I have in mind, once I have enough 'volunteers' to assist with the code side of things, to approach Lismore Council (the Mayor in particular) and see if I can get council support to prepare a submission for funding. There is a pool of money available for regional public transport iniatives. What I would like to see is a flexible service operating between Lismore, Casino, Alstonville, Ballina, Lennox Head & Byron Bay. I can see the buses carrying 7-10 people each (ie Maxi-Taxi size), then interlinking with larger buses between centres. There would need to be some scheduled services, to service TAFE normal start times, Hospital visiting hours, University, etc, etc. The service perhaps may run 10 buses in the day, then cut back to 1-2 at night. Using Maxi-taxis, the Taxis can also supply normal Taxi services when required. (There may need to be legislation change to allow this to happen.)
Anyway, I will be at the Slug meeting on Friday, So would welcome discussion. regards Doug On Sunday 23 January 2005 2:24, Adelle Hartley wrote: > Hi Doug, > > I think your idea is brilliant. > > I am fortunate enough to live near a major railway station, but there are > still plenty of places in Sydney that I can't get to. I recently had to > turn down a job interview because it was in an area with no bus service. > > I imagine you would have a lot of extra demand during the usual peak times. > And there would be a number of regular pick-ups and set-downs to do each > day. > > The transport industry is cut-throat and highly regulated, but I'd be > willing to get involved. > > > project, & should not be difficult to get Govt funding to > > start it. Is anyone interested in running with it?? (as I am > > not a programmer.....) > > My current WFD assignment is with an organisation that provides a bus > travel service for the disabled, and I don't think they get much/any govt > assistance. As far as I know, the scheme is funded entirely by fees from > members. I don't know how much the members pay each month. > > The scheme only provides travel to/from programmed events and travel needs > to be booked the day before. The members' monthly fees cover a certain > number of trips per month. > > I think this organisation (and there are others in Sydney that provide > similar services) could run more efficiently with kom-poo-ters, GPS, and > wireless technology, but given their small pool of clients, and only three > buses, they operate well enough just using pen, paper, and mobile phones. > > What you're talking about is a more general service (not just to programmed > events), but I suspect that a membership model might be a way of not being > called a taxi service (and thereby bypassing a bunch of regulation issues). > > Adelle. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
