Australia @aussie.zone vividspecter @lemm.ee 6mo ago

American Taylor Swift fans are flummoxed by the MCG's lack of parking. But Australia still has way too much of it

www.crikey.com.au American Taylor Swift fans are flummoxed by the MCG's lack of parking. But Australia still has way too much of it

We may not be quite as 'car-brained' as the US but we're hardly in a position to gloat.

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Who the hell would want to drive within a kilometer of the MCG when there's an event on? There are trains and trams right outside and they are sooooooo much quicker than cars.

Honestly, that stadium is filled every weekend for half the year. People should know better.
- Who the hell would want to [insert stupid thing here]?
  
  Yanks. The answer is always yanks.
  
  @Baku @Nath The United States of America is the Florida of the Earth
- I live right near the MCG and a decent number of people still drive in. I'm not sure why though since the city council makes a fortune by doing the rounds 2 hours in to a game and ticketing everyone without a parking permit (which is a lot of people) and the number of vehicle break-ins is pretty high too.
  
  Sunk cost fallacy.
  
  They are paying money to own these vehicles, therefore they must use these vehicles for everything possible.
  
  For these people, riding public transport is more abhorrent than having their car broken into, or to receive a parking fine for parking in someone else’s rightful carpark.
I've said a few times recently, in most urban planning respects Australia is like America but just a little bit better.

The catch is when it comes to big stadiums and other large event venues. Our stadia are leaps and bounds better than America's from an urban planning perspective.
- Canberra may be boring, but the "trendier" areas (i.e. along the tram line) have made good strides in moving away from car-focused urban planning. Shame those areas are super expensive.
  
  The problem with Canberra is that it has a large amount of sprawl, but at least they seem to be heading in the right direction. They also have a nice cycle network, although it seems from a distance to be more recreational than used for transport.
  
  Shame those areas are super expensive.
  
  Yeah unfortunately that will tend to happen when it's only done haphazardly. Surprise surprise, people like living in well-defined urban spaces! And will pay to do it!
  
  Plus, I'm guessing that there may have been better public transport and cycling infrastructure, but a lot of the time it's probably still low-density single-family homes, rather than increasing to medium density row houses and apartments? That's obviously also going to be a big driver of cost.

10 comments