I've been conducting an experiment this week to investigate some concepts I have been looking at through work. I've been looking at the role cycling can play in increasing the catchment area of public transport services which has come about as a result of research into a paper I wrote with a colleague for this year's Australasian Transport Research Forum (ATRF).
Most public transport planners say that the maximum walkable catchment for public transport is approximately 400-800 metres or 5-10 minutes between home and the public transport stop. The distance from home to the tram stop on Sydney Road is approximately 700 metres and takes about 10 minutes to walk. As a result of the research we did for the ATRF, my colleague and I found that cycling to a public transport stop increases the catchment area of public transport to the 2-3 kilometre range.
Last week, in getting to my one and only Uni. exam, I decided to cycle from home to the terminus of the Route 96 tram, one of the fastest tram routes on Melbourne's tram network (at least better than our regular tram route, Route 19). The Metlink journey planner, being the great tool for changing travel behaviour that it is helped to provide an indicative route and travel time from home to the East Brunswick terminus of the 96 tram. It takes about 20 minutes to cycle the 4 kilometres from home to Blyth and Nicholson Streets to get on the tram in the mornings and the same in the evening. There's plenty of on-street bike parking at the hoops and rails around the tram terminus in the morning and so far, the bike has been there when I get off the tram in the evening
I've been riding the bike to the 96 terminus now for all four days of this week so far, riding in heat, rain, wind and humid conditions. I believe that if I can ride all this week, I'll prove this is do-able and hopefully keep doing it. I think I look quite the part in my public service work attire, bike helmet and bicycle clips riding to the tram stop. Being the transport planning nerd I am, I've used a stopwatch to time my journeys from home to work on both the Route 19 and the Route 96 and I've found the new arrangements are approximately 10 minutes faster door-to-door than the old one.
There's also another benefit for me of combining cycling with public transport. The 20 minute bike ride in each direction gives me 40 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each day I go to work, which meets the recommended minimum levels of exercise for adults. The best kind of exercise is the sort you don't think about. I can already feel the change in my legs already and my lovely wife already thinks I've lost weight (she's very kind to me).
It's been a great experiment and I really want to keep it going. It's proved the hypothesis in my paper and has given me some other policy ideas for integrating cycling with public transport which one day might benefit others.
Good on you Mr Shunter! Bikes, IMHO, are the ultimate expression of small investments with big effects - a device that costs a few hundred dollars to buy and practically nothing to operate, which gives about 40% of the utility of a car worth $20,000 plus petrol and the rest of it.
ReplyDeleteI have never locked up my bike and left it, except in my locker at Mount Waverley station. I find that taking the bike on the train can be quite awkward, but VERY useful for feeder journeys where there's no buses (including when I'm travelling late at night when buses don't run).
Michael,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on this, as the bike is just as good a 'personal mobility multiplier' than the car, especially on the short trips (under 2km).
In regard to open air parking, it's been OK so far (touch wood). I even left the bike locked up at the tram terminus for about 36 hours and came back and it was still there. I've been told that these days, thieves find it easier and more profitable to steal MP3 players and mobile phones than bikes (unless they're really expensive bikes).