Session: 1
Room: Yarra Room
Session Title: Congestion Pricing
Format: Discussion
Presenter Name: Harry Barber
What is congestion? How & where congestion should be priced?
Car parking can have congestion prices.
Congestion should be priced when vehicle load is within acceptable limits of the road capacity
Data is a critical factor for analysing congestion and the optimum level needs to be established.
Session: 2
Room: Yarra Room
Session Title: Better Buses: The Future Frequent Network
Format: Presentation
Presenter Name: Peter Parker (Melbourne on Transit)
Better Bus Network: Sustainable Cities Campaign, better buses for Melbourne's West with a particular focus on the West. We need a top-level service. Perth was looked at as a precedent, noting most other states have a much higher frequency.
Why is bus advocacy so challenging? The goal for 2030, is how can we shift the focus away from the high-income areas within Melbourne's southeast. The community is interested and political instability provides an opportunity for change.
After the recent election, there may no longer be any safe seats. https://melbourneontransit.blogspot.com/2022/07/un-135-future-frequent-network.html This will not only support the suburban rail loop but will serve more people. Every ten minutes and seven days of the week.
The Principle Public transport Network: Gave birth to smart bus routes, these run every 15 minutes. However these smart services are in the East (10) only one of these services is in the inner west, in Sunshine.
The Useful Network: Every 20min service. Blog by Peter Parker. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1eIBtYp3YqK7VDYkbcJW-XanMUHUIl2NE&ll=-37.8103655796008%2C145.02267822356933&z=9
Laura: Images and maps are helpful. But to advocate consider how people may not need to own multiple cars, these messages are important. Improving people's lives. The future frequent network connects people to jobs. Local community benefit is integral.
Route alignment has been discussed. How will this be branded?
Question: How will these services align with the existing services? Ten-minute service to align with trains and trams. Look at the network coordination framework, this has not been applied to buses but there is an opportunity to apply this theoretical understanding.
Focus on a small number of routes, done well.
Session: 3
Room: Supper Room
Session Title: Has Covid Killed Public Transport?
Format: Presentation
Presenter Name: Phillip Mallis (City of Yarra)
Covid has a significant decrease in PTV patronage. This is ongoing post-covid. Surprisingly, bus ridership has performed better. Consider the buses that service hospitals, and places of employment that cannot be completed by working from home.
Infrastructure Victoria outlined that CBD employment has decreased. WFH has increased working in suburban areas.
Trip purpose: Important to consider, however, the shortfall of the census is that it captures travel to work. The VISTA data set is more robust, and this is taken every 2 years.
During COVID, car transport increased for work, recreation, and services.
Cycling: The bike counters have shown LOWER bike use in 2022. In the lockdown, cycling ridership managed to remain consistent, which is impressive considering fewer people were commuting to work. With the overall drop in cycling volume from 2018-2022, we are returning to 2010 levels.
Challenges: There are blind spots in the data collection. Trip purpose is limited. The data is not consistent, symmetry is essential. The frequency needs to also be increased. The data also needs to be accessible, in a spreadsheet form, why is data presented in a pdf in 2022?
Data Gaps: We do not collate PTV crowding, vehicle crowding, tram patronage by line, or PTV journey purposes.
Classpass format: We need better options to purchase Myki use. A deal when you receive ten passes and it is cheaper. The people who least afford it cannot. New York has a weekly cap, this would incentivise. Weekly deals could really help shift from car dependency. Instead of annual deals, look for weekly. Off-peak transport is a great deal, but people did not really know about it, it needs to be communicated best.
The lack of tolerance for incomplete data has impacted the release of patronage data. Tense conversation! What happens when places do not have the resources to navigate the criticisms? We need a better picture of patronage and there are many behind the scene challenges that affect how data is circulated and presented.
Privacy concerns towards Governments collecting qualitative data.
How can we capitalise on the post-covid interest in getting back in the community. Should we encourage people to WFH or come into the office? Who gets to make these decisions?
The message needs to be spread, if we say nothing driving will continue to increase at default.
Congestion charging: Will this work, or will people continue to drive and accept the costs? Generally, individuals are resilient to change, therefore intense advocacy and education are essential.
Session: 3
Room: Yarra Room
Session Title: Victoria Transportation Integration Plan
Format: Presentation
Presenter Name: Catherine McNaughton
Call on the Victorian government to work with councils and communities to develop metro and Victoria regional transport and land use plans.
Create the places communities want.
Assess infrastructure proposal to demonstrate maximum community and environmental benefits.
Prioritize equity and people.
Achieve net zero greenhouse gas emission transport and land systems.
Include traditional owners’ perspectives, knowledge and country plans.
Include full community engagement. As required under the transport integration act 2010 and climate change act 2017.
Ad hoc projects have demonstrated limited community benefits, lack of integration, and limited linked benefits.
Consider the scales of challenges that arise with population growth; changing commuting and living patterns, technology, climate and biodiversity emergencies.
Session: 3
Room: Portico Room
Session Title: Zero Traffic Growth with Increasing Population
Format: Presentation
Presenter Name: Lisa (DoT)
The community complains about inadequate parking, yet people are aware of the traffic congestion.
Consider a defined restriction for parking per household.
Policy needs to be specific.
Considered the opportunity of car sharing.
How can we support younger generations and public transport use?
We need to allow for time to see the behavioural change as infrastructure and restrictions will not radically change the car-dependent scenario.
Restricting owning a car until a certain age could also be a way to ownership control.
Session: 3
Room: Melbourne Room
Session Title: Active transport integration
Format: Presentation
Presenter Name: Danny Davis
FLAIR: Flexible, local, accessible, integrated, and responsive.
Accessibility in stations should be increased.
High patronage for better bus stops.
App-based information needs to be reliable.
Multimodal journey app timetable should be user-friendly.
Sharing data between companies will increase journey reliability.
Session: 3
Room: Regent Room
Session Title: Political advocacy for better transport service
Format: Presentation
Presenter Name: Peter Parket (Melbourne on Transit)
Transformed transit for Melbourne Political volatility has both positive and negative impacts.
How to decrease the number of vehicles in outer suburbs to introduce public transport systems with high frequency and good connectivity. Is poor frequency why car use remains widespread?
Recommended book: The making and unmaking east-west link.
Bus services are the key to establishing an integrated transport network.
Session: 4
Room: Yarra Room
Session Title: How can we reduce parking with car sharing?
Format: Discussion
Presenter Name: Josh (Infrastructure Victoria)
Good data will be received if the service is simple.
Ticketing data is very difficult to use as fewer touch on and off in Victoria.
Train myki data is much better for touch on and off in Victoria compared to the other states.
Queensland trip data is complete and open to the agencies.
VISTA data is scarce and time-dependent.
