I had a Sunday gig at the Australian Film Institute’s AACTA Festival down at Surfers Paradise and decided I’d try the train rather than driving there and back.
I think I was visiting your fair city when the 50 cent fare thing dropped, although not in time for me to take advantage of it.
At the risk of sounding like a socialist hippy, provision of universal basic services, like accessible and cheap or free transport, healthcare, education, etc, really should be the hallmarks of a civilised and caring society. The impact of cheap public transport on society cannot be underestimated, not just economically but in terms of social cohesion and engagement. The article references a huge uptick in leisure trips on the weekend, with people visiting cultural centres etc which can only provide a net benefit to them and to society as a whole.
The false economy of wanting public transport "to pay for itself" just incentivises people to not use it. Pre-COVID I switched jobs from a site slightly outside the CBD that provided free parking to staff, to a site adjacent to the CBD that did not, and I did the sums on the merits of catching public transport to the new job or driving in and paying for parking. I found myself with either the choice of a very long and tedious bus ride, or driving to my local train station, paying a small amount for parking there, and then catching the train (MUCH faster, more pleasant, more efficient). I found it would cost almost as much for either of those two options as it would for me to drive and pay for parking. Toss in the opportunity cost of avoiding interacting with the great unwashed and sitting in my car and listening to my podcasts/music, and then be able to run errands direct from work without having to go home and collect my car first, and paying the few dollars more a day for parking became a no brainer. Had that bus or train fare cost me 50c, there's no way I could have justified the selfishness of driving a near empty car into the CBD each day. (I'm making up for it now by working from home full time which means I don't drive anywhere 😇).
This must be one of the rare instances where a nakedly populist policy has also proven itself to be good policy in the best interests of the community it impacts. Bravo Mr Miles.
my local area is going through a "culture is bad, mmmkay" moment. Two new local council members voted in on their work to squash a previous special rate rise are providing balance sheets to the public sphere showing how many millions our arts and museum centres lose as an operating loss (ignoring the sports centres that make even more of a loss). My worry is that the 50c thing will go the same way. It will be wheeled out as "look how much this costs" for some political football issue. But don't look at the benefit, that doesnt fit on a balance sheet anyway, so who can say what it really does for the area as a whole, and people will just lap it up, or enough of them to make a difference at the polling booth.
Its like WFH, you get less stress in employees, less travel, meaning more time to do small chores (or sleep in) in the usual travel time, freeing up time on the weekend for actual leisure. And still being able to get work done (if it isnt a f2f role of course).
I fear that much of the backlash to WFH has been led by commercial property investors looking at the value of all their CBD office blocks crashing as they empty out, and so they're desperate to drag workforces kicking and screaming back into the office so they can charge obscene rents to your employers.
Oh, and to help cafe owners. Can't forget the most consulted constituency in the country 🙄
WFH doesnt fit that old narrative of control of the worker. "You must be miserable, we can't control happy people". Very pessimistic, but the news cycle has put me in that hole lately :)
Oh there’s definitely that too. There’s a whole layer of middle management who need to either justify their existence or can’t conceive of managing people who are not present to be monitored in real time
I think I was visiting your fair city when the 50 cent fare thing dropped, although not in time for me to take advantage of it.
At the risk of sounding like a socialist hippy, provision of universal basic services, like accessible and cheap or free transport, healthcare, education, etc, really should be the hallmarks of a civilised and caring society. The impact of cheap public transport on society cannot be underestimated, not just economically but in terms of social cohesion and engagement. The article references a huge uptick in leisure trips on the weekend, with people visiting cultural centres etc which can only provide a net benefit to them and to society as a whole.
The false economy of wanting public transport "to pay for itself" just incentivises people to not use it. Pre-COVID I switched jobs from a site slightly outside the CBD that provided free parking to staff, to a site adjacent to the CBD that did not, and I did the sums on the merits of catching public transport to the new job or driving in and paying for parking. I found myself with either the choice of a very long and tedious bus ride, or driving to my local train station, paying a small amount for parking there, and then catching the train (MUCH faster, more pleasant, more efficient). I found it would cost almost as much for either of those two options as it would for me to drive and pay for parking. Toss in the opportunity cost of avoiding interacting with the great unwashed and sitting in my car and listening to my podcasts/music, and then be able to run errands direct from work without having to go home and collect my car first, and paying the few dollars more a day for parking became a no brainer. Had that bus or train fare cost me 50c, there's no way I could have justified the selfishness of driving a near empty car into the CBD each day. (I'm making up for it now by working from home full time which means I don't drive anywhere 😇).
This must be one of the rare instances where a nakedly populist policy has also proven itself to be good policy in the best interests of the community it impacts. Bravo Mr Miles.
I think I'm gonna feed this comment to ChatGPT and tell it to write me a whole column based on it.
Please, take it as a gift for Chatty. Would love to see a broader discussion on it (would make my socialist hippy heart happy).
my local area is going through a "culture is bad, mmmkay" moment. Two new local council members voted in on their work to squash a previous special rate rise are providing balance sheets to the public sphere showing how many millions our arts and museum centres lose as an operating loss (ignoring the sports centres that make even more of a loss). My worry is that the 50c thing will go the same way. It will be wheeled out as "look how much this costs" for some political football issue. But don't look at the benefit, that doesnt fit on a balance sheet anyway, so who can say what it really does for the area as a whole, and people will just lap it up, or enough of them to make a difference at the polling booth.
Its like WFH, you get less stress in employees, less travel, meaning more time to do small chores (or sleep in) in the usual travel time, freeing up time on the weekend for actual leisure. And still being able to get work done (if it isnt a f2f role of course).
Oh for sure
I fear that much of the backlash to WFH has been led by commercial property investors looking at the value of all their CBD office blocks crashing as they empty out, and so they're desperate to drag workforces kicking and screaming back into the office so they can charge obscene rents to your employers.
Oh, and to help cafe owners. Can't forget the most consulted constituency in the country 🙄
WFH doesnt fit that old narrative of control of the worker. "You must be miserable, we can't control happy people". Very pessimistic, but the news cycle has put me in that hole lately :)
Oh there’s definitely that too. There’s a whole layer of middle management who need to either justify their existence or can’t conceive of managing people who are not present to be monitored in real time
Ceratinly seems a better choice.