Infrastructure Victoria has released details of its latest research on Melbourne’s bus network, which finds that the community would be more likely to use the city’s under-utilised bus network if services were faster, cheaper and more frequent.
The findings echo those of RA’s own research released in 2022, which found there were significant hesitations in the community around using buses that related to poor perceptions around the frequency, speed and safety of bus services at night. That research also found that Melbourne’s bus services scored the lowest of the three jurisdictions measured, with under 20 per cent approval.
Infrastructure Victoria Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Spear said:
“Buses face tough competition from cars and other public transport, with more than 60% of people surveyed saying they prefer other modes of transport to buses.”
“That’s despite 82% of Melburnians living within a 5-minute walk of a bus stop.”
“However, we found that people would be willing to walk an extra 5 minutes to a bus stop if the bus journey was around 10% faster, or if the bus came every 20 minutes instead of 30.”