The Canberra Times has a piece blaming light rail fans in Canberra for the ever more expensive and less useful bus service.
Dr Mees revealed his submission to Environment Minister Simon Corbell yesterday, saying the Government’s plan ”is fundamentally flawed, because it perpetuates the policy mistakes that have seen public transport in Canberra decline at record rates over the last 20 years”.
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Dr Mees says the ACT disproved the ”myth of density” – that public transport fails if the population is spread out – in the 1970s and 1980s, when it developed one of the nation’s most successful bus networks. His paper explains how Canberra went from being Australia’s most car-dominated city in 1961 to having the second-most used public transport system in the country.
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Dr Mees also said public transport advocates’ obsession with light rail had been ”an enormous distraction and has held Canberra back”.