I will introduce Exhibit A. Transport from the city back to where you need to be.
This to me is something I'm fairly passionate about because in most clubs, they will kick you out about 2AM and generally this causes issues. Now if I'm not correct, wouldn't just kicking everyone onto the street with nowhere to go be more of an issue that allowing people into a premises with security? It's not like the bouncer cant turn down people at the door. The only transport available at this point is Taxi's and Night ride buses. Night ride buses to where i have to go (Sutherland - which means i have to walk an extra 10km's to get home) are alright, but they are always packed and the gap between each new one is way too long. (your looking at 45mins wait + 45mins bus ride). The second form of transport available is Taxi's. There are plenty out there, just none want to pick you up, so unless your with a really attractive lady dressed in next to nothing, your not gonna get one no matter how you try, specially if your 6 foot 5 in and weight 85kgs. When you eventually get one, it costs about $100 for every 40-50km you ride. With this is mind, you have a recipe for disaster where you have a few drunken people who are fairly cashed strapped as it is, and you put them in a highly volatile position where they may be dropped off far from where they need to be.
I recently caught a taxi with my cousin from the city to his place at Alexandria. It was only about 5km and didn't cost much at all. But what frustrated me is that the taxi driver knows he is going into a situation where he is surrounded by drunken people, yet when we were taking a bit of time to get the money out (which while drunk isn't easy), he decided to have a snap at us. Had me and my cousins been a bit more s***faced, i reckon something would have happened, but common sense prevailed, we hopped out and called him an asshole (which he was).
Exhibit B. Kicking people out in the street at 2am to stop excessive drinking.
The government is a genius. You see, i thinks by closing places up at 2am will stop the excessive consumption of alcohol, which in turn will help with alcohol related conflicts. This is the part i don't get. I go into the city at about 9pm usually. Same place, basically every time, right on 9pm. Now if i decided to leave at 1am, it causes the same issue because when you think about it, i drink the same amount, maybe more between these times than between 10pm and 2am, so that releases me at 1am and the same behaviours result.
If the government wants to be smart about this, how about target behaviours rather than times because as i just said, i could drink more in the same time period, get more inebriated but because i can get straight into another club for another hour yet, it totally nullifies the objective the 2am lockout serves.
Only recently the government, more noticeably Sydney, have put more police officers in the city to make sure there isn't this type of behaviour in the city. My question is to the government, Why do you need this 'plan' if your 2AM lockout is the so called 'perfect' resolution to bad behaviour. Why isn't there alternate transport. Why do people have to wait on the train station from 12:30am for a 5am train? I bet the government could save a whole heaps more in law enforcement and other methods if they just invested in the right methods. I don't like to fight, lets make that clear. But i can tell you, waiting for a night rider around other drunken idiots just gets plain frustrating. Most people if they were on their way home, I'm sure would just sit down, have a rest, get off the train and just go straight home.
Anyway that's enough of my venting for now. I'll post something new in the next couple of weeks. My Email is Reachable Here, alternatively you can reach me on facebook if you have any suggestions, fan mail, anything i may of missed out or just misc. mail.
