Yesterday I read a report on a Roy Morgan survey, to be found here...
http://www.theage.com.au/national/victorian-motorists-the-worst-carbon-emitters-20081217-70do.html
Victorian motorists the worst carbon emitters
* Mathew Murphy
* December 17, 2008 - 2:04PM
Which is abviously about how Victorians are the worst pollution emitters in the land, filling six of the top ten placings. Now looking at the survey the worst polluters are in the "Country and Outer North of Melbourne" as well "Eastern Country Victoria". Now I live in the later of these two areas and just wanted to put my 2 bob into this issue.
Some facts are... I work up in town three days a week, for a number of reasons one of which is the lack of suitable employment in the area I live that would keep me in the lifestyle I want, and have three days a fortnight working from home. My son goes to school at an inner city school, as that is where I used to live and where his mother still does. I will also add that I head up on a Wednesday, stay up in town, and head back on a Friday evening after finishing work. So I don't need to travel up and back each day... thankfully, as I am sure it would be very tiring! As such I need to travel from my Wonthaggi home to the big smoke :hihi often and I have three choices for this, being:
Now let me break down these various scenarios that I am sure many other people have done before - there are lots of cars sharing the road with me at 6.30 in the morning and, unfortunately, most of them are, also like me, single occupant vehicles. :-\
Senarios
So with the very limited public transport options available to people who live in my area, what options are there that will get us to where we need to go whilst enabling us to constrain our usage of our cars? It is my very strong belief that the Labour Govt in Victoria has failed us folk in regional areas even more than it has those people living in inner city areas and yet what do you hear of us? Reading the newspapers, or watching tellie shows you how terribly city public transport users are affected most days (which is spot on) but what about those of us who struggle to even get to a Met train station or bus stop? Where is our support so that we can do what we need to do without been made to feel guilty for using our cars so much? Where in this 'latest edition' of a public transport plan is there mention of improving our services?
The govt could make a massive difference to Gippslanders (maybe we're Gippslandish?
lives by utilising the 'already in place' train tracks that connect Yarram, Foster, Meeniyan, Leongatha, Korrumburra, Lang Lang, Koo Wee Rup (just love that name) to Cranbourne and beyond. There are also many added benefits for this train line to be brought back into use, in addition to the basic benefit of giving access to a much improved form of transport that brings with it massive savings in traveling time, but that is almost a new topic in itself. 
In all of this I also haven't mentioned when those people who have no access to public transport need to go shopping, see a dentist/ doctor, meet with friends etc etc etc
So at the end of the day just how fair is the Roy Morgan survey on this issue and did the reporting journalist give suitable coverage to the reasons why people in these areas 'need' to use their cars for more travel than others? And what is 'our' government doing to help make our lives better on this issue?
http://www.theage.com.au/national/victorian-motorists-the-worst-carbon-emitters-20081217-70do.html
Victorian motorists the worst carbon emitters
* Mathew Murphy
* December 17, 2008 - 2:04PM
Which is abviously about how Victorians are the worst pollution emitters in the land, filling six of the top ten placings. Now looking at the survey the worst polluters are in the "Country and Outer North of Melbourne" as well "Eastern Country Victoria". Now I live in the later of these two areas and just wanted to put my 2 bob into this issue.
Some facts are... I work up in town three days a week, for a number of reasons one of which is the lack of suitable employment in the area I live that would keep me in the lifestyle I want, and have three days a fortnight working from home. My son goes to school at an inner city school, as that is where I used to live and where his mother still does. I will also add that I head up on a Wednesday, stay up in town, and head back on a Friday evening after finishing work. So I don't need to travel up and back each day... thankfully, as I am sure it would be very tiring! As such I need to travel from my Wonthaggi home to the big smoke :hihi often and I have three choices for this, being:
- 1. Drive the full way up and back
- 2. Drive to Cranbourne/ Pakenham stations and catch the train up and back
- 3.Catch the VLine bus from Wonthaggi either the full way to Spencer St Station, or else get off at Cranbourne, or Dandenong, and get a train the rest of the way.
Now let me break down these various scenarios that I am sure many other people have done before - there are lots of cars sharing the road with me at 6.30 in the morning and, unfortunately, most of them are, also like me, single occupant vehicles. :-\
Senarios
- 1. To get up to town and back will use between 1/4 and 1/3 of a tank of petrol.
- I need to leave home between 6.30 and 6.50am, depending on if I need to drop my son at school 'on the way through' lol
- I know it will take me between 1 hour 40 and 2 hours 15 to get to work, also depending upon my boy
- Basing things on petrol being at $1 a litre this will cost me around $25 a week
- 2. It would use about 1/6 of a tank of petrol
- I would need to leave my car in the carpark for a number of days each week
- As the train I need leaves around 7.10am I would need to leave home at about 6.10 in the am
- If I need to get my son to school it will take nearly three hours to get to work, and about 2 hours 40 to get home. If I am just going to work it will take around the 2 hour 40 minute mark
- Petrol costs will be around $10 but MET tickets would total approximately $36 for the week
- I would be relying on Melbourne's public transport to run on time to be able to get my son to school on time and me to work on time. I have gone for this option many times and this rarely happens, which equates to me losing pay at work and being in the bosses bad books
- 3. See the above but with the following alterations
- It would take an extra 20 minutes plus to get to work
- The bus costs app $7 from Wonthaggi to Cranbourne
- As there are only two morning buses, I would need to catch the 6.15am, my options for getting to work are severely limited
- As there is only one bus that I can meet after work I wouldn't get home until around 8.30pm
- If Connex cancels a service, or is late enough to impact, then everything goes out the window and I am stuck at either Spencer St, Dandenong or Cranbourne with no foreseeable way to make it home. And the way Connex has been traveling this has to be a likely scenario
So with the very limited public transport options available to people who live in my area, what options are there that will get us to where we need to go whilst enabling us to constrain our usage of our cars? It is my very strong belief that the Labour Govt in Victoria has failed us folk in regional areas even more than it has those people living in inner city areas and yet what do you hear of us? Reading the newspapers, or watching tellie shows you how terribly city public transport users are affected most days (which is spot on) but what about those of us who struggle to even get to a Met train station or bus stop? Where is our support so that we can do what we need to do without been made to feel guilty for using our cars so much? Where in this 'latest edition' of a public transport plan is there mention of improving our services?
The govt could make a massive difference to Gippslanders (maybe we're Gippslandish?
lives by utilising the 'already in place' train tracks that connect Yarram, Foster, Meeniyan, Leongatha, Korrumburra, Lang Lang, Koo Wee Rup (just love that name) to Cranbourne and beyond. There are also many added benefits for this train line to be brought back into use, in addition to the basic benefit of giving access to a much improved form of transport that brings with it massive savings in traveling time, but that is almost a new topic in itself. In all of this I also haven't mentioned when those people who have no access to public transport need to go shopping, see a dentist/ doctor, meet with friends etc etc etc
So at the end of the day just how fair is the Roy Morgan survey on this issue and did the reporting journalist give suitable coverage to the reasons why people in these areas 'need' to use their cars for more travel than others? And what is 'our' government doing to help make our lives better on this issue?
