Travel demand elasticity is a measure of the responsiveness of travel demand to changes in variables such as price, income and service level. Knowledge of demand elasticities provides a sound basis for developing price-based travel demand management measures. This report reviews and summarises information on elasticities that were empirically determined in Australia. The review includes elasticities of petrol consumption and traffic level with respect to petrol price, those of public transport demand with respect to fare changes and petrol price increases, and those of freight demand with respect to road freight costs. Petrol price was found to be more effective, in the long run, in reducing fuel consumption (elasticity = -0.55) than in reducing travel demand (elasticity = -0.26). The average own-price, short-run elasticity was 0.29 for bus and -0.35 for rail; cross-elasticities were about 0.10 with respect to petrol price or fare changes. The service level of public transport was about three times as effective as price in shifting car drivers to transit users. (a) The ISBN of the microfiche version is 0-86910-615-5.
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