Human Settlements Theme Report
Australia State of the Environment Report 2001 (Theme Report)
Lead Author: Professor Peter W. Newton, CSIRO Building, Construction and Engineering, Authors
Published by CSIRO on behalf of the Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2001
ISBN 0 643 06747 7
Urban stocks and processes (continued)
Transport supply
As increases in vehicles and licensed drivers lead to more traffic, localities are responding with strategies to limit the increase in transport demand. These include provision of alternative transport, parking restrictions, or charges to discourage drivers.
On the supply side, new public transport infrastructure is being planned and built in all major cities: heavy rail in Sydney, light rail in most cities, and bus transitways in Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane. Almost all public transport in Australia, except taxis, runs on fixed routes with fixed schedules. The quantity of supply therefore depends on both the density of routes and the number of services. However, the quality of supply depends vitally on appropriate connectivity that allows access to required destinations, at the times when people want to travel and within reasonable journey times. Accessibility of public transport thus needs to be measured in terms of amount and duration of service and connectivity.
The provisions of legislation in New South Wales exemplify the challenges facing most Australian cities and towns in supplying appropriate levels of public transport. This legislation requires public transport routes and services to match population density, and specifies destinations for services based on the estimated needs of residents. It is currently applied to buses-the most widespread form of public transport. Table 29 shows some minimum level of service requirements at different levels of the urban hierarchy for villages, towns, and suburban and inner city areas.
| Metropolitan routes | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Destinations | Rail stations, shopping centres with social services and employment offices, major medical facilities | |||||
| Route density | Route with 7 days per week service within 800 m of all residents | Peak hour and daytime service Monday to Friday within 400 m of all residents | ||||
| Minimum frequency of services | Highest population densities | Lowest population densities | Highest population densities | Lowest population densities | ||
| Monday-Friday am peak | 20 | 30 | 30 | 60 | ||
| Monday-Friday daytime | 20 | 60 | 45 | 120 | ||
| Monday-Friday pm peak | 20 | 30 | 30 | 60 | ||
| Monday-Friday night | 30 | 60 | - | - | ||
| Saturday am peak | 30 | - | - | - | ||
| Saturday day | 20 | 60 | 60 | 120 | ||
| Saturday evening | 30 | - | - | - | ||
| Sunday and holidays day | 30 | 120 | - | - | ||
| Sunday evening | 60 | - | - | - | ||
| Urban fringe routes | ||||||
| Destination | To nearest major town centre | |||||
| Minimum required two-way trips | For eight patronage potential grades from near to outer metropolitan density to very sparse: for example |
|||||
| A1 grading Over 3000 | B1 2000 to 3000 | C1 1000 to 2000 | E Under 250 | |||
| Monday-Friday | 18 | 15 | 11 | 2 | ||
| Saturday | 6 | 6 | 6 | - | ||
| Sunday | 3 | 2 | 2 | - | ||
| Country town services | ||||||
| Destination | Town centre | |||||
| Minimum number of daily two-way services | Two categories short or long for routes with terminuses more than 2 km from town centre grades vary from A1 for towns of over 30 000 people to F for towns of under 7 500 | |||||
| A1, A2 Over 30 000 |
B1, B2 20 000-30 000 | D1, D2 10 00-15 000 | E1, E2 7500-10 000 | F Under 7500 | ||
| Monday-Friday | 2, - | 2, - | - | - | - | |
| Monday-Friday day | 10, 5 | 6, 4 | 5, 3 | 5, 3 | - | |
| Saturday | 3, 2 | 2, 2 | 2 | - | - | |
| Village-to-town and town-to-town | ||||||
| Destination | Nearest town | |||||
| Number of weekly services | Dependent on self-containment of village or town | |||||
Source: NSW Department of Transport Minimum Service Level Regulation under the Passenger Transport Act 1990.
Service is required to likely destinations, and city residents can expect peak services going to their likely destinations within 400 m of their door at peak times. Service has increased beyond minimum requirements in some areas and the bus industry believes that there has been a generally positive effect on patronage. There have been some particular success stories: for example, a 25% increase in patronage with the introduction of an extra service in Wyong on the Central Coast (Busways Pty Ltd, pers. comm., June 2000). However, it is clear that an inner city resident is better served than the residents of a rural township. Moreover, while this system ensures some degree of connectivity, it does not address overall journey time for multi-link trips. Current initiatives for direct transitways in Sydney are designed to address this. It is difficult to attract motorists to public transport if the journey times are significantly longer, unless there is some other deterrent to the use of private transport.
Parking charges are now used in all major cities to manage parking in the CBD. To compare CBD parking, consideration must be given to the parking available at parking stations and on-street parking, together with the charges and time limitations in each case. Table 30 uses public authority data and direct requests for information to show the relative cost of parking and number of spaces available in various cities. Although it can be used for illustrative purposes only, it indicates how parking management differs in cities of different sizes. High long-stay charges are set to deter commuter parking, but 'early bird' discounts for 'in before 9 or 10' and 'out after 3' offered by many carpark proprietors limit that effect. These discounts are usually set at levels to ensure sufficient space is available for higher paying casual parkers. All cities set time limits on street parking during business hours. Sydney, as a 24-hour city, sets limits and charges for parking 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
| Parking stations | Metered and ticketed parking | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of spaces | First hour, Monday-Friday |
Maximum daily charge | Number of spaces | Charge Monday-Friday | |
| Sydney | 13 682 | $5 | $37.50 | 4 000 | $4/hour |
| Brisbane | 2 300 (council) | $3 | $14.50 | 800 | $1/hour |
| Melbourne | 28 000 | $3 | $40 | 11 000 | $2/hour |
| Perth | 10 975 | $1.50 | $6 | - | - |
| Adelaide | 6 500 | $1.40 | $8 | 17 000 | $1/hour |
Source: City councils of Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane (pers. comm., 2000); City of Sydney (2000).
Energy use in transport
Motor vehicle fuel use is the primary contributor to urban air pollution. Aviation fuel use resulting from an increase in air traffic is making an increasing contribution to total transport fuel use, and hence to greenhouse gas emissions. Figure 41 compares energy consumption by road, rail, air and water transport in 1986-87 (when air was responsible for 11%) and 1997-98 (15%), and gives projections for 2014-2015 which suggest it will then have increased to 21% of the total consumption.