Let’s have a play with some
of the working population transport data provided in the 2011 Australian
census. I’ll start with a couple of reasonable assumptions, and we can see how
they pan out in the data:
- Assumption #1: The CBD of each respective city acts as a hub for public transport for the whole city
- Assumption #2: As distance from the CBD increases, the tendency to use public transport decreases; in other words peripheral suburbs should have the lowest level of public transport usage, and inner city areas should have the highest level of usage.
In order to test these assumptions, I have taken each suburb in the four largest Australian
cities and determined the public transport usage for workers located in those
areas from the census data. I have then calculated the time it takes to drive
from those suburbs to the CBD – driving time being used in this case as a real world approximation of
‘distance’ from a CBD.
I have then plotted a graph
of PT usage vs driving time for each of the four cities. This graph allows us
to:
·
See whether
assumption #2 above is true
·
Determine how
good a spread of PT usage there is in the suburbs of each city i.e. in effect
determine how good the network is for each city
·
Use a trendline
to identify any outlier suburbs i.e. any suburbs that have particularly good or
bad public transport connections relative to the rest of the city
But before we get into the
results of the above analysis, to set the scene, here is a graph of public transport
usage for each capital city region in Australia:
 |
| Exclusive public transport usage to workplace in Australian capital cities |
As you can see above, Sydney
has by far the largest amount of public transport usage among its workers.
Melbourne and Brisbane have much lower levels of PT usage, and their levels are [perhaps surprisingly] similar. At the other end of the scale, Darwin, Hobart and Canberra have very
low levels of public transport usage for their workers.
There does seem to be a
strong correlation between population size and PT usage. Indeed they are ranked
exactly in the graph above as per their population. This can be explained by the larger population
bases providing higher tax revenues which permit more investment in public
transport – although per capita, of course, there should be no difference.
·
OK, as promised, we’ll now
have a look at the relationship between the distance (well, driving time) from the CBD and PT usage
in each city and see if we can spot anything interesting in the data.
Public transport in Sydney
 |
| Working population public exclusive transport usage vs driving time to Sydney CBD, by suburb |
The Sydney CBD – Haymarket – The
Rocks area has the highest level of public transport usage in Australia. 65% of
workers based there exclusively use public transport to get to work. Likewise,
the North Sydney/Lavender Bay and Surry Hills areas come in impressively with
just under 50% of workers only using public transport. These areas are very
central, very high density and have excellent transport links so this is
perhaps to be expected.
The graph shows that the
Sydney area in general has a relatively high degree of public transport usage.
The trend line has a relatively gentle slope compared with other cities – there
is still significant PT usage far out from the CBD. For example, a number of
suburbs located 30 minutes drive from the CBD have around 10% of their workers
only using public transport.
Sydney also hosts perhaps the
most impressive suburban PT usage figure in Australia: that of Parramatta. 28%
of workers based in the Parramatta / Rosehill area use only public transport to
get to work, despite this area being almost a 30 minute drive from the CBD.
The town of Katoomba, up in
the Blue Mountains area west of Sydney also deserves special mention. It is a
real outlier with 6% of its workers using public transport to get around yet it
is almost 1.5 hours from Sydney CBD. Clearly there is some good public
transport up there.
Public transport in Melbourne
Ah, Melbourne. With its wonderful trams running up and down its beautiful Victorian streets and wide boulevards, what’s not to like about public transport in this southern city? Quite a lot, at first glance of the graph below.
 |
| Working population exclusive public transport usage vs driving time to Melbourne CBD, by suburb |
Melbourne's graph has a much steeper curve
than Sydney's graph. This suggests that as distance from the CBD increases, PT usage
drops rapidly. Suburbs that are 20 minutes drive from the CBD have
approximately 5% PT usage – Sydney has almost 10% usage at this distance.
There are, of course, a number
of outliers that buck that particular trend, but the trendline describes the
general pattern in the city. The best places for PT usage seem to be South
Yarra and St. Kilda. Further out, Mount Evelyn manages a fairly impressive 5%,
despite being almost 50 minutes away from the city.
The outer reaches of the
Melbourne tram network are approximately 20 minutes drive from the CBD. Perhaps
the explanation for Melbourne’s weaker spread of PT usage is that the tram
network provides excellent covered within a relatively small area, then the
quality of PT drops substantially and the incentive to drive increases.
Public transport in Brisbane
Brisbane is the subtropical focal point of the sprawling, 250km-long, 3 million population, South-East Queensland conurbation and home to the eight lane - and often clogged - Pacific Motorway. So how does public transport usage measure up here? The graph above shows that it follows an even steeper curve than Melbourne; public transport usage drops of at a faster rate the further out from the CBD you go. The Brisbane CBD manages a reasonable 51.6% PT usage, with South Brisbane also bang on trend with around half that level of usage.
 |
| Working population exclusive public transport usage vs driving time to Brisbane CBD, by suburb |
Suburbs punching above their
weight include Fortitude Valley, Indooropilly and Carindale. All three are home
to large shopping/commercial districts and good public transport links. However
the best performer is St. Lucia, home of the University of Queensland. It
manages around 22% PT usage among workers based there; this is roughly double
the rate of Carindale (also a good performer). St. Lucia is a 13 minute drive
from the CBD and for the sake of comparison, Mount Gravatt - which is also a 13
minute drive - has roughly 6% PT usage among its workers.
Another notable performer is
Stradbroke Island (‘Redland Islands’ in the graph above) – this is at least 80
minutes (by ferry and road) from Brisbane CBD, yet 5% of its workers use public
transport. The obvious explanation for this is that it is an island so is at
the very periphery of the socio-economic influence of Brisbane. Its workers
probably use its public transport merely to move around the island, rather than
commute onto the mainland and into central Brisbane.
Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast
suburbs are excluded from the chart above. However the low levels of public
transport usage in these areas should be noted. For example, the suburb with the
highest rate of PT usage in the Gold Coast is Broadbeach Waters at a mere 7.6%.
Commercial areas such as Southport and Robina also have paltry levels of 3.1%
and 3.5% respectively. The Shine Coast fares even worse: its best performing
suburb is Buddina / Minyama with only 1.6% of workers using public transport
exclusively. Both Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast are cities with extremely
decentralised structures. These decentralised cities are examples of urban areas where there is no single CBD that acts as a hub for the whole area; this is counter to the first assumption at the start of this article.
Public transport in Perth
 |
| Working population exclusive public transport usage vs driving time to Perth CBD, by suburb |
The last city in our analysis
here is Perth – like South-East Queensland, it is also notorious for its sprawl
along its coastline. The gradient of the trend curve for Perth is steeper still
than any of the four cities. This means that public transport usage, despite
peaking at a paltry 34% in the CBD, drops off precipitously as distance from
the CBD increases. For example, in suburbs located only a ten minute drive from
the CBD, average public transport usage among workers is only around 5%. In
Sydney the equivalent figure is 26%, in Melbourne it is 14% and in Brisbane it
is 7.5%.
Freemantle is the best
performing suburbs in Perth – despite being 26 minutes away from the city, its
public transport usage is over 9%. This is a level significantly higher than,
for example, North Perth, which is 7 minutes away from the city and has usage levels
under 7%.
In summary
The best and worst Australian suburbs for public transport usage, categorised by into CBD driving time brackets.
Australia's best suburbs for public transport uptake by workers:
Drive Time
|
Sydney
|
Melbourne
|
Brisbane
|
Perth
|
CBD
|
66%
|
53%
|
52%
|
34%
|
0-10 mins
|
Pyrmont / Ultimo, 40%
|
Docklands, 44%
|
South Brisbane, 26%
|
Mount Hawthorn – Leederville, 11%
|
10-20 mins
|
Bondi Junction /
Waverly 38%
|
Albert Park, 24%
|
St. Lucia, 23%
|
Claremont, 10%
|
20-30 mins
|
Parramatta / Rosehill, 28%
|
Box Hill, 11%
|
Shailer Park, 5%
|
Freemantle, 9%
|
30-40 mins
|
Hornsby / Waitara,
12%
|
Springvale South, 6%
|
North Ipswich /
Tivoli, 4%
|
Armadale - Wungong –
Brookdale, 4%
|
40-50 mins
|
Mount Druitt / Whalan, 8%
|
Chelsea / Bonbeach, 5%
|
Morayfield, 4%
|
Rockingham, 4%
|
Australia's worst suburbs for public transport uptake by workers:
Drive Time
|
Sydney
|
Melbourne
|
Brisbane
|
Perth
|
0-10 mins
|
Leichardt /
Annandale, 13%
|
Flemington, 10%
|
Tarragindi, 5%
|
Como, 5%
|
10-20 mins
|
Forestville / Killarney Heights 4%
|
Altona Hill, 2%
|
Rochedale / Burbank, 1%
|
Winthrop, 1%
|
20-30 mins
|
Cromer, 2%
|
Hillside, 0.4%
|
Cashmere, 0.3%
|
Forrestdate /
Harrisdale / Piara Waters, 0.5%
|
30-40 mins
|
Glenhaven, 1%
|
Sunbury, 0.5%
|
Greenbank, 0.3%
|
Byford, 0.5%
|
40-50 mins
|
Mulgoa - Luddenham -
Orchard Hills, 0.2%
|
Wallan, 0.5%
|
Boonah, 0.3%
|
Chidlow, 0%
|
Two overall patterns can be derived from this analysis:
- As cities get larger, public transport usage also increases per capita
- As cities get larger, the balance of usage also spreads out through the suburbs more i.e. public transport usage is less centralised and more dispersed in larger Australian cities.
In terms of specific cities, if you want to drive a car, Perth looks like your best bet. If you would prefer to commute by public transport to work, Sydney looks to be the best choice. In terms of suburbs, Albert Park in Melbourne, Parramatta in Sydney or St. Lucia in Brisbane seem to be choices for public transport.
Hopefully this information
will be of some value to migrants, whether they be inter-city, interstate or
international when it comes to selecting a city to settle in, or a suburb to
select. These data provide a quantifiable, objective method of assessing the quality
of the public transport services available in Australian suburbs. Hopefully
your own anecdotal knowledge matches the conclusions here. If not, please let
us know! If you found this article - or any of the other articles on this blog –
interesting or useful please let us know in the comments section below.
