The SMH runs two lovely stories today - one linking the disastrous fires in Victoria to global warming, and another on class warfare, entitled "Wealthy commuters shun public transport".
Apparently, I am one of those evil wealthy commuters that chooses to drive to work rather than catch a bus.
COMMUTERS in some of Sydney's inner and middle-ring suburbs are choosing to drive to work in almost the same numbers as their outer-suburban counterparts despite having easy access to the CBD by public transport.
Easy access? You call a meandering bus service that usually takes an hour, and sometimes an hour and a half to travel 8km, as "easy access"? Fuck you, you clowns.
Figures released yesterday by the NSW Transport Data Centre shows that about 50 per cent of workers in the Hunters Hill, Canada Bay, Lane Cove, Randwick and Mosman local government areas were electing to drive to work at the time of the 2006 census.
Well, golly gee. Maybe these people, like those in outer areas, don't work in places served by public transport. Maybe, just maybe, they don't work in the city, which is where all the bus routes go. I am working in Frenchs Forest at present - to get there by public transport would require at least 2 hours and 3 buses and a train trip. These people have all the common sense of a blow up doll.
Despite living a relatively short bus ride from the heart of the city, 54 per cent of Hunters Hill residents elected to drive to work, the figures show, while only 10 per cent caught the bus.
Dickheads. It is not a "short bus ride". It is not direct. It goes all over the place like a drunken spastic. I can walk to town in 80 minutes - a time that often beats the bus. I can cycle the long way in 40 minutes - a time that always beats the bus. Why should I catch a bus when I can often get there faster by walking? By car, it is usually 20 minutes or less.
Among the other inner and middle-ring regions, people drove to work in large numbers from the City of Canada Bay (54 per cent), Ku-ring-gai (51), Rockdale (50) Randwick (44), Lane Cove (44), and Mosman (43). The average for all of Sydney was 53 per cent.
In other words, we're just like everyone else, with difuse travel patterns. How surprising! Maybe we have a similar proportion of tradesmen, salesmen and the self employed who need to drive between various jobs each day, carrying tools or supplies or samples. Idiots.
"I think they drive to work because they can afford to," the convener of Action for Public Transport, Kevin Eadie, said.
No fuckface, they drive because the buses are already 110% full. We can't fit anymore fucking people on them. What a fucking tool.
"They've got high disposable incomes and there is a perception that public transport is below them, even if catching a train or a bus is the quicker, cheaper option."
Catching a bus from here is not cheap, and it is not quicker. As much as I dislike being squeezed into a bus with fat, sweaty, stinky blimps, I do not see it as beneath me. It's not pleasant, but I have been through much worse in my life. I can't stand the way many bus drivers throw their buses around like Fangio, making it impossible for me to read. I hate the way they slam on the brakes, which makes it impossible to nap without risking losing your teeth on the seat in front. I hate the way they sometimes never stop for you, even if the bus is almost empty.
Me, I'd rather be riding to work, and I can't stand the fact that I can't ride to my current place of employment. Us rich people are riding bikes, fucko, because it is the best option by far.
3 comments:
Well geez!
Haven't they heard of the whole "build it and they will come" concept?
Perhaps if they thought about reforming Sydney's public transport system, more people would use it.
They're over capacity as it is.
I used to live in Mosman and I can tell you unless you lived a walk away from the ferry, good luck getting down to the wharf.
The buses were almost never on time, and the ones that were, were full because they started off at cremorne.
The irony - Mosman residents not being able to use the mosman ferry.
The buses were just as bad: Of course Mosman is another suburb whose council can't afford red paint for a permanent bus lane so aside from the fact that the buses were overcrowded, under-staffed and under-funded - all of this was made ten times worse having to negotiate the spit junction and military road!
As for Randwick and Canada Bay - why should anyone have to travel into the city just to travel out again? The closest train station to Randwick is Central (anyone fancy a mugging on the way to work?)
This kind of shoddy journalism along with Eadie's presumptive policy analysis that reaches the convenient conclusion to do sweet fuck all about the situation drives me up the bloody wall.
These pinheads are single issue zealots. They drive me nuts.
First question is where are they driving to? A Randwick driver would be mad to use public transport if they were travelling to say Kogarah.
When Im in Sydney I stay in Bondi. I'd be fucking mad waiting for the 389. Driving is far better.
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