Segways and Uber-style buses could become integral parts of Adelaide’s public transport system
ALMOST 79 per cent of Adelaide commuters drive to work – the highest rate in the five mainland capitals. But Infrastructure Minister Stephan Knoll wants to change that, seeking solutions to deliver best public transport system for greater Adelaide.
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SEGWAYS, EcoCaddies, Uber-style buses, ferries, ride-share bicycles and old-school trams.
Infrastructure Minister Stephan Knoll has vowed nothing is off the table as work begins on designing the best public transport system for greater Adelaide.
Almost 79 per cent of Adelaide commuters drive to work – the highest rate in the five mainland capitals – but growing congestion issues have many motorists reconsidering their commuting options.
Mr Knoll has told the Sunday Mail he wants to bring South Australia’s public transport service offering into the 21st century.
“Some new technologies are operating in other cities around Australia – and the world – with great success, delivering better service for commuters,” he said.
“If we can increase public transport patronage, it’ll help relieve traffic congestion and reduce commute times for everyone.”
Former State Government tram plans for Adelaide – including a line to The Parade, in Norwood, and an extension to North Adelaide – have been scrapped as Mr Knoll will ask the new South Australian Public Transport Authority (SAPTA) to consider anything and everything.
“Ultimately, the question we want SAPTA to answer is, how do we deliver the best, most efficient, reliable and cost-effective public transport system for South Australians?,” Mr Knoll told the Sunday Mail.
“That’s why we’re scrapping the AdelLink plan from the Infrastructure Australia list. Labor locked themselves into building an expensive tram network around metropolitan Adelaide and didn’t ask what is the best way to deliver public transport services?
“Labor had the blinkers on – they had a fixation on trams and closed themselves to other, possibly better, options.
“Now, trams may be one option as part of the broad plan but we don’t know that. There are a host of new technologies and we need to investigate them.”
He named uber-style buses, ecocaddies, segways as some of the technologies but how they could work - if at all - would be up to the authority to explore.
The important thing he said, was to have a fresh and modern look.
A survey by HERE Technologies in February revealed more than 60 per cent of Adelaide commuters would be willing to change their travelling habits to help ease road congestion and 53 per cent had considered doing so.
“We need to recognise all forms of transport can be part of our network – point to point, rideshare, bikeshare and on demand, first mile, last mile services as well as high-capacity services,” he said.
“At the heart of it, SAPTA will be customer-focused because our public transport network relies on hundreds of thousands of customers every day to be sustainable,” he said.
“SAPTA will provide fundamental advice about the best way forward for SA’s public transport network.
“We won’t leave any stone unturned as we look to get more and more people using public transport.”
SA Council of Social Services chief executive Ross Womersley said much of the public transport system in Adelaide was organised on an arterial basis. “The public transport system is okay if you want to come in and out of the city,” he said. “But if you want to go across suburbs it is really challenging.
“The other key issue for us is that we enhance affordability and accessibility.”
Public Sector Association secretary Nev Kitchin welcomed any conversation about enhanced public transport options.
“Thousands of public sector workers use public transport each and every day and any improvements in access to transport services would advantage the public sector workforce,” he said. Mr Kitchin said with many public sector workers using the train network it was important to make it easy to get to stations including options such as making more bike lockers accessible for the growing number of cyclists.
In November, participants in the Sunday Mail’s “Your State, Your Survey” listed many issues that kept them from using public transport:
FREQUENCY and hours of operation.
BUSES, trains and trams running behind time
DRUNK, obnoxious and unruly passengers.
DIRTY vehicles.
One in five of the 3585 people who responded to the survey said they never used public transport. Statistics from last year show that SA’s major public transport provider Adelaide Metro recorded 74.8 million boardings – a 1.1 per cent drop on the 75.6 million the previous year.
Buses were the most popular mode of travel, recording 51.12 million boardings last financial year. Trains recorded 14.38 millions boardings and trams, 9.25 million boardings, during the same period.
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