The auto drains valuable resources - Frank Fisher

...our approaches to resolving Australia’s urban transport difficulties are piecemeal and that what limited success we have (notably in Perth) arose from the remarkable generalising influence of an outsider, environmental scientist, Prof. Peter Newman. So far however, the successes have not involved any large scale inroads into the use of the private urban commuter vehicle, or DODO, as Australia’s primary means for urban commuting let alone into the use of trucks instead of trains for goods transport. The DODO or Driver Only Driver Owned commuter car exercises its seductive hold over urban commutation through its very dedication to a single person. In the first instance it does it by privatising ownership to its (owner-)driver which secures and ensures his/her continuous access to it. The apparent freedoms provided by that dedication, by the widely accessible monetary resources to secure (owner-)dedication and by the equally widespread (if nowadays wilfull) ignorance to the planetary consequences of DODOs, are among the many difficult binds we must unpick in the effort to wean ourselves off default use of DODOs for all transport duties.

Currently the dedication to the DODO accounts for something like a third of all our energy use. In saying this i am including the energy costs of building, maintaining, monitoring and deconstructing the motor car and all its supporting infrastructures. These costs cover such diverse activities as a good proportion of hospital emergency activities, a significant proportion of government bureaucracies, one part of which will be the defence forces dedicated to maintaining oil supply lines and another being provision of foreign relations services to facilitate them. Were we to attempt to cover all the energy costs of the car and its supporting infrastructures, we would need to offset the energy demands of rectifying environment and human health damage inflicted by its many-faceted emissions - only one of which is CO₂! Other emissions from its operation are a variety of noxious gases, particulates, heat, vibration, noise … . Beyond its operational environmental costs are the pollution implications associated with driving its infrastructures, their construction and all their supporting infrastructures in turn. To make good these extensive and comprehensive environmental damages would likely take more energy than we currently use for everything. Taking implications such as these into consideration implies an operational efficiency in moving that Driver very close to zero. On top of this, governments desperate to reduce their fossil fuel dependency are now beginning to support fuelling this process from foodstuffs (corn, sugar, canola …) forcing up the price of foodstuffs. The use of foodstuffs to drive DODOs moves us way beyond the inefficiencies in using grain for feed lot beef because a far smaller proportion of the fuel provided to a car (<1%[ii]) actually goes to move its driver, than goes to “fuel” a grain fed steer’s production of meat! If grain-fed beef is a reprehensible use of grain, how much less acceptable are grain-fed DODOs?...

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Frequent, Free, and Popular

It’s frequent and it’s free.

Since it began two years ago, more than two million passengers have been using the hugely popular Central Business District (CBD) Shuttle Bus to get them across town. Tourists, elderly people, shoppers, young people and office workers are taking advantage of the free ride.

The New South Wales (NSW) Government’s Free CBD Shuttle Bus has been so popular since it started its route in December 2008 that around 3,500 people a day have been riding the free public transport to travel in and around Sydney’s CBD. AustraliaForum

More Public Transport Waste

More Public Transport Waste

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We need public transit - not more roads

Lee Rhiannon NSW Senate Candidate

Commenting on secret government documents released through the NSW Upper House Greens MP and transport spokesperson Lee Rhiannon has called on the NSW government to scrap city motorway upgrade plans and fast track public transport projects. Read more...

You have a choice

We have another candidate!

Free Public Transport Advocate Adam Butler in the race for Reid, NSW

I don’t know who said that but I think it sums up many things. “Be the change you want to see” is what Ghandi said. But you can’t do that unless you choose to do it. It’s the same with your choices on election day. If you want to see genuine progress in our community then you need to start making choices that allows genuine progress.

As I see it, the two old political parties have had ample opportunity to move our community toward genuine progress (decades in fact). They have failed. Both the Howard era and now the Rudd era have been a step backwards from genuine progress. By genuine progress I mean improvements in an individual’s health, education and safety. But genuine progress also means including our natural environment. For you see, we live in a society not an economy yet so many of the decisions made in Canberra are made based on financial implications rather than societal ramifications.

Under Howard our homes got bigger (we have the largest homes in the world) and our waistlines got bigger (we are one of the fattest nations in the world). Yet as a society we aren’t any happier. The change to the Rudd government in 2007 was met with great anticipation. The greatest moral and economical challenge of our time (climate change) has now become not so important. In an essay for The Monthly entitled “Faith in Politics”, Kevin Rudd said this about refugees, “The parable of the Good Samaritan is but one of many which deal with the matter of how we should respond to a vulnerable stranger in our midst.” Soon after he said “I make absolutely no apology whatsoever for taking a tough line on asylum seekers.” Aren’t we fed up with this kind of hypocrisy?

The Australia Government continues to spend billions of dollars on the “war on terror” when that money should be used on education, health and public transport. Massive defence spending does not contribute to genuine progress but investing in our people certainly does.

I ask you, what shall it be? More of last century’s thinking by the old parties or a new tact by a young and enthusiastic party wanting a positive and genuinely prosperous future.

When you are standing in that polling booth you will be faced with a choice. It is only when you exercise your right to choose that you can also exercise your right to change. AdamButler

Zero-fare Public Transport - EcoForum

There are a number of towns and cities across the world which offer free public transport at the time of boarding. This is sometimes called Zero-fare public transport.

Funding for public tranport is instead allocated from taxes. This enables faster, more efficient rides due to the lack of ticketing and allows for more regular services and routes to be added.

Several studies show that the number of people using public transport after it is made free soars, which is great for the environment and for the living standards of our cities, streets, and neighbourhoods.

Because taxes support the system instead, the quality of the public transport is not reduced and because the number of cars on the roads is reduced, the public have clearer, less noisy air and a greater feeling of community.

This is needed in Sydney - where there is the craziest bus system, that certain buses are cashless - no ticket no ride - not too good for tourists visiting the city EcoForum

More Millions to be Wasted on a Ticketing System

The NSW State Government just doesn't get it. They seem to think that it is OK to spend millions of dollars on a TICKETING SYSTEM. One that will not attract more customers or increase the capacity of the transport network. Read more here....

Relieving the state of the burdens associated with running a user-pays system by having free public transport will see us more forward in leaps and bounds....if only they'd get their hands out of their pockets and open their eyes.

Another Free Public Transport Candidate

Residents also want a representative who will fight to stop a tunnel and freeways as a solution to the transport chaos every rush-hour. We need free, expanded and integrated public transport to get people out of cars and also to protect the environment. Socialist Party Australia

Carbon trading could lead to forest destruction

The United Nations guideline only defines trees (as carbon absorbers) based on high, without any detail of the species. Therefore, he argued that the proposal will allow Indonesia to receive more benefits from REDD based on the expansion of green areas.

However, this reason in fact sounds funny. The basic paradigm of REDD is avoiding deforestation. The incentives of this scheme are based on the ability of a country to avoid deforestation from its natural forest. Donors are not stupid and do not facilitate funding for areas that are not naturally forested. It seems to be that the Indonesian government would like to receive double benefits from oil palm: the investment on plantation development as well as REDD compensation from its status as trees. Are they joking?

This is actually the reason why we should not think REDD is identical to carbon trading. If REDD is identical to carbon trade, and forests are only perceived as carbon capturers, this mechanism is dangerous. Forest rehabilitation will not consider forest as integrated ecosystems and the importance of biodiversity will be neglected.... The Jakarta Post Yansen , Queensland Fri, 03/19/2010 11:09 AM Opinion