The Australian Bureau of Statistics has been tracking the way Australians spend their time through the national Time Use Survey, undertaken in 1992 and 1997. Important trends evident from these surveys include: 1. employed persons are working longer hours; 2. time spent on domestic and child care activities changed little; 3. there was a marked decline in Australians' involvement in sport; 4. time spent on recreational pursuits decreased significantly; and 5. time spent travelling increased marginally. A key observation in the ABS report was that 53 per cent of couples with dependent children and 41 per cent of lone parents always or often felt pressed for time. This demographic represents over 25 per cent of households within South East Queensland. Given this background, and other factors such as higher fuel prices and a greater awareness of environmental issues, we expect that the propensity for households to trip chain has increased. The question that we have attempted to answer in this paper is:how has the propensity to trip chain changed? (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E214666.
Abstract