Session 1: Small Transport Wins in Regional Victoria: Support Properity

Session: 1

Room: Supper Room

Session Title: Small Transport Wins in Regional Victoria: Support Properity

Format: Presentation and Group Discussion

Presenter Name: Benish (DoT)

Summary

• When transport is funded, the geographic disadvantage is not considered.

• Elderly populations are recognised, but not appropriately. Overall, we need bus services to capture these gaps in regional areas.

• Emphasis on systemic interventions, and single projects are not viable.

• Regional connections are often from direct A-B links to the CBD. This does not reflect the complexity of individuals’ transport needs. Consider medical services, do they need to travel to the CBD for these services? How can this be localised?

• Regional buses: Often only run in the morning and afternoon, but there is a gap in the middle of the day. The absence of a holistic timeframe means the service only services a small group of the community. Buses during just 'school-time' peak hours limit the capability of the service.

• Hyper Local, Flexible, Frequent, Integrated Towns and Cities are arranged as a 20-minute neighbourhood, but the infrastructure does not support these short, quick, and active trips.

• Consider old regional towns, these were established before cars and therefore inherently were pedestrian spaces. We can revisit this approach. We can look to the future, but sometimes we can look to the past.

• Responsive transport / On Demand: This is a new innovation. Barriers to access can affect the elderly. A case study (unnamed) moved away from fixed services, and the ridership decreased by 80%. Good in theory but needs to be carefully implemented. If additional care is focused on people with special needs.

• Challenges: The regional centres have services, but what about people who live in more rural areas. How can transport serve people who live "in the sticks"?

Session 2: Micro Mobility Design Challenge

Session: 2

Room: Supper Room

Session Title: Micro Mobility Design Challenge

Format: Creative Workshop

Presenter Name: Oscar Hayes (City of Melbourne) and Liz Irvin (Stantec)

Summary

• There is potential for Melbourne to be scooter friendly. Micro mobility design guide is the focus of the project. Infrastructure design issues were discussed.

• Parking is the most important issue for e-bikes.

• Can dedicated bike lanes be shared with e-scooters?

• To increase safety: consider speed limits and road rules regulation.

• Queensland has speed regulations for footpaths and bike lanes.

• Three themes were discussed by groups:

  • #Parking: Considered the parking at the train stations, and bus stops. What does the space look like and is charging provided? How secure will these spaces be and who owns them?

  • #Going area: Shared space with no to low car, using road spaces filtering.

  • #Arriving: Engineering design.

Session 3: Has Covid Killed Public Transport?

Session: 3

Room: Supper Room

Session Title: Has Covid Killed Public Transport?

Format: Presentation

Presenter Name: Phillip Mallis (City of Yarra)

Summary

• 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 4: The Inside 'Scooter' - Melbourne E-scooter Trial

Session: 4

Room: Supper Room

Session Title: The Inside 'Scooter' - Melbourne E-scooter Trial

Format: Discussion

Presenter Name: Samaj and Ronard (Neuron)

Summary

• Data Overview: Feb to June 2022 Average transport distance 2.16km. Average trip durations 15.5 mins, Average trip per day 7408 trips. Total trips 1194300 trips. Total distance 2580066 km.

• Contribute to supporting Melbourne's major events; 41% of users said that the environmentally friendly nature of e-scooters was a factor.

• The shared bike lane network has also a low rate of accidents.

• 65% of scooter users indicated they made a purchase at the start or end of their trip.

• Daily public complaints decreased quickly after the launch.

• Concerns: Parking, footpath use, user noncompliance, reporting systems.

• Will private e-scooter users become public e-scooter users if the regulations are tightended?

Session 5: How do real people travel around the city loop?

Session: 5

Room: Supper Room

Session Title: How do real people travel around the city loop?

Format: Workshop

Presenter Name: Chris Loader (DoT)

Summary

• Based on people's lives experience, they choose the best answer to each transfer scenario.

• A workshop to understand how people recognise the station as a node and identify the gap between recommended transfer routes on Google maps or PTV and actual human preferences.

• People tend to prioritise how they feel when they are at the station rather than to what extent the station is convenient to transfer. But generally, frequency of getting the line is the most important thing.

• What if you cannot travel directly to your destination station? Would you transfer? Where? Why?

Session 5: Cultural Landscape

Session: 5

Room: Portico Room

Session Title: Cultural Landscape

Format: Presentation

Presenter Name: Heather (Geelong City Council)

Summary

• Aboriginal people have settled in Moorabool and Barwon Rivers, but those lands were not preserved based on their cultural landscape.

• Evidence of heritage is limited to tangible things, however, consider the intangible method of First Nations Storytelling. First Nations' cultural heritage and identity are often framed through the western planning system and the inclusion as stakeholders.

• Strong People Strong Country Policy- developed and led by First Nations People. Introduces a re-framing where inclusion is explored through how the identity of the Traditional owners is dependent on the health of the Country and their environment.

• This is a shift away from policies that looked at inclusion from a stakeholder perspective, that in a way forced First Nations people to engage with the western/colonial planning system. How can policies support First Nations individuals that do not live in their Country, this is particularly common as a consequence of the Stolen Generation.

Session 5: Gender, Transport, and its Numerous Intersections

Session: 5

Room: Melbourne Room

Session Title: Gender, Transport, and its Numerous Intersections

Format: Open Discussion

Presenter Name: Zoe (Merri-bek), Elise (CrowdSpot), and Adam (Merri-bek)

(Photograghed by Benish

Summary

• Highly skewed and underrepresented numbers of women and non-binary people in cycling in Melbourne and Victoria. Removing the barriers to entry of bicycle riding

• The gender gap in cycling (Elise): Absence in policy for people that do not identify as men or women. We need to shift the conversation from increasing cycling opportunities for women to increasing the opportunity for anyone facing barriers. Some barriers include: safety, and raising children. Transport data should be provided with a gender breakdown.

• People ride to train stations when the alternatives are poor.

• Designing cross-community routes rather than just 'journeys to work'. There is no data on these journeys because they are currently not catered for. No safe infrastructure that allows women to give things a try and have the opportunity to "fail".

• Safety exists in many forms, including injury risk and the perceived safety of other people using the space.

• Lighting is a concern in footpath safety. Roads have lights, but footpaths do not. However, lighting is not the only concern for gender inclusion.

• Findings: Girls stopped using bicycles when moving from primary school to high school. Boys are given more freedom to travel to school independently.

• It's about pushing that market, activating new infrastructure, and making sure people are aware. Consider micro-mobility as a mitigating solution for last-mile, after-dark trips.

• Many people in typically female-dominated jobs will use scooters and won't cycle -

• E-cargo bike trials (Zoe): - Doing persona route mapping, rich heat map of trips women are choosing. Most people who haven't cycled or used cargo bikes are returning to cycling after having children. Mapping is showing routes taken, routes being avoided, and what streets young families and women are riding on. If we do more of these trials, we can target infrastructure and show where we should be investing it.

• Need quantitative and qualitative data - the stories of community members

Session 5: Parking and Business Viability

Session: 5

Room: Regent Room

Session Title: Parking and Business Viability

Format: Discussion

Presenter Name: Patel

Summary

• Traders want car parking. An intercept survey found parking concession does not impact availability.

• DoT focuses on the reuse of the parking assets than replacement.

• Commercial pricing of the parking may be decided by the preference of or the parking value of people.

• One of third of the parking space reduction went unnoticed in a busy business area.

• Parking permits also delay and increase the expenses of the business.

• Dynamically allocation of parking is also important. Sharing the right message to the community or politicians would also promote a change of thinking and understanding that the cost of living increases more with more parking spaces.

Session 6: Shark Tank Pitch for Innovation

Session: 6

Room: Supper Room

Session Title: Shark Tank

Format: Discussion and Q&A

Presenter Name: Multiple

(Photograph by Phillip Mallis, 2022).

Summary

• First: Peter Parker The Future Frequent Network The Future Frequent Network (Interactive map: www.melbourneontransit.blogstop.com). Transformed Transit for Melbourne Every 10 minutes every day. Long-term network vision.

• Second: Demand Responsive Transit Three: Free Public Transportation Funded by Paid Parking.