As with anything it’s even more “it depends”. Melbourne busses are slow an unreliable, the vast majority of tram routes share roads with cars and get stuck behind them making them painful in busy periods, and the train network is primary built around the idea of getting white collar workers from the suburbs to the city in the morning and back out again in the evening.
For example, without a car the 10-15 minute trip to drop the kiddo off with their grandparents would be over 90 minutes. It’s less than 10km but because we’re on different train lines it’s require either going all the way to the city and out again, or a train and a bus that runs 3 times a hour with no timing connection to the train.
As with anything it’s even more “it depends”. Melbourne busses are slow an unreliable, the vast majority of tram routes share roads with cars and get stuck behind them making them painful in busy periods, and the train network is primary built around the idea of getting white collar workers from the suburbs to the city in the morning and back out again in the evening.
For example, without a car the 10-15 minute trip to drop the kiddo off with their grandparents would be over 90 minutes. It’s less than 10km but because we’re on different train lines it’s require either going all the way to the city and out again, or a train and a bus that runs 3 times a hour with no timing connection to the train.