"These matters aside, although free public transport would certainly attract more patronage, it would not attract as many as its advocates think. This can be tested by observing the transport choices of workers in the public transport industry, who already actually travel for free. The number of workers' cars parked at tram, train and bus terminals is testimony to the attractions of car travel even to people who are far from affluent and work within the industry itself."

Here in Perth we have a Central Area Transit(CAT) service that is free and an extended Free Transit Zone(FTZ) which covers East Perth,the CBD,Northbridge and West Perth which are so well patronised that the number of buses had to be almost doubled from 16 to 30 buses to cater for the increased patronage on the CAT service.On the FTZ services many workers intercommute between the various inner suburbs to go to work or pop into the city to do their shopping.

The quanta of public transport workers using their cars to get to or from work can be explained be thhre being no available public transport to get them to their destination early in the morning or late at night.As i can only speak for Perth. Perth is not yet a 24-hour city yet.

Economic puzzles will ultimately be knocked off the table by the "price" of oil energy. While the puzzle-masters are looking for the bits on the floor, she-who-must-be-obeyed (Mrs thermodynamics) will come with the Hoover. Look out! There is NO escape.

Do a course in physics - get a life.

It's only a choice if cars and public transport are comparable.

You can't compare an unreliable, poorly managed PT system with a road network which has been bolstered for decades with public money and influential industrial lobbying.

It is not an equal choice. People opt for cars because Victoria's public transport is notoriously bad and well below the benchmark of developed nations. This does not lead to the conclusion that it's useless to improve PT services.

I notice that Mr Moran is Director of the Deregulation Unit at a right-wing, economic-rationalist think tank. Ironic, since it's deregulation that's led to Victoria's circus of public-private partnerships which has private operators putting their hand out for public money each time they breach contract.

This article will appeal to those who believe the game of life is about consuming resources as fast as possible for fear that someone else will beat them to it. No-one else will be fooled.

This article is an absolute nonsense. Here in Sydney this type of thinking has lead to city-wide traffic congestion. From the Blue Mountains to Bondi, peak hour (or peak hours and hours) traffic is a shambolic mess. The touted solutions, such as the M7, Cross-City Tunnel etc alleviate some of the symptoms, but simply encourage more people to drive, exacerbating the problem. On the weekend it has taken me 25 minutes to drive 2.5 km from my house to the other side of Parramatta Road. So I avoid driving on the weekend, often catching a train into the city (excellent except for the interminable trackwork). Perhaps Mr. Moran would like to estimate the cost to the economy of all this lost time? He states that pumping money into public transport "will reduce the value of the city and jeopardise its future attractiveness as a living, working and leisure centre". OH OF COURSE! How stupid of me not to realize this.

Public transport workers are a poor example of free transport use.

People dont want 24hrs a day to be existing around trains/buses, they do it all day it is a pleasure to be able to drive at other times.

Free Transport would work, especially in this twilight period of oil.

Great Idea, as long as the 20-50km from the city transit suburbs have enough public transport infrastrucutre.

Realist, for once I hear where you're coming from when you mention the "twilight period of oil." Don't people understand that the issue of ever more expensive oil due to demand outstripping supply is here to stay and will only get worse. I believe that in the very near future, car travel will be completely unviable due to the cost of fuel. People with access to public transport will have no alternative but to use it. Society will have to reshape the way workplaces are set out, but those of us who dwell in out of the way places where the Kennet Government ripped up the tracks years ago will suffer greatly. No fuel = no job propects = no income and at a time when the Government hates the unemployed, so there will be no unemployment benefits either. What we badly need is more public transport, even if we have to pay to use it and especially in rural areas where at present our only option is to use the car. What we don't need is more road infrastructure which, as the article points out, leads to more private transport use. It makes me laugh when I see both Labor and Libral governments trying to attract more votes by promising bigger and better freeways. Very soon they'll sit idle and barely used as hugh monuments to the excesses of the bygone fossil fuel era. Wildcat.