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Queensland's 50c fares have hit the six-month mark. Here's the verdict (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm surprised to see leisure trips and ferry usage with the biggest rises. I would have thought the biggest increases would have been from daily work commutes avoiding traffic.

But the results seem pretty consistent. Great to see.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

To be honest, I'm not surprised. Driving in peak hour is already bad enough that a significant portion would choose it rather than drive even with the extreme prices. The cost of parking in the CBD along with the inconvenience of how awful peak hour traffic is helps offset that.

But leisure trips are outside of peak hour and usually to places where parking is easy. They're also more likely to involve larger numbers of people as you go with the whole family. People are more likely to change their mode of transport if it's cheaper.

With the ferry specifically, it's often just a trip down the river and then back up. The cost of that trip before would be $3 per adult if you can start at the river, but higher if you've gotta travel in from zone 2 or 3 first. For a family of 4 that'd be at least $9, which isn't actually a lot, but it psychologically feels like a hell of a lot more than $2. So it's a fun little treat that's basically free now. People are more likely to do that.

TL;DR leisure trips are much more price elastic than commutes are.