IT’S certainly true that the Public Transport Users Association has not always seen eye to eye with outgoing Yarra Trams boss Hubert Guyot on every issue (The Age, 6/9). But we agree on a number of topics – none more so than the need for tram priority on our roads.
Melbourne’s trams (each carrying scores if not hundreds of people) continue to be delayed by cars on the road. Trams continue to wait needlessly at traffic lights. Trams continue to wait behind right-turning vehicles. The State Government and Melbourne City Council have shown complete unwillingness to fix these issues. Until we accept that we should be moving people around our city, not motor vehicles, and give public transport the priority it deserves, cars will continue to dominate – with dire consequences for Melbourne’s liveability.
Daniel Bowen, president, Public Transport Users Association
(Published in The Age, Sep 7, 2005. pg. 14)