Down to a crawl

AdelaideNow... Down to a crawl: "Latest Transport Department figures show vehicle registrations in SA have soared by 320,000 in six years to 1.476 million to the end of April 2007, an increase of 27 per cent."

Some parts of Adelaide may be crawling, but we are lucky in that we have some very serviceable back streets. If I go to town I can make use of those if I want to. Coming from the South it has not been noticeably busier. If you want people to use public transport then it needs to be there and it needs to be on time and it needs to stop breaking down. In the last fortnight people have been left at bus stops, even the terminus stop, even if they are the only passenger. The trains have been disrupted for all sorts of good reasons. The buses have been too early or late so that people have missed connecting buses or trains and the revamp of Adelaide's bus times and routes has benefited some but disadvantaged a lot. Then, there is the age of our population. We keep being told we are an aging population so presumably more people are of driving age and families are obviously sufficiently funded to afford all these numerous cars. I think you have to look at everything...and the erratic public transport system ought to come as a top priority of you don't want people in cars. Other countries and states can seem to get you places, but Adelaide public transport users are being inconvenienced and then embarrassed if it comes to work. It's not for most of them, but enough to put them back in their cars I should imagine.