World cup in Brazil. Stadiums instead of public transport.

I am a huge fan of football or soccer as it is called in the English speaking world. Unfortunately Brazil is a long way from Brisbane and as much as I would love to be able to watch Greece or Australia play at the world cup, unfortunately I had to watch the games on TV.

The Mundial as I've learned to know the world cup from my youth, as all huge sport competitions has also a transport and traffic side. As in the London Olympic games in 2012, the organizers have to plan an effective way to move tens of thousands of people to and from the venues safely. The big difference of the world cup from the Olympic games, is that the world cup is hosted across a whole country and there is only one game at a time while the Olympic games are hosted around a city (and a bit further out) with lots of different games and sports happening at the same time. The Olympic games are much bigger competition from a transport and traffic point of view but the transport task of the Mundial is quite significant as well.

Brazil promised FIFA and the Brazilian people a series of upgrades on it's infrastructure. And while FIFA, which is accused for corruption cared more about the new stadiums like the new Sao Paolo arena, the carrot for most Brazilians was the upgrades to transport infrastructure. A series of transport projects like upgrades to airports and new light rail systems were planned to be delivered supposedly just before the first whistle of the referee in the game of Brazil against Croatia.

In reality Brazil ended up spending a huge amount of money and failed to deliver a lot of the transport infrastructure upgrades that it promised. The light rail in Cuiaba where Australia played the first game against Chile, was meant to help soccer fans get around but was not ready in time. Instead, the new light rail line from the airport into the city runs for just 500 metres until it disappears completely.

source: The Associated Press

And there are a lot of other traffic and transport related issues that add to Brazilians' disappointment and frustration.

Traffic congestion and gridlocks around stadiums is a regular phenomenon and that caused a number of fans to miss the opening minutes of matches. Even the second best football player of all times, missed the first half of the opening game between Brazil and Croatia, held up in traffic.

Fans in Brazil, also experience big delays at airports, as the network capacity can not cope with all the demand and a lot of the airport upgrades were not delivered in time. And then there are those unlucky fans that were delayed in air traffic just because elected politicians want to demonstrate their country's superiority through sports.

All these traffic problems, along with massive hikes in public transport fares and extreme poverty led to protests, especially on the transport sector and clashes with the police.

Next time we take a break at the game's half-time, let us take a moment and ask a simple question like the kid on the photograph. If people don't even benefit from the infrastructure upgrades of such sport events, then what's really left?

Moving around Perth.

I just returned from Perth where I attended the AITPM 2013 national conference. While I spent most of my days there attending the conference, I had a day and a half to visit the city centre, the beach and Fremantle.

Perth is a magnificent city that supports a high quality of life for its residents. Perth was ranked as the 9th most  liveable city in the world at the Economist Intelligence Unit's latest livability ranking. This ranking assesses living conditions in 140 cities around the world for 30 indicators across five broad categories: stability; healthcare; culture and environment; education; and infrastructure.Perth is the 4th Australian city in this ranking bellow Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney and above Brisbane.

Focusing on mobility management, Perth ticked all the right boxes in terms of public transport, street calming and livable streets. I really liked the traffic calmed streets in the CBD, around the main pedestrian streets (or malls as they are called in Australia). The use of pavers for the surface of pedestrian crossings creates a pedestrian friendly street environment.

In Fremantle this idea goes a step further. Pedestrian streets and traffic calmed streets with street furniture and landscaping along with well preserved heritage buildings create an atmosphere that goes beyond a typical port town and place Fremantle at the top of Perth attractions and places worth visiting. On a Saturday with the market open and everyone enjoying a coffee or a beer under the sun, you feel so relaxed that you start thinking that Perth is definitely a place worth considering moving to.

 Street artists painting in the street or playing music enhance this atmosphere.

  

 

Unfortunately as a typical Australian city there is a lot of work to be done when it comes to cycling and cycling infrastructure. Perth has very low percentage of people cycling to work at 1.3 %. The percentage of people using public transport for their every day trip to work is much higher at 12.7 % lower than Brisbane but on a upward trend which is expected to further rise in the near future thanks to the new free for all CAT (central area transport service) bus lines. Perth operates a Free Transit Zone ( FTZ ) where within the Perth city centre travel on public transport is free. 

To travel within this zone you can simply hop on any train, bus or CAT. You are not restricted to the amount of times you can use this service and no tickets are required. The FTZ includes City West and Claisebrook on the Fremantle, Midland and Armadale train lines, the start and finish of the FTZ are clearly marked, on the train stations and bus stops.

My tour around Perth ended at City Beach where looking at the sunset over the Indian Ocean on a clear and warm winter day I thought that won't be long before the day that I will return there to explore further this wonderful part of the world. 

Free public transport. Efficient and fun.

More and more cities choose to provide some short of free public transport service. Just yesterday we went on a night trip on our own City Hopper. It is a free ferry service running every 30 minutes from early in the morning until midnight along the central part of the Brisbane river. All this time in Brisbane I hadn't had the chance to see the city from this point of view and I have to say that I found out that it is an amazing view. Especially passing under the Story Bridge with the lights on and looking at the high rise buildings in front, is one of the best views of the city.