Page 4677 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 27 November 2019
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under the previous network that they are not doing now. Where is this missing five per cent? What did they do before? What has happened in the new system that does not work for them now?
The ACT government has an open data portal, but it has very limited information based on the MyWay data. That is why, unfortunately, the patronage figures by district that I and others have quoted have come from questions on notice that I have asked. This is not the way to run a bus system.
We need information. As I said, the MyWay data gives Transport Canberra a wealth of information. MyWay data can tell the time that the day trips are taken. If the data shows, for instance, that the Woden Valley journey stats are down in the morning peak, it probably means that the commuters who live in Woden Valley need service improvement. If the lower patronage is more in the afternoon peak, it means that service improvements are needed for commuters who work in Woden Valley but may well live elsewhere.
MyWay data can also reveal if there are problems for certain types of passengers. It could, for instance, show that there are fewer concession journeys starting around Canberra Hospital during the day. If so, it would suggest that there are problems for older people who are trying to visit the hospital. Then you could look at the options to improve that.
I hope—indeed, I assume—that Transport Canberra is already making use of MyWay data to work out what we want and how we can work our bus network better. If not, or even if they are, I have a few suggestions as to how they might get it done. We could provide this data with appropriate privacy condition protections if necessary. If they take out the MyWay card data, if there was no MyWay card identifier, there would be no private data. I am not even sure whether the MyWay card identifier would qualify as private data; I have not looked into that enough. With appropriate privacy protections if necessary, we could give the data to ANU and UC students who are studying IT and offer a cash reward for the person who makes the best use of the data to suggest improvements in the system.
The ACT government still participates in GovHack every year. There could be an ACT one. This could be a major part of next year’s ACT-based GovHack. GovHack, for those of you who are not into it, is a couple of days where people spend their time looking at government-provided data and hacking it to find new, useful and interesting things. I am sure a lot could be found in the MyWay data. This could be really useful. You can also pay people to do this. I would assume that the ACT government already pays a number of people throughout the ACT government to look at big data. If not, we have problems bigger than the bus network. My amendment will, hopefully, see this happening.
The third step is implementing the findings, whatever they are, to improve network 19 for Woden Valley, Tuggeranong and Belconnen. My amendment also covers this. My amendment also touches on the Greens’ long-term commitment to public transport by referencing the climate change strategy. As I said in my end-of-year speech last night,
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