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Five facts about commuting in Australia
The purpose of this Information Sheet is to provide the reader with a quick source of basic facts about
commuting in Australia. Beneath each fact there is the essential data (in figures). If you need to know more,
a list of further readings is included at the end.
1.
Is commuting a big part of urban transport demand?
The transport network is catering for different trip purposes through the day. In the morning peak when the
network in large cities is handling peak demand, only a third of people are on their way to work. One in five
are on their way to school, TAFE or University and the rest (around half) are doing other things.
Figure 1:
Motorised trip proportions by time of the day and destination purpose, Weekday, Melbourne
Statistical Division, 2007-08
Home
Work
Education
Personal Business
Shopping
Recreation
Transport of passengers
70
Proportion (per cent)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Morning Peak
(7:45 AM-9:45 AM)
Afternoon peak
(15:15 PM-17:15 PM)
All day
Source: McGreoch C A (2011), 30 years of travel in Melbourne: 1978/79 and 2007/08, Australasian Transport Research Forum (ATRF)
Conference, 28-30 September 2011, Adelaide, Table 6. (http://atrf.info/papers/2011/2011_McGeoch.pdf)
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2.
Is it true that a lot of people are spending hours stuck in traffic?
The vast majority of people doing the longest commutes are sitting in trains not cars. The average mass transit
commute in Sydney, for example, is 62 minutes compared to 26 minutes by car. One reason for this is that
the average speed of trains in Sydney is 24 km/h. Buses are even slower at 14 km/h. Cars average 33km/h.
This pattern of much longer commutes by mass transit than cars seems to be common in most of the world’s
cities.
Figure 2:
Average duration of lengthy commutes by place of residence and priority transport mode, Sydney,
2008-13
60
40
20
Inner Sydney
Middle Sydney
Active transport
Car
Mass transit
Active transport
Car
Mass transit
Car
Active transport
0
Mass transit
Commuting time (minutes)
80
Outer Sydney
Source: BITRE (2016) Lengthy commutes in Australia, Report 144, Canberra (based on NSW Bureau of Statistics and Analytics Household Travel
Survey, 2008-2013).
Figure 3:
Average distance and speed by transport mode, Sydney, 2008-13
Average distance (km) / Average
spped (km/hour)
40
Average distance (km)
Average speed (km/hour)
30
20
10
0
Car
Train
Bus
Tarnsport mode
Bicycle
Walk
Source: BITRE (2016) Lengthy commutes in Australia, Report 144, Canberra (based on NSW Bureau of Statistics and Analytics Household Travel
Survey, 2008-2013).
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3.
What has an Italian physicist got to do with commuting?
Cesare Marchetti was one of the first to realise that human travel times are highly patterned. In particular.
he realised that there was a limit of about an hour and ten minutes to people’s daily travel budget. A recent
study of millions of phone records shows that this is the case everywhere from the Ivory Coast to Boston.
What does this mean for commuters? The perceived costs of commuting rise steeply after a one way
commute exceeds around 35 minutes (the Marchetti constant). This fact means cities structure themselves
around average commuting times rather than people adapting to the structure of the city.
Figure 4:
Average commuting times for full-time workers in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth
Statistical Divisions, 2002 to 2012
Commuting time (minutes)
40
35
30
25
20
Sydney
Adelaide
Melbourne
Perth
Brisbane
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Source: BITRE analysis of HILDA survey unit record data. The HILDA survey was initiated, and is funded, by the Australian Government through
the Department of Social Services (DSS). Responsibility for the design and management of the survey rests with the Melbourne
Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (University of Melbourne).
4.
Why do some people commute longer?
Money is the main reason some people make long commutes. One of the main ways our economy expands
is through division of labour. In other words, people are doing ever more specialist jobs requiring more
specialist skills. These jobs are unevenly distributed throughout the city and to reach them can often involve
longer commutes. This means that longer commutes are predominantly undertaken by people travelling to
higher wage jobs. This pattern seems to be common in cities all over the world. Like many other countries,
men commute longer than women in Australia.
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Figure 5:
Average trip length by income, Australia, 2002-12 (aggregated)
40
30
25
20
15
10
5
121+
101 to 120
91 to 100
81 to 90
71 to 80
61 to 70
56 to 60
51 to 55
46 to 50
41 to 45
36 to 40
31 to 35
26 to 30
16 to 20
21 to 25
11 to 15
0
0 to 10
Average trip length (minutes)
35
Average income per hour earned in all jobs (2016 dollars)
Source: BITRE analysis of HILDA wave 2 and wave 12 (aggregated).
Proportion of commuters (per cent)
Figure 6:
Proportion of commuters by commuting trip duration, Australia, 2012
50
Male
Female
40
30
20
10
0
15 minutes
or less
16-30
minutes
31-45
46-60
minutes
minutes
Commuting trip dutation
61-90
minutes
91 minutes
or more
Source: BITRE analysis of HILDA wave 12.
5.
Are our commuting patterns changing?
Yes, they are in large cities. After the Second World War jobs in Australian cities began to suburbanise as
changes in manufacturing technology demanded single story factories on greenfield sites. Commuting patterns
changed to reflect this and cross suburban commuting began to dominate the old radial commuting model.
Now, jobs growth, particularly for high paid jobs, is often higher in the CBD and the radial commuting pattern
is again becoming more common. This can mean more mass transit travel which generally means longer
commutes. This is being offset to some degree by the largest construction boom of inner city apartments
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Australia has ever seen. Analysis by BITRE indicates that the growth of jobs in inner Melbourne may have
stabilised since 2011.
Figure 7:
Changes in employed persons by sector, Melbourne, 2001, 2006 and 2011
800
Employed persons ('000)
2001
2006
2011
600
400
200
0
Inner
Middle
Outer
Source: BITRE analysis of ABS 2001, 2006 and 2011 Census of Population and Housing data.
Want to know more?
BITRE publications
Year
BITRE (2016)
Title
Lengthy commutes in Australia
Type
Report 144
Link
http://bitre.gov.au/publications/2016/rr_144.aspx
BITRE (2015)
Australia's commuting distance:
cities and regions
Population growth, jobs growth
and commuting flows - a
comparison of Australia's four
largest cities
Population growth, jobs growth
and commuting flows in South East
Queensland
Population growth, jobs growth
and commuting flows in Sydney
Info Sheet
73
Report 142
http://bitre.gov.au/publications/2015/is_073.aspx
Report 134
http://bitre.gov.au/publications/2013/report_134.aspx
Report 132
http://bitre.gov.au/publications/2013/report_132.aspx
BITRE (2011)
Population growth, jobs growth
and commuting flows in Melbourne
Report 125
http://bitre.gov.au/publications/2013/report_125.aspx
BITRE (2010)
Population growth, jobs growth
and commuting flows in Perth
Report 119
http://bitre.gov.au/publications/2013/report_119.aspx
BITRE
(2013b)
BITRE
(2013a)
BITRE (2012)
http://bitre.gov.au/publications/2013/report_142.aspx
Other Sources
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5
Sources /s urveys
Des cri pti on
Attri butes
Geogra phy
Cens us 2011
Fi ve yea rs
i nterva l (2011,
2006 a nd 2011)
Demogra phy, journey-towork bu mode, di s ta nce,
ti me
Na ti ona l (SLA, LGA,
GCCSA, Suburbs etc.)
Longi tudi na l Di s ta nce


Ti me
Mode
Purpos e



(continued)
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Sources /s urveys Des cri ption
Attri butes
Geogra phy
HILDA
Annua l l y from
2001
Na tiona l (va ri ous
a rea s , e.g. SLA, LGA,
GCCSA, Suburbs etc.)
PC Commuting
Survey
2011 (one-off)
Demogra phi c,
empl oyment a nd fa mi l y
va ri a bl es (i ncl udi ng
educa
tion, itimes
ncome,
Commuting
a nd
NSW Hous ehol d Si nce 1997-98
Tra vel Survey
VISTA (2013)
2012-13
rel a ted ques tions (s uch
a s mode,
diarect/i
ndi rect
Hous
ehol d
nd pers
ona l
demogra phi cs , l a bour
force cha ra cteri s tics ,
tra
vehi cl e
Trans
nsport
port modes
mode, ,method
of tra vel , purpos e of
tra vel , di s tance a nd time
Longi tudi na l Di s tance
ba s i s


Ti me
Mode
Purpos e



Sel ected 24
Metropol i tan ci ties
X
X



Sydney GMA (Grea ter
Metropol i tan Area )
X




Mel bourne (Inner,
Mi ddl e a nd Outer)
X




QLD Hous ehol d
Tra vel Survey
Ti me s eri es
(1992, 2004,
2007 a nd 2009)
Tra ns port mode, method
of tra vel , purpos e of
tra vel , di s tance a nd time
SEQ, Bri s ba ne, Gol d
Coa s t a nd Suns hi ne
Coa s t
X




ABS Ti me Us e
Survey
Irregul a r (fi rs t
conducted i n
1992, then
repea ted i n
1997 a nd 2006)
Tra ns port mode a nd
hous ehol d type (col l ected
i nforma tion on how
peopl e us ed thei r time)
NSW/Sydney a nd
VIC/Mel bourne
(Ma jor s tatis tica l
regi ons - l a bour
force regi ons )
X
X
X


© Commonwealth of Australia 2016
ISSN 1440-9593
ISBN 978-1-925401-74-5
INFRA 2958 / August 2016
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence is a standard form licence agreement that allows you to copy, communicate and adapt
this publication provided that you attribute the work to the Commonwealth and abide by the other licence terms. A summary of the
licence terms is available from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en.
The full licence terms are available from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/legalcode.
This publication should be attributed in the following way; Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) 2016,
Five facts about commuting in Australia, BITRE, Canberra.
Acknowledgement
Prepared by Dr Afzal Hossain and Warwick Jones. For further information on this publication please contact [email protected]
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