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Articles on Transport policy

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If more of us were free to work from home, fewer of us would be stuck in traffic. Daria Chichkareva, fkigali/Shutterstock

Flexible working, the neglected congestion-busting solution for our cities

Two-thirds of surveyed workers work from home one day a week on average, but could do at least half their work out of the workplace. If they commuted less often, congestion could be greatly reduced.
Sydney has the longest average daily commuting time of 71 minutes, closely followed by Brisbane and Melbourne. Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Australian city workers’ average commute has blown out to 66 minutes a day. How does yours compare?

Average commuting times for Australians have increased by 23% in 15 years. And those with long commutes are less satisfied with their work, working hours, work-life balance and even pay.
Car parking occupies a large proportion of urban areas, and cities cannot keep sacrificing so much space to meet demand. Neil Sipe

What can our cities do about sprawl, congestion and pollution? Tip: scrap car parking

The global trend is to free up valuable city space by reducing parking and promoting other forms of transport that don’t clog roads and pollute the air. Australian cities are still putting cars first.
Car parking is such a pervasive feature of our cities that we have become blind to how much space it takes up. Shuang Li/Shutterstock

Of all the problems our cities need to fix, lack of car parking isn’t one of them

Australian cities have a glut of parking, even as politicians move to protect parking spaces or promise even more. There are better ways to keep congestion manageable and our cities liveable.
When political leaders swap suits for hi-viz vests the costs of the promises they make are high, and often not well justified. Lukas Coch/AAP

Transport promises for election 2019: the good, the bad and the downright ugly

The major parties are promising tens of billions of dollars in transport spending, but only a handful of projects are on Infrastructure Australia’s national priority list with approved business cases.
Walking accounts for about 90% of all travel in Melbourne city centre, yet pedestrians are allocated only 24% of street space. Adam Calaitzis/Shutterstock

Move away from a car-dominated city looks radical but it’s a sensible plan for a liveable future

A newly released ten-year plan for Melbourne aims for fewer cars, safer streets and more shared spaces. A significant amount of parking and road space would be reallocated to walking and cycling.
Pedestrians walking along Bridge Street to Erskineville station in Sydney could take advantage of an extra southern entrance, as could many people now choosing not to catch the train. Chris Standen, used with permission

How to increase train use by up to 35% with one simple trick

In Sydney, 44 of 178 train stations have a single side entrance. It adds up to 12 minutes of daily travel time for people walking the long way to their platform. It’s enough to make some drive instead.
With more than a million Australians using public transport to get to work each day, demand for car parking at the station is virtually insatiable. Philip Mallis/flickr

$500m for station car parks? Other transport solutions could do much more for the money

The Commuter Car Park Fund announced in the budget sounds big, but is likely to create only around 30,000 extra spaces – a marginal benefit for Australia’s 1.2 million daily public transport users.
Lime is working on ways to overcome the problem of ‘helmet churn’ on its e-scooters. Marvin Fox Photography

Helmet churn adds to challenges of e-scooter disruption

Every day, e-scooters and helmets are put out together, but some people ride without helmets and at the end of each day helmets are missing. So what can be done to ensure safe riding behaviour?
The exploding popularity of e-scooters could reshape mobility in our cities. Regulators need to adapt their approaches to handle the innovation rather than ban it altogether. Ivan Marc/Shutterstock

Banning ‘tiny vehicles’ would deny us smarter ways to get around our cities

The exploding popularity of e-scooters has the potential to reshape transport in our cities. Regulators need to adapt their approaches to handle the new mobility service rather than ban it altogether.
Commuters at Epping train station board replacement buses during work on the line for the Sydney Metro, the biggest of all the promised projects. Mick Tsikas/AAP

How the NSW election promises on transport add up

The major parties are promising projects costing tens of billions of dollars, with a surprisingly large overlap between them. Yet only two have been endorsed by infrastructure authorities.
Vancouver used traffic congestion as a ‘stick’ and the SkyTrain as a ‘carrot’ in a strategy to discourage car use and make the city a better place to live. Oleg Mayorov/Shutterstock

Rethinking traffic congestion to make our cities more like the places we want them to be

Instead of spending ever more on roads, we can learn from Vancouver’s use of congestion as a ‘friend’ in managing the development of transport networks and of the city itself.
The early popularity of shared e-scooters suggests they can be a valuable part of the mix of transport options in Brisbane. Albert Perez/AAP

Limes not lemons: lessons from Australia’s first e-scooter sharing trial

Researchers looking at Australia’s first trial of e-scooter sharing find the Brisbane public has embraced this mode of transport. They make five recommendations to deal with issues that have emerged.
CRRC’s version of the optically guided bus, now operating in Zhuzhou, is more like light rail than its predecessors. CRRC

Looking past the hype about ‘trackless trams’

The autonomous rail rapid transit (ART) system developed in China might make buses sexy, but the technology alone won’t resolve the issues of road space and right of way in Australia.
Transport promises stretching as far as the eye can see: Victorian Labor’s big one is a $A50 billion suburban rail loop. Penny Stephens/AAP

How much will voters pay for an early Christmas? Eight charts that explain Victoria’s transport election

Whichever party wins, Victoria’s new government will have promised the biggest transport infrastructure project in Australian history. So what are the promises and are they backed by proper assessment?
The Whim app seamlessly connects users to multiple transport modes in Helsinki – public transport, taxis, car rental and car/bicycle sharing. Aleksandra Suzi/Shutterstock

For Mobility as a Service (MaaS) to solve our transport woes, some things need to change

Apps that seamlessly combine all our travel options could be the most significant transport innovation since the automobile, but early trials show government policy support is vital to make MaaS work.
Children’s travel needs are a big factor in private car use. Pablo Rogat/Shutterstock

Children in the car era: bad for them and the planet

The private car is the default transport option for many families. This reduces physical activity and increases greenhouse gas emissions, with unhealthy results for their children and the environment.

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