By Adam Carey
Finance manager Shweta Bhatti lives less than two kilometres from Mernda train station, which when it opened in 2018 plugged the residents of one of Melbourne’s fastest-growing suburbs directly into the city’s heavy rail network for the first time.
She rarely uses it.
Shweta Bhatti says driving is cheaper and easier than using public transport.Credit: Justin McManus
Even on a recent family trip into the CBD, Bhatti and her husband weighed up the cost of myki fares and time spent travelling by train against the time and cost of driving and preferred the latter.
“It was easier and cheaper to drive and park in an off-street car park,” she said.
Northern suburban Mernda sits in a housing growth corridor in the City of Whittlesea, which has had major recent investment in public transport, including the $600 million Mernda rail extension and the preceding $650 million South Morang extension, completed in 2012.
But data suggests Whittlesea’s residents remain just as reliant on their cars as they were before rail was extended into their suburbs.
It’s a rusted-on pattern of behaviour the local council wants to change, admitting that its current 10-year transport strategy has failed to shift old habits.
“The [2014] Integrated Transport Strategy was not successful in effecting any real change in mode choice, with continual strong reliance by our community on private vehicle travel, evidenced through the 89 per cent of trips to work undertaken by private car in 2021,” the council said in a report published as part of its next transport plan, which it endorsed this week.
The 89 per cent figure is based on the council’s household surveys, which differ from census data but show the same entrenched pattern of car reliance over many years.
Census data shows that in 2011, when the rail line ended at Epping station, 8.9 per cent of Whittlesea’s residents travelled to work by public transport and 74.8 per cent travelled by car.
By 2016, rail had improved its share modestly, rising to 10.9 per cent, while driving had also risen to 76.9 per cent. By the time of the pandemic-affected 2021 census, public transport travel had crashed to 4.8 per cent while car travel was at 63.5 per cent.
The council’s latest plan pins its hopes on increased density, envisioning a future scenario “concentrating new housing development in existing areas around public transport”.
“Improving densities will lead to a reduction in trip distances, which are more conducive to walking and cycling,” the plan argues.
This will require reorienting housing development away from the sprawling and poorly serviced greenfield estates where public transport is “non-existent or inadequate”, as the plan puts it, and into central parts of the municipality.
It will also require reform of the bus network, given “bus travel is often uncompetitive with car travel on journey times”.
Bhatti’s commute involves a 45-minute drive through heavy traffic to Greenvale. The same journey by bus would take roughly double the time, according to timetables.
“Encouraging public transport is a good idea but at the same time you need to provide more and better services,” says Bhatti, who is also president of the Mernda and Doreen Residents’ Association.
“The price is high, the traffic is bad and so you’re not even saving time or money. You need to give people something so that they will be encouraged to use public transport.”
Jago Dodson, professor of urban policy at RMIT University, said boosting the frequency and coverage of the bus network was the key to improving public transport use in the outer suburbs.
“The further you get out into the suburbs, the more dispersed trip patterns become, and the proportion of trips to the CBD along the rail line becomes smaller and smaller,” Dodson said.
“So yes, there has been important investment in that rail line … but to really leverage the benefits of heavy rail investment there needs to be both reform and service improvement in the bus network.”
Public Transport Users Association president Tony Morton said the Mernda rail extension was “a great piece of infrastructure” but that it needed a network of supporting buses fanning out into the wider community.
“It’s great that you can go to South Morang or Mernda station, but you get there and then you’re stuck. There are no useable bus services, and minimal provision for non-motor-car transport, other than the odd bike lane here and there,” he said.
Whittlesea is not the only car-dependent outer suburban council searching for ways to promote other types of travel. Neighbouring Nillumbik Shire, which is centred on Eltham and Diamond Creek, released its own draft transport strategy this week.
Nillumbik is serviced by the Hurstbridge line, which has also had its capacity boosted by a $530 million state government duplication project, which was completed last year.
Data suggests its residents have also become even more car reliant.
“In 2001, just 25.8 per cent of the Nillumbik population owned three or more vehicles compared to 31.6 per cent in 2021,” its draft plan states.
Census data shows just 3 per cent of residents used public transport to get to work in 2021, down from 9.8 per cent in 2016 and 8.6 per cent in 2011.
The hilly, low-density council area is looking at “micro-mobility” solutions such as e-bikes and e-scooters to encourage people to leave the car at home for short trips.
It is even considering cutting the amount of unlimited free car parking it provides in town centres, after surveys of four car parks found all but one were less than half full on average.
“The abundance of free parking available at activity centres in Nillumbik is a key factor driving short, private vehicle trips that could easily be completed on foot,” its report states.
“Nillumbik’s car-centric infrastructure and culture reinforces the idea that owning a car is necessary for everyday life. The area’s road network is primarily designed for motor vehicle use, with limited bike lanes and pedestrian infrastructure.”
Dodson, the urban policy expert, cautioned that local council plans to push public and active transport are undermined by the car-centric design of shopping centres, schools and hospitals.
“So much is broken and wrong about the way we do transport and land-use planning in our growth areas. A local transport plan can probably fix some of the local elements like streetscape design, bike lanes and good pedestrian crossings, but it’s very hard for them to fix some of the larger-scale issues.”
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