Friday Reads – 31 July 2020

The plan for open topped, COVID-safe, London buses (CityLab)

Gov’t ending message to avoid public transport (TransportXtra)

England’s new, funded cycling and walking bold vision (NickSanderson)

Salzburg – Vienna flights cancelled in favour of rail (RailJournal)

The powerful role transit plays in racial justice (Bloomberg)

Why is rail patronage 50% higher in Sydney than Melbourne? (DanielBowen)

Cartographic puzzles have long history & are making a comeback (AtlasObscura)

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3 comments

  1. I’m surprised the Sydney v Melbourne comparison does not consider traffic congestion. I have no idea of what actually occurs, but if average traffic speeds in Melbourne are higher than in Sydney this would almost certainly account for a large part of the reason why fewer people use the train.

  2. Quinlet
    Melbourne has TRAMS – seroiusly hs trams, sydney, to all intents & purposes, does not ..
    Apples / Oranges comparison.
    See here, yes? – wiki description of Melboune trams

  3. Greg T
    Yes, but Melbourne’s trams fullfill a different role than you might imagine. Thing of them as slightly larger buses. For the most part the Melbourne tram network is an old fashioned streetcar, they get stuck in traffic like a bus and are driven entirely on line of site, with really only 4 properly segregated sections, which are trivial compared with its route network. When it comes to travelling decent distances in Melbourne, you don’t use the tram, you use the train (or, more likely, drive).

    What really lets Melbourne down is the bus network, which outside of a few core routes runs every 30 mins or less, so the trains don’t get ‘fed’ outside of the inner suburbs, which means that if you’re in most of the very low density suburbs, there basically is no option that isn’t driving.

    Quinlet
    No, Melbourne’s traffic sucks pretty hard.

    (I lived there for the past 3 years)

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