DRIVE A2B November 2020

QLD GOLD COAST
Demand Responsive
Transport for
Gold Coast
by Dominic Cansdale
Queensland News
A $2 million trial of the 'public transport
version of Uber' on the Gold Coast is
a step towards giving outer suburban
residents a reliable alternative to cars,
says a Griffith University researcher.
Griffith's Cities Research Institute's
Benjamin Kaufman said demand
responsive transport (DRT), or ondemand
transit, provided options for
people in outer suburbs who did not
have regular bus routes.
"For most people, the bus stops aren't
very convenient to get to and that
means everyone really just wanted to
drive their car," he said.
"The on-demand transit services that
are planned now, they'll been feeding
into … the major train lines or bus
stations you might imagine being the
backbone of the network."
Has it worked before?
Mr Kaufman said "you can imagine it
[DRT] as a public transport version of
Uber" with around 30 trials conducted
nationally, including one in Logan.
Logan's DRT trial had been operating for
three years and had delivered almost
110,000 trips, according to a Transport
and Main Roads spokesperson.
While destinations are fixed, routes and
pick-up times vary depending on who
books the service.
While some trials in NSW used small
buses, Logan's trial has used 50 regular
cabs or maxi-cabs across three separate
areas with customers charged between
$1.50 and $3.00 per trip.
Mr Kaufman said using traditional
cabs had been a "good way to test out
a service" but that there were "some
limitations".
"There's a lack of visibility, on-demand
services already don't have any fixed
stops so you lack advertising for a
service like that," he said.
"If the vehicles aren't branded, then it
may be that people in the community
don't actually know the services are
available."
Car ownership essential
to outer suburbs
The outer suburbs are the domain of
cars, with residents disadvantaged by a
lack of public transport.
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DRIVE A2B magazine · www.drivea2b.com.au · November 2020