
management and meter maintenance.
Once cars were unwelcome, the city would have to provide
frequent mini-buses. I’d be pleased if they got rid of their present smelly
diesel, raucously noisy, quacking and grinding buses altogether.
In the past trolley bus public transport used to be super silent
– unless the driver lost his pole! And the only noise cable-cars made was the
clang of the bell. Neither left pollutants behind.
If the buses weren’t free, all the money the city earned in
public transport as a result of our solutions would allow them to bring a
combination of these modes back.
Armchair economics. Just think of the creative energy
hundreds of public transport passengers would release, if we all did this
amount of lateral thinking on a 10-minute bus trip.
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| Courtesy: Time's Up! Environmental Organization |
I’m somewhat horrified to read this column thirty-four years later, because it seems that the City Council, over the last few years, has taken the words of this article seriously and is attempting to remove cars from the city forever. Bikes are the only mode of transport given a hearty Yay by our Councillors, forgetting that Dunedin, a city of hills, isn’t the greatest place to cycle around – especially if you’re older – and that bikes are more than useless when it comes to moving things other than people from place to place. There is a place for bikes, but not as a replacement for vehicles with a bit of get up and go.
I can’t remember now who my bearded and bespectacled
neighbour was in this instance, and I can’t remember whether this was actually a
tongue-in-cheek piece or not. I hope it was.
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