Sorry John Passant (Letters, July 6), but the Chief Minister Jon Stanhope's election year suggestion of free bus travel for all will do absolutely nothing to put more bums on seats.
Admittedly it would be nice for the 10 per cent of Canberrans who currently use buses, however, they will use them whether they are free or not.
The problem is not the cost.
The problem is reaching that 35 per cent of potential users the recent AAMI survey identified as not using buses because they do not go where they need to go, when they want to go there.
My solution is to find out when and where the public need to go then provide a bus service that gets them there.
I pride myself on being pretty tight-fisted, but even I won't travel to a place I do not want to be just because it is free. I am even less motivated when I have to freeze my backside off just for the privilege.
My local bus shelter (in Stanhope's electorate) consists of a concrete slab while its luxury twin across the street features an attached wooden bench.
All of which means that despite talk of potential reduced emissions, less peak-hour traffic and an enhanced sense of community, it is simply not going to happen. Much like, I fear, this promise of free bus travel around our city.
Mike Crowther, Community Alliance candidate for Ginninderra
My thanks to John Passant for listing the usual theoretical arguments for using buses.
But transport policy must surely start from the observation that, mostly, we don't use them.
Making buses free won't matter much. We know how much we pay to drive, we went to school.
The modest congestion in this small, sprawling city can be reduced by road engineering, pollution soon removed by plug-in hybrids and the disadvantaged separately assisted.
Passant's extra $20 million for free tickets takes the bus subsidy to $90million a year ($900 a household).
Also, more peak-hour buses, when they're not out enhancing our sense of community by squeezing us ever so tightly together, can sit, unused, the remaining 22 hours a day, demanding their massive purchase loans be repaid.
Betty Frank, Chifley
Sometimes one has to go backwards to go forwards, and public services are a perfect example.
It is fascinating that it has taken our esteemed leader, Chief Minister Jon Stanhope, nearly five years to decide free buses may be the solution to our traffic problems.
He should perhaps look to W.Edwards Deming, who pioneered quality management after World War II, where he stated some elements of an organisation may need to make a loss so that the entire organisation can profit.
Community services clearly fall into this category, with buses, rubbish, and other services provided from our rates and charges so we as a community benefit.
A free bus service, with greater flexibility on routes and times and, critically, with timed connections and going to the places people need (airport, Hume, Mitchell etc), may very well wean people off the teat of their cars and on to public transport, easing other problems.
One really wonders, however, if Stanhope really wants people out of their cars and on to buses when he reaps the revenue he does from parking fines and speed cameras.
Surely if he felt this way he would simply budget for it and do it.
Charles Ironside , Wanniassa
Solar price not shiny
Potential owners of domestic photovoltaic solar panels may imagine that they will make an effective contribution to slow global warming.
Genevieve Wauchope, of the Conservation Council, champions the ''small is beautiful'' notion, only achievable because an energy utility will buy surplus electricity at a grossly inflated price and a government will compel users to supplement its purchase.
The feed-in tariff of 3.88 times the normal price will be guaranteed for 20 years.
It is at least five to six times the present average cost to the utility and double what it would cost ActewAGL to produce using commercial solar power.
Domestic solar is not cost-effective. One might wonder if supporters are serious about tackling global warming.
John Bromhead, Rivett
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff