In this article the author discusses Australian transportation systems incomparison with those in the U.S. A large point of departure is the development in Australia of post-War suburbs without the large, planned, federally funded interstate highway system that dictated growth patterns in the U.S. The result is that many of Australia's major employers have remained downtown, though they are starting to migrate to suburban office parks. Italso means that the sprawling nature of Australia's shopping areas causescongestion on regional and local levels. The freeway building process is also described. Because it was started in the 1990s, the governments involved faced major hurdles in acquiring rights of way. There were also engineering design challenges to link them to existing roadways and transportation networks. Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) were used extensively, buthad mixed rates of success. Bus Rapid Transit systems were also implemented, and those experiences are described. Additional experiences with Sydney's commuter rail line are described, including a reliance on aging equipment that does not perform reliably.
Abstract