Transport discussion for the future

Transport discussion for the future

The City of Melbourne continues to release transport discussion papers to engage residents and workers about developing a contemporary transport strategy.

The latest document of a series, released on May 8, explores some of the technologies that can contribute to easing congestion in the city.

The council has proposed that a “Mobility as a Service” notion might be used in the future to provide a comprehensive platform for people to use public transport and ride share.

Mobility as a Service, a concept already in use in countries like Finland, combines private and public transport services into one integrated app that creates and manages the trip, with users paying a monthly fee.

Driverless cars, one of the most recent developments in transportation, is also discussed in the Emerging Technology document available on the Participate Melbourne website.

The council says it is possible to integrate driverless cars with public transport and lower the overall speed limit in the CBD to 30kmh.

The discussion papers aim to involve the local community to help develop new strategies to build a city with better transportation that encourages walking, cycling and public transport.

In its City Space discussion paper, the council has identified that 61 per cent of street space in the city is taken by roads and on-street car parking, and only 26 per cent is taken by footpaths and 9 per cent by trams.

Therefore, the council hopes to create designated new areas to be shared by different modes of transport, which will eventually evolve into superblocks of car-free zones.

The council also wants the government to invest in developing high-capacity, efficient bus and tram orbital routes to connect train lines and improve the commuting experience for travellers to the CBD.

The tram network could also be greatly improved by creating tram-only routes that can supercharge service delivery and punctuality.

So far the transport discussion papers released are Walking, City Space, Public Transport Network and Emerging Technology, and papers still to be released are Cycling, Parking, Motor Vehicles and Transport Pricing.

The public can contribute their thoughts and feedback on participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au/transportstrategy

Since Labor has been in power …

Since Labor has been in power …

March 20th, 2024 - Evan Mulholland
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