Do Australians have it in them?

While I agree with T's summary of why things have gone pear-shaped with PT in Australia and US in past decades, I do get irritated by defeatism and negativity. I find living in a place where these things are fast and being speeded up even further very much to my liking, thanks.

Whether Australians have it in them to make it better though is another matter. There are few not inconsiderable cultural and institutional issues in Australia that mitigate against better practice, not least of which is the isolation that means comparative examples are not close at hand for people to experience and then demand that things be improved to match.

As we know, Australia did have close to world's "best practice" (I hate the term but it conveys my drift) in many of its public transport systems 50-100 years ago but it lost the art in the motor age and now the cultures and methodolgies that enabled it to practice that art have been dismantled. There is a hell of a lot to put back together again and I wonder whether Australians
have it in them to do that. Maybe an oil shock will cause an unexpected clarity of focus!

But there are many details - like why Melbourne trams manage to run into the back of each other at an average speed of 15 kph whereas Prague trams don't at an average speed of 20 kph. So many things to work through....

Cheers!