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If public transport options make trip time significantly longer than a car ride, most people will prefer their car because workers are generally time poor. Property prices have pushed the working class out to rural areas like Ballarat, Packenham and Geelong, who then commute to Melbourne for work.I don't know, but I'm willing to try. That doesn't mean everywhere needs to be within walking distance of a train station, but it would require a lot more buses to ensure that train-bus connections of good frequency exist so people can get anywhere easily. Maybe even trams, I see no big reason why all trams in Melbourne have to go through the city.
Pandemics are temporary. Congestion will return in time.
Regardless of what they run on, private vehicles create congestion. Building more roads is not a solution to congestion. Any civil engineer worth their salt will tell you that.
The main problem I have with our road system in Victoria is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of forward thinking. On the main freeway into Melbourne from the sth east suburbs, a new lane is added every few years. Surely it would have been easier and cheaper to build 3 lanes at once.
I'd like to think WFH becomes a permanent change, and that could solve a lot of the congestion while providing other benefits to workers and their employers.
To fix the public transport system would require massive funding (I wouldn't know where to begin estimating figures btw).