Discussion On Public Transportation System

Question

Task: What are the current deficiencies of public transport provisioning for a local government or metropolitan area of your choice, and what transport policy reforms would you recommend that would improve the quality and quantity of public transport services, and increase the modal share of public transport to 30% of all trips over the next 10 years?

Answer

Introduction
Within the public transportation system, the transport policies deal with the growth and development of the set of propositions and constructs which are established for the achievement of the specific objectives that are related to the social, environmental, and economic conditions along with the performance and functioning of the public transportation system. As stated by Brown et al., (2017, p. 614), the purpose is to assist in the direction for determining as well as planning for the future needs of transportation and thus, establishing the policies for bringing about certain goals for the private and public sector. Thus, the present study highlights the transport policies of the public transportation system of Adelaide, Australia. It focuses on the deficiencies within the public transportation system, the recommendation for the improvement of the quality and quantity, and the solutions for increasing the modal share of transportation by 30% of the overall trips.

Discussion
The current deficiencies of the public transport the provisions for the local government of Adelaide
The core objectives of transport policies
Before stepping into the deficiencies of the public transportation, there are certain core objectives that are needed to be appreciated to which the transport policies are directed, such as:

Political
As viewed by Delbosc and Currie (2016, p. 30), the political sphere of Australia is segregated into various political entities as they are established for the economic advantages, a progression of the common culture, as well as mutual protection and thus, the transportation, performs the most vital role within the methods of its operations and functions. The political objective of the public transportation system in Australia is effectual and capable of principally determining the way it could help in efficiently communicating and disseminating crucial information, facts, and figures to the overall country. Thus, it plays a major role in the transport policies regarding the transmission of messages and information for the movement of people and goods as well as the quick movement of military forces during any emergency.

Economic
As opined by Delbosc and Naznin (2019, p. 110), the efficient mobility within the cities helps in generating the economic opportunities, facilitating the access for trade through enabling the trade along with making the efficient utilization of the resources. Thus, the economic objective of the transport policies within the public transport of Adelaide, Australia is the major contributor for both the local and national economy through the assistance of diverse rangers of hi-tech and skilled jobs that it offers to the public directly.

Environmental
As viewed by Harris et al., (2018, p. 113), the environmental objectives of the transport policies in Adelaide, Australia is essential in contributing to the factor of urban sustainability. The effective environmental objective within the transport policies that incorporates the public transit and effective networks of transportation helps in lowering the per capita carbon footprint of the city along with making the city more livable through easing the transportation and commuting needs and the increase of accessibility. Thus, it even helps in conserving the natural resources along with the reduction of air pollution as well as the harmful levels of ozone. It also helps in reducing the wear and tear of the city by cutting down the traffic.

Social
As observed by Kaye et al.,(2019, p. 279), the efficiency of the social objective of the public transport policies in Adelaide, Australia helps in providing the capacity for the individuals for accessing the city centres, while also allowing them the valuable public spaces that are to be utilised for cycling, walking, relaxing as well as enjoying the city. The social objectives of the transport policies in Australia are increasingly encouraging the promotion of cycling and walking as the important modes of transportation in Adelaide.

Financial
The financial objective of the transport policy for public transportation in Adelaide, Australia ensures the proper financing mechanism that is vital for the development of the networks of public transport as well as the sustainable development of the urban area. As said by Liu et al., (2019, p. 82), the objective is to maintain a proper balance between the revenue and cost by using the subsidies as well as the alternative revenue source, so that the farebox revenue covers the overall cost of the transportation.

Institutional context needed for transport policy
There are four stage covered by the institutional context to form the transport policy within the public transportation system of Adelaide, Australia such as:

Regulations
The institutional context helps in setting the standard of the services along with fixing the schedules, routes, fares and regulation, under which the transport will operate along with the registration of the vehicle as well as the issue of permits.

Strategic planning
This arena includes the decision-making processes regarding the long term planning, the policy formulation, development of the vision as well as financial strength (Lohmann and Trischler, 2017, p. 32).

Specialized Public and private operations
It focuses upon the bus operations along with the rail and metros. This level also handles the Intermediate public transport as well as the para-transits.

Construction and maintenance
The institutional context helps in the construction of highways along with the urban roads, brigades, and flyovers in the city.

What are the deficiencies within the public transportation system?
There are certain disadvantages related to the public transportation system of Adelaide, Australia such as the distributional effects of the inadequate infrastructure of transportation and services have not been taken care of and the inequitable distribution regarding the services of public transportation as the public transport shares the most non-working trips within the outer urban areas. As evidenced by Low (2017, p. 190), the passengers of the Australian public transportation system such as trains, trams, and buses are venting their anger over the inadequate services at the heavy price. The environmental factors are also rising within the cities of Australia like Adelaide, Sydney and Perth such as the inadequate parking as well as the high petrol prices and it seems like the federal government of the country isn’t really interested to look after such issues. Meanwhile, the state-run public transportation systemis failing and Adelaide has lost more than a million bus passengers since last year following the cut of $20 million from the funding of public transport. The public transport user association stated that the wait for 30 minutes has been common for the buses and the car park of the stations get filled up by the first hour of the morning. As expressed by McCue (2017, p. 233), all the public transportation system within the country are stated to have high and expensive fares. Thus, the lack of coordinated and integrated public transportation plan has created the plague of the rat run that generates the shortcuts of the peak hour, which is unable to tackle the heavy traffic and even the smartcard system is also criticized for their failings.

Transport policy reforms recommended for the improvement of quantity and quality of the public transport services
The transport policies within the Australian city of Adelaide need to be improved in order to enhance the quality as well as the quantity of the public transport that is as follows:

Mode of choice for public transport
For sake of the liveability of the society as well as the economic welfare, the public transportation system of Australia must have the superiority for being the alternative of the car travel for most of the people as well as the viable option for every individual in the city of Adelaide. The association of the public transport users rejects the proposition that the public transportation system is only for the commuters of the central city and the last resort for the schoolchildren as well as the old-age pensioners. As viewed by Mulley and Tsai (2016, p. 20), this means that the service quality should compete with the private cars upon the fundamental measures like convenience and speed. Thus, it is by doing this that the public transportation system will help in attracting the choice of passengers, which are with an alternative. Hence, this choice passenger will help in bringing the revenue as well as the impetus regarding the enhancement of service that facilitates everyone. Thus, the decision-makers must meet the challenge of transport mode choices along with realising the environmental, social and economic benefit.

Time is the essence
The transport policy must improve its norms by providing the door to door time of travel which is competitive with the other modes and is especially to the cars. As the public transportation system has two of the major components like the travelling time and the waiting time, the transport policies of Australia must improve its reforms in order to reduce both this component for the succession of the public transportation system. As reviewed by Mulley et al., (2016, p. 48), the shorter waiting-time requires higher frequencies of service such as the tram, bus, and trains within the Adelaide city, seven days within a week, till the midnight along with the frequent services that are necessary during the peak hours and thus, the service coordination must be upgraded. On the other hand, the shorter travelling time must be promoted by increasing the average speed of the public vehicles as Adelaide has some of the slow rail service in Australia. Thus, the upgrade of the power supply along with the better utilisation id the technology could help in raising the speed by 20%. Moreover, the buses and rams should receive the priority over the road traffic by the enforced and effective fairway public transportation systemalong with more dedicated lanes as well as the absolute preference at the traffic signals.

Improved customer services
As expressed by Nurlaela (2018, p. 012071), the transport policies of the Australian government should offer the clean, friendly and safe environment. It requires the roving staff who must have the first priorities regarding the passenger welfare as well as the staff at each and every station from the first to the last train. Thus, it will help in improving the customer services, reduction of fare evasion, declining vandalism along enhancing the safety of passengers. According to this, the employees of public transport should be selected as well as trained to treat the passengers like the valuable customer instead of treating them as the suspicion targets. The transport policies should incorporate the reforms of clean, comfortable, safe stations, bus and tram stops along with the updated time table, routes as well as availability of wayfinding information. Thus, the accurate information on real-time should be available at the major interchanges along with the off system via the internet as well as the mobile phone apps regarding the overall service of the public transport.

Adequate fares
As suggested by Osborne and Grant-Smith (2017, p. 49), the fares of public transport should be settled at the competitive economic level of the cars so that the prospective passengers are not chased away by the expenses of the public transportation system. The decision-makers should also be mindful regarding the disadvantaged people within the city who basically rely upon affordable public transportation. Hence, a detailed fare policy must be constructed by the decision-makers and thus, the tickets for the public transportation should be widely available that includes the trams as well as involving the single-use of ticket that ensures the passenger has the opportunity for paying their fares. Therefore, all the above-mentioned reforms can be implemented through demonstration projects for sufficient improvement that will be carried out with the cooperation of PTUA, operators, local councils, VicRoads and the community groups of the country within the city of Adelaide that helps in enhancing both the quality and the quantity if the public transportation system within the urban areas.

Recommendation for increasing the modal share of the transport by 30% of the overall trips within 10 years
There are certain solution for increasing the modal share of public transport by 30% within the city of Adelaide in Australia in its overall trips within the next 10 years, and thus, the points are as follows:

Measuring the present modal share with conducting an analysis of the potential modal share ad setting of targets
As viewed by Stanley et al., (2019, p. 229), the decisionsregarding transport policy must be taken after collecting relevant data for understanding the existing situation within the city and thus, should measure the number of commuters by different modes, while analyzing feasibility in potential walking, cycling as well as the use of the public transport in those routes. Thus, the transport policymakers must base this data to set realistic and ambitious targets. The targets of modal share are generally set to be a percentage for the trips, within Adelaide and the reports include data regarding mode of transport, for sharing to CDP, thus, exploring the mode for sharing the data regarding Adelaide along with presenting other graphics.

Discouraging the use of private car through driving and road pricing
Making a private vehicle is known to be much more expensive and is significant for driving the modal shift. The Adelaide consist of the schemes of road pricing which charges the driver to make use of their cars within the city centres along with polluting the cars through some of the areas through using a lower emission zone being a policy tool. On the other hand, some of the other Adelaide have also been known to make use of Sevilla and Oslo to introduce some of the measures for making much more difficult within the areas of target areas through turning the parking spaces within the pedestrian areas or rather cycle lanes along with increasing the fees of parking.

Providing the real alternatives which can be chosen by the people
The disincentives through the private use of cars is a shift away from requiring private vehicles which need the provision for efficiency; convenience; appealing and affordable alternatives that are mainly chosen by the travellers. Hence, for acquiring this, the cities are required to provide space for the priorities along with alternative forms of the transport within the roads along with investing within an alternative transport of infrastructure. Ensuring the connectivity of the multi-modal network as well as introducing the incentives and schemes like smart ticketing and cycle hiring for making them an attractive choice, is another prospective alternative (Vijet al., 2020, p. 830).

Conclusion
The present study focuses on the transport policies of the public transportation system of Adelaide, Australia. The study mentions the deficiencies of the public transportation system that provides to the local government of the city in Australia. Moreover, the study provides certain recommendations of the transport policies that help in improving the quantity and quality of the public transportation system within the city of Adelaide in Australia. The recommendation for increasing the modal share by 30% within the public transportation system of the city regarding the overall trips for the next 10 years has been stated in the report. Hence, the study explains the question through the demonstrating the four-course objectives and thus, provide the precise explanation of the whole research.

References
Brown, V., Moodie, M., Cobiac, L., Mantilla, H. and Carter, R., 2017. Obesity?related health impacts of active transport policies in Australia–a policy review and health impact modelling study. Public transportation systemAustralian and New Zealand journal of public health, 41(6), pp.611-616.

Delbosc, A. and Currie, G., 2016. Cluster analysis of fare evasion behaviours in Melbourne, Australia. Transport Policy, 50, pp.29-36.

Delbosc, A. and Naznin, F., 2019. Future life course and mobility: A latent class analysis of young adults in Victoria, Australia. Transport Policy, 77, pp.104-116.

Harris, P., Riley, E., Sainsbury, P., Kent, J. and Baum, F., 2018.Including health in environmental impact assessments of three mega transport projects in Sydney, Australia: A critical, institutional, analysis. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 68, pp.109-116.

Kaye, S.A., Buckley, L., Rakotonirainy, A. and Delhomme, P., 2019. An adaptive approach for trialling fully automated vehicles in Queensland Australia: A brief report. Transport Policy, 81, pp.275-281.

Liu, Y., Wang, S. and Xie, B., 2019. Evaluating the effects of public transport fare policy change together with built and non-built environment features on ridership: The case in South East Queensland, Australia. Public transportation systemTransport Policy, 76, pp.78-89.

Lohmann, G. and Trischler, J., 2017. Licence to build, licence to charge?Market power, pricing and the financing of airport infrastructure development in Australia. Transport Policy, 59, pp.28-37.

Low, N., 2017. The Gordian knot: Resisting sustainability in urban transport in Australia. In Spatial planning, urban form and sustainable transport (pp. 185-196). Routledge.

McCue, P., 2017. WALKING POLICY STEPS À THE POLICY DEVELOPMENT PROCESS FOR THE FIRST STATE WALKING TARGET IN NEW SOUTH WALES,
AUSTRALIA. Walking: Connecting Sustainable Transport with Health, p.233.

Mulley, C. and Tsai, C.H.P., 2016. When and how much does new transport infrastructure add to property values? Evidence from the bus rapid transit system in Sydney, Australia. Transport Policy, 51, pp.15-23.

Mulley, C., Ma, L., Clifton, G., Yen, B. and Burke, M., 2016. Residential property value impacts of proximity to transport infrastructure: An investigation of bus rapid transit and heavy rail networks in Brisbane, Australia. Public transportation systemJournal of Transport Geography, 54, pp.41-52.

Nurlaela, S., 2018, November.An example of transport policy assessment in TRESIS 1.4 to reduce greenhouse gas emission in Sydney, Australia. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 202, No. 1, p. 012071). IOP Publishing.

Osborne, N. and Grant-Smith, D., 2017.Constructing the cycling citizen: A critical analysis of policy imagery in Brisbane, Australia. Journal of transport geography, 64, pp.44-53.

Stanley, J., Stanley, J., Balbontin, C. and Hensher, D., 2019. Social exclusion: the roles of mobility and bridging social capital in regional Australia. Transportation research part A: policy and practice, 125, pp.223-233.

Vij, A., Ryan, S., Sampson, S. and Harris, S., 2020. Consumer preferences for on-demand transport in Australia. Public transportation systemTransportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 132, pp.823-839.