Transport and Main Roads
Household Travel in
Toowoomba
A summary of results from the 2011
Toowoomba Household Travel Survey
Household Travel in Toowoomba
© The State of Queensland (Department of Transport and Main Roads) 2012
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence
You are free to copy, communicate and adapt the work, as long as you attribute the authors.
To attribute this material, cite State of Queensland (Department of Transport and Main Roads)
2012, Household Travel in Toowoomba.
2
Department of Transport and Main Roads, Household Travel in Toowoomba - November 2012
Introduction
Household travel in Toowoombaa
Key findings
Some of the key insights about travel in Toowoomba include:
• There is a 90% private vehicle mode share for all trips or 95% when looking at only work trips
• Almost half of all weekday trips occur during the AM and PM peaks of 7-9AM and 3-5AM, respectively
• Compared to other regions, private vehicle trips are much shorter in distance
• Overall, there is a high proportion of medium distance (2-5km) trips in comparison to other regions
• On average, each Toowoomba resident travels for 44 minutes (16km) in total each weekday
(Note: these two figures cannot be used to calculate an average speed due to weighting factors)
Map of study area and trip boundary
Glossary
Mode share
The primary mode of transport used
for a trip as a proportion of all trips.
Purpose share
The primary purpose for which a trip
is made as a proportion of all trips.
Vehicle driver
Driver of a private motor vehicle
(includes motorcycle riders).
Vehicle passenger
Passenger in a private motor vehicle.
Public transport
Passenger in a bus (including school
buses), train, ferry or taxi.
Active transport
Person making a trip using walking
and/or cycling only.
Data sources
Data in this report is taken from the
2011 Toowoomba household travel
survey, unless otherwise stated. The
survey
collected
comprehensive
travel behaviour information from
a sample of 2 000 households (in
private dwellings; see map to left)
that was both geographically and
demographically
representative
of the resident population of the
Toowoomba region. Survey results
are representative of personal
travel by Toowoomba residents
on a typical school term weekday.
Results are based on sample data
benchmarked to 2011 number of
private dwellings and estimated
resident population living in private
dwellings by age and gender
(Australian Bureau of Statistics - 2011
Census of Population and Housing).
Department of Transport and Main Roads, Household Travel in Toowoomba - November 2012
Accompany others
Trips where the trip maker’s primary
purpose for making a trip is to assist
someone else. One example of such
a trip would be dropping a child at
school (or returning directly home
from such a trip), in which case the
parent is making an accompanying trip
and the child is making an education
trip. Another example would be a trip
where a carer accompanies an unwell
person to the doctor (or accompanies
an unwell person directly home
from such a trip), in which case the
unwell person is making a shopping/
personal trip and the carer is making an
accompanying trip.
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Weekday mode and purpose share * | Toowoomba
>> 3.6 trips per person per day
The estimated number of trips made per
person eachweekday in Toowoomba
>> 438 100 trips per day
The estimated number of trips made each
weekday in Toowoomba
The pie charts below show the proportion of all trips made in Toowoomba in terms of the primary mode for the trip (below left)
and primary purpose of the trip (below right).
Proportion of trips by purpose
Proportion of trips by mode
1%
Private vehicle
(driver)
7%
2%
Work
24%
26%
Private vehicle
(passenger)
Education
Public transport
30%
Shopping/
personal
61%
11%
Cycle
Accompanyin
others
14%
Walk
Social/
recreation
26%
In Toowoomba 9 out of 10 trips are made by
private vehicle.
The most common reason for making a trip in
Toowoomba is for shopping / personal business.
The bar graph below shows the mode share in Toowoomba for each of the trip purposes captured.
Mode share by purpose of trip **
95%
Work
<1%
7%
Education
Shopping/
personal
14%
Accompanying
others
12%
3%
85%
12%
<1%
97%
Social/
recreation
3%
86%
Private vehicle
Public transport
4%
1%
13%
Active transport
* Graphs may not add to exactly 100% in some cases due to rounding off of figures.
** NOTE:
Walking and cycling have been grouped up to active transport to ensure sufficient sample size and maintain reliability of results. Private vehicle driver
and passenger has also been grouped up to private vehicle. Categories <1% not labelled.
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Department of Transport and Main Roads, Household Travel in Toowoomba - November 2012
Weekday time of travel * | Toowoomba
>> 102 300 trips per day during the AM peak
The estimated number of trips made each
weekday during the AM peak in Toowoomba
>> 100 000 trips per day during the PM peak
The estimated number of trips made each
weekday during the PM peak in Toowoomba
The line graph below shows the time of day when travel for different trip purposes occurs.
Proportion of trips by time of arrival
18%
AM peak
PM peak
Work
16%
Proportion of total daily trips
Education
14%
Shopping/
personal
12%
Accompanying
others
10%
Social/
recreation
All purposes
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
Trip arrival time (hours of the day)
Proportion of trips in peak/off peak **
23%
AM peak
PM peak
54%
23%
Almost half of the trips made in Toowoomba
occur during the AM and PM peaks.
Off peak
* Graphs may not add to exactly 100% in some cases due to rounding off of figures.
** NOTE:
AM peak in this analysis includes trips arriving between 7:00am and 9:00am and the PM peak includes trips arriving between 3:00pm and 5:00pm, with
the balance of trips throughout the remainder of the day making up off peak.
Department of Transport and Main Roads, Household Travel in Toowoomba - November 2012
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Weekday travel, distance and duration * | Toowoomba
>> 24 kilometres
The estimated average distance travelled by
Toowoomba residents each day
>> 52 minutes
The estimated average time spent travelling
by Toowoomba residents each day
The bar graph below shows the average distance and time spent travelling on each mode in Toowoomba.
Please note that for statistical reasons, only trips with an origin and a destination within the Toowoomba SA3 boundary (shown on
study area map) have been included in the calculation of averages.
Average distance and duration of trips by mode **
5
Private vehicle
(driver)
Average distance (km)
12
Average duration (min)
4.3
Private vehicle
(passenger)
11
8.4
Public transport
38
3.4
Cycle
21
As is typical in most centres, public
transport has the longest average
trip distance. The average private
vehicle trip distance is shorter than
observed in most centres.
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Walk
14
4.5
Overall (all modes)
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Proportion of trips by distance bands (by trip purpose)
Work
14%
36%
4%
31%
11%
1%
Education
30%
Shopping/
personal
33%
41%
19%
47%
5%
3%
16%
2%
Toowoomba
has a high
proportion
of medium
distance (25km) trips in
comparison to
other centres.
1%
Accompanying
others
28%
44%
28%
3%
4%
Social/
recreation
26%
44%
All purposes
26%
43%
0–2 km
2–5 km
5–10 km
10–20 km
23%
23%
3%
5%
4%
20+ km
* Graphs may not add to exactly 100% in some cases due to rounding off of figures.
** NOTE:
Due to the weighting of trips and varying trip lengths and travel times the overall average figures shown here for distance and time can not be used to
calculate an overall average speed.
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Department of Transport and Main Roads, Household Travel in Toowoomba - November 2012
Comparison table | Queensland
Mode share
Toowoomba
Greater Brisbane
60%
56%
Sunshine Coast
Gladstone
Townsville
61%
61%
59%
25%
28%
30%
Private vehicle
(driver)
Private vehicle
(passenger)
Public transport
23%
30%
Cycle
10%
Walk
Purpose share
Work
7%
1%
2%
8%
2%
4%
Toowoomba
Greater Brisbane
Sunshine Coast
24%
27%
22%
11%
Education
Shopping/
personal
1%
10%
26%
26%
30%
Social/
recreation
14%
14%
Toowoomba
Greater Brisbane
Sunshine Coast
10.2
11.5
Private vehicle
(passenger)
23%
20%
19%
5
4.3
3%
7.8
9.9
7%
2%
2%
Gladstone
Townsville
26%
23%
10%
25%
Private vehicle
(driver)
2%
9%
11%
Accompanying
others
Average distance
(km) by mode
6%
10%
24%
28%
26%
24%
14%
15%
Gladstone
Townsville
7.6
6.6
5.2
5.6
Public transport
19
14.3
9.7
8.4
4.7
Cycle
Walk
3.4
4.3
3.7
4.3
3.4
1.0
1.0
1.1
1.2
0.9
Toowoomba
Greater Brisbane
Sunshine Coast
Gladstone
Townsville
3.6
3.3
3.4
3.6
3.6
Average daily trip rate
(per person per weekday)
Daily trip rate
Department of Transport and Main Roads, Household Travel in Toowoomba - November 2012
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13 QGOV (13 74 68)