What does it cost to travel in Sydney? Spatial and equity contrasts across the metropolitan region

There is a strong belief, often perceptual, that residents in the outer suburbs of Sydney and other Australian cities are at a transport disadvantage in terms of the generalised cost of daily travel both in absolute terms and in relation to the percentage of income outlaid each day on travel. This paper investigates this claim using the Sydney Household Travel Survey, an annual survey of randomly selected individuals, from June 1997 to June 2008. We pool the entire data set, adjusting costs for different years, and undertake a spatial interrogation of the data, initially for 13 subregions, and then drill down to the postcode level to identify sources of systematic variation in the daily generalised cost of travel for individuals and households. In assessing the evidence, we compare public transport outlays with car outlays, where the latter is defined in terms of (i) marginal outlays (i.e. fuel and parking) and (ii) all costs (i.e. marginal outlay plus car ownership costs). Given the cost of using public transport (i.e. fares), we speculate that the provision of improved public transport services (and switching from car to some extent) is likely to result in a lower monetary cost of travel, but only if individuals and/or households dispose of vehicles. If they retain their cars, then given the lower marginal cost of car use compared to public transport, the contribution of improved public transport, translated into a switch of usage from car to public transport, will have little impact on mobility and equity where cost matters. The paper also cautions about making statements on mobility and equity at a highly spatially aggregate level (i.e. a subregion), in contrast to establishing the causal links at a more spatially disaggregate level (i.e. the postcode).

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/26087078
• Authors:
  • Hensher, D A
  • Chen, X
• Publication Date: 2011-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 3-22
• Serial:
  • Road and Transport Research
  • Volume: 20
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: ARRB
  • ISSN: 1037-5783

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Costs; Economics; Mode choice; Travel; Travel behavior
• Uncontrolled Terms: Transport costs
• Geographic Terms: Australia; Sydney (Australia)
• ITRD Terms: 1243: Car; 9147: Interview; 744: Public transport; 1145: Transport mode
• Subject Areas: Economics; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01351510
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ITRD, ARRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Sep 14 2011 8:31AM