Initially, we performed an intergroup activity in the first workshop to highlight the things that define Melbourne for us, and by induction, continue in attempting to find just what are the problems that people would bring up about their everyday interactions with the fabric of society in this city. From the activity, we have managed to practically scoop up several key categories everyone identified in unison: Public Transport, Living Costs and Standards, Discovery or Wayfinding, as well as Social Issues.
From top to bottom: Issues in wayfinding or discovery, transportation, social issues and living costs and standards.
While we explore and connect our thoughts with all fields, one that particularly catches our interest is Public Transport, as it weaves through elements of the other categories in living costs and social issues by examining its role in moving people and help connect communities.
When we are talking about Melbourne, we can often relate with it's public transport. In Melbourne, trams is one of the most famous public transport that everybody use everyday. However, despite it's popularity, we know that there are still numerous complaints and problems about trams. In this blog post, we will discuss about problems regarding trams and it's system, challenge to be addressed and opportunity to solve and explored in the project.
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| (Okay, maybe more than a few.) |
One particular field that we have highlighted so far is Melbourne's iconic mode of transport: Trams. First problem that we found is distribution of passengers. We can see that the basic instinct, most likely covered from the impatience after waiting for a tram for so long, will lead us to go into the tram even though the tram in front of us is full of people, and inductively conclude any other trams coming next would be, too. While this is a completely rational line of thought, in Melbourne, trams often come "in packs", and they often go to the same stops people want to go to, despite different routes, such as the Swanston Street and Collins Street tram corridors which has lines serving the same stops for a reasonable length. Based on our discussion with friends, this way of thinking occurs because we don't know the conditions on other trams, or perhaps unsure where other trams would go. Therefore, we think that the other trams will be as crowded as the first tram and we jump into that tram. Sometimes this misconception leads to conditions where some trams might be really crowded while the other is not as crowded or even empty.
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| The first tram of a pack in Bourke St mall is already crowded and people are forcing themselves in. |
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| After a long wait for trams, usually one would find 3-4 trams servicing the same stop pattern coming up in close intervals of one another, with the latter trams emptier. |
This is even more pronounced whenever the network hits a service disruption. From personal experience across members of the team (and after informally chatting with fellow peers), these service disruptions will change the way trams go, and sometimes information is hardly mobilized to passengers if they do not proactively look at the TramTracker or PTV app, or follow to the Twitter accounts of the operators. Alongside the usual drive to board "whichever one I need comes first", there is also a rather large gap in providing real time information for the people who aren't actively looking for it but require advisory regardless. While now operators such as Yarra Trams has installed automated PA in stops in the CBD or dispatch customer service personnel, there is a large delay until all affected commuters know the effect of the disruption, and lead to overcrowding of nearby trams at an unexpected time as commuters are displaced into other crowded services to connect.
When trams are overcrowded, it can leads to numerous issues. From this article we can see that injuries rate increase due to overcrowdedness. For instance, due to this overcrowdedness, passengers being caught in door and falling to and from platforms which contributes to injuries increases. In addition to injury, overcrowding also make riding trams experience uncomfortable for some people. A corresponded in the aforementioned article, Mr Barber quoted, "[he] travels on the No. 55 which goes past The Children’s and Women’s Hospital and [he] could see people struggling to get up on the stairs and sometimes they don’t even get a seat ... If this problem isn't resolved, people will seek alternatives and if people choose car, "... we are exacerbating the many documented health and environment at risks of car-dependence", said Mr Stone.
Second problem that we've found is the intricacies of Myki. From a quick search of opinion articles, we observed that myki card can be inconvenient for groups of users, such as short term tourists or visitors. For instance, "[tourists] may be on Melbourne for only two days, but [tourists[ must hunt out a vendor selling myki cards in this unfamiliar city, pay $6 a card for each family member, then top them all up with cash." (Lawrence Money, http://www.smh.com.au/comment/mad-myki-stops-logic-in-its-tracks-20140221-337ed.html). Furthermore, the card will be unusable after four years and all the balance on that card will be gone. Not only for tourists, people also think that Myki Card System is also inefficient for Melbourne residents. One of the efficiency that can be seen is that we need to queue for a long time just to top up our myki. Opposition public transport spokesman David Hodgett also agree with our inefficiencies view as he said that "the system should allow for tapping on and off with mobile phones, tablets and watches" (Adam Carey, http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/onthespot-myki-fines-to-be-scrapped-from-next-year-20160525-gp434m.html).
In general, one thing we've noted is the overall intricacies and the inconveniences of public transport that people experience daily. While some of these things are out of our control (deployment of new ways to pay for fares, scheduling of trams), it does create some creative room of thought to consider tackling or minimizing the impact of public transport grievances. We will return in addressing this (and other problems we may identify along the way) next week as we prepare some ideas to mitigate or address the problems we've identified.
Resources
- http://mojonews.com.au/a-risky-ride-melbournes-trams-not-keeping-up-to-pace-with-overcrowding/
- http://www.ptua.org.au/melbourne/problem/
- http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2012/s3661861.htm
- http://www.smh.com.au/comment/mad-myki-stops-logic-in-its-tracks-20140221-337ed.html
- http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/onthespot-myki-fines-to-be-scrapped-from-next-year-20160525-gp434m.html
- http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/yarra-trams-melbourne-to-make-announcements-in-vietnamese/news-story/4074cd2c093a52c0b9b129ecae959d30
- http://www.ptovic.com.au/images/documents/Submission_To_Selection_Committee_on_train_services_May_09.pdf
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/253279635_Observational_Analysis_of_Tram_Delays_in_Inner_Melbourne
