Providing accessible, cheap and plentiful car parking at commuter railway stations is often advocated as a means of encouraging car drivers to shift to public transport modes for part of their journey. Accordingly, state governments across Australia have, in recent years, committed significant money to expanding park and ride facilities on their rail networks. While such projects are popular with commuters, questions remain over the role of park and ride in increasing public transport patronage. Passenger interview surveys were recently carried out at selected railway stations on the Victorian metropolitan and regional rail networks to explore the extent to which park and ride facilities generate a mode shift from car-only modes to more sustainable transport modes. The results of the survey are comparable to the public transport increases recorded in similar studies undertaken in the United Kingdom and the United States. However, a significant proportion of respondents had changed their trip patterns, suggesting that the proportion of former drivers could be higher than that recorded. The study also suggested that the recorded shift resulted from a combination of changes in personal circumstances and transport related factors. These findings have implications for traditional economic models which assume that a return car trip to the city is saved for every diverted driver. (a) For the covering record of the conference, please refer to ITRD abstract no. E218380.
Abstract