Why West Australia Government Should Spend More Money to Improve Public Transport - Case Study Example

Running Head: Government Spending Name Course Lecturer Date Why west Australia government should spend more money to improve public transport. There are many forms of public transport in west Australia. Public transport in west Australia is served with a mixture of various means, among them being substantial system of commuter rail lines transport, extensive highway network for bus and coach services and air transport. Public transport is managed by transperth agency which is responsible for overseeing the planning and implementation of public transport development strategies. There is zero – fare trains to various points offered by the trains to special people like persons with disability and the elderly persons in the state. West Australia has the highest number of people in the commonwealth of Australia. The rate of population increase is very high in this state as (Kenworthy pg25 -28) explains. This report seeks to bring out the reasons why the west Australia government should spend money to improve the public transport. Apprehension about the life ability of west Australia’s public transport and decreasing quality of life is growing. The Infrastructure Australia report on state of west Australia public transport identifies the challenges and opportunities and calls for effective and innovative responses to ensure the sustainability and live ability of public transport improvement (Chen pg 225-252). The time has come for an unprecedented dedication and investment by the west Australian government into public transport improvement and the efficient operation of the road network in cities by increasing the allure and use of public transport in rails transport, air transport, cycling and walking. Another reason why public transport should be improved is to avoid costs of congestion in Perth, Adelaide and other west Australian cities. The preventable cost of congestion in cities has been anticipated at $9.4bn in 2005; this is including $1.1 billion in air pollution costs and is expected to rise to $20.4 billion by 2020 if the public transport system is not improved as the Infrastructure Australia report on state of west Australia public transport of 2010 projects, taking a grave toll on the state’s financially viability and social well-being. Transport emissions are also projected to augment by more than twenty two percent between year 2007 and year 2020 (vision 2020) (Tupin pg434-453).  As such, building more roads would only encourage more use of personal cars and hence increased pollution. However, investing on public transport improvement would come in handy in reducing costs associated with air pollutions as more people opt for public transport, reducing the number of personal cars in use. Accordingly natives who use public transport benefit very much from augmented physical activity related with use of trains, buses, ferries, bicycles and other forms of mass transit. A research done by bus Australia has institute that people who use public transport in Perth are likely to be getting their optional level of physical movement during their travel. Therefore active transport has the ability to tackle a lot of social drawbacks by on condition that affordable public transport options, improved incidental objective activity and enhanced social relations and connectedness are improved. Having a bicycle and walking in a pleasant environment increases ease of access and social amenity for all west Australians. The incidental physical activity which is associated with dynamic transport may present benefits especially to lower income groups (Murray pg 175 - 188). In this regard improving public transport will diversify transport means and reduce the reliance of using buses and trains for transport, this will also reduce travelling costs as use of bicycles and walking will be used. In addition, safety concerns are among the most noteworthy barriers preventing inhabitants from using the public transport. A combination of factors such as speed, volume of traffic and deficiency of designed area for people to use public transport or walk are major factors in actual as well as apparent risk for use of public transport. The national road safety strategy has acknowledged that lower speed limits in areas and times of higher pedestrian and cycling activity are efficient interventions to improve road safety for susceptible road users. Australian research has as well found that lowering speed limits in urban areas has negligible effect on travel time and has high level support from the society. Pedestrians and cyclists are sometimes disregarded in the design and planning of our public transportation systems, to accommodate pedestrians walking to and from work, cyclists and other public transport users the west Australia government needs improve the public transport (Chen pg 225-252). Improving the public transport system will not only make public transport accessible to all but will significantly reduce safety concerns that prevent residents from using public transport. Consequently the state government should improve public transport by implanting the latest technology which involves the dual-voltage trams that are able to run on train tracks for greater elasticity and provide the benefits of mutually trains and average trams. This dual – voltage trams function up to one hundred kilometers per hour on devoted rail corridors, compared to only seventy kilometers per hour for the trams and can function alongside other commuter trains and freight trains as well as on street systems. This tram line can be designed to lessen impact on traffic ability. Addition the tram will be able to run to many different places thereby collecting as many persons. People are more receptive to technology and therefore this will attract a lot of people and increase the number of public transport users. Moreover to improve public transport there is need for about three hundred additional buses over the subsequent decades, the state government should convey bus feeder services linking local areas to dedicated rail corridors and high-frequency bus corridors. The ever popular O-Bahn needs also to be upgraded with planned station redevelopments at key interchanges and a review of how buses get from the exits into the cities. In the same course the government should introduce a new state of the art ticketing system to complete the revitalization. To make Perth and other west Australia cities to be Australia’s most live able cities, there needs investment of almost two billion dollars over the next decade to improve public transport network. This will deliver initiatives to improve Perth public transport network into a vibrant, state-of-the-art system providing faster, cleaner, more frequent and efficient services for train, tram and bus commuters (Mees pg 12-15). With such programs of works and other ambitious strategic plans, it will improve public transport and position Perth and other west Australia cities to be sustainability. Furthermore heavy reliance on personal motor vehicle is a key drain on domestic finances and on government budget. Compared to other regions with better substitute transport options, car reliance regions are strained to use more of their funds on transport. These added costs take in bigger (more costly) roads in an effort to cater for heavier traffic (whether financed through taxes and/or tolls), high car operation costs such as fuel and repairs, and car acquisition and financing costs for every family unit member of driving age. This car reliance drains capital away from more fruitful investments or spending that has stronger local economic benefits. The research carried out by the national road safety strategy indicate that governments that try to cater for high level of traffic resulting from car reliance will also unearth much of their finance siphoned off for road building at the expense of improving the public transport. This can be abridged by improving access to superior quality public transport and making active transport available. Finally transport researchers currently recognize that trying to unravel congestion by increasing road capacity is like trying to solve obesity by loosening the belt. Know-how has verified time and again that new or expanded roads encourage more traffic that in turn ensures more people to spend more time in gridlock as (Mogridge 1997; PTUA 2008b, pp.15-20) explains. The state government should therefore spend more money to improve public transport instead of building roads. References Chen, Anthony, et al. "Capacity reliability of a road network: an assessment methodology and numerical results." Transportation Research Part B: Methodological 36.3 (2002): 225-252. Kenworthy, Jeffrey, and Felix Laube "The millennium cities database for sustainable transport. Database" (2001) Mees, Paul A very public solution: Transport in the dispersed city. 2000. Ming, W & Chris, R "Inverse associations between cycling to work, public transport, and overweight and obesity: findings from a population based study in Australia." Preventive medicine 46.1 (2008): 29-32. Murray, Alan T. "Strategic analysis of public transport coverage." Socio-Economic Planning Sciences 35.3 (2001): 175-188. Tupin, Florence, et al. "Detection of linear features in SAR images: application to road network extraction." Geo-science and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on 36.2 (1998): 434-453. Read More