The history of urban development in Australia over the past 60 years since 1945 has seen a continuous and progressive increase in the amount of car travel, twenty-fold from a level of 10 billion passenger kilometres per annum in 1945 to approximately 200 billion passenger kilometres now. In contrast the growth in passenger kilometres of travel by urban public transport has been virtually static over the same period, remaining close to 10 billion passenger kilometres per annum throughout the period from 1945-2000. During this period, all levels of government and urban populations have been content to develop vast tracts of our cities with car based land use patterns and little or no access to convenient, fast or reliable public transport services. The private motor vehicle has been seen as bringing the major benefit of personal freedom to the great majority of the population. Despite the environmental sustainability concerns raised throughout the 1980's and 1990's, it is only now with increasing global fuel prices that car dependence is being seen as a potential concern for the future in terms of the high personal costs for car travel that result from dispersed low density urban land use settlement patterns. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E214666.
Abstract