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This section examines how people travel to work in SEQ, by place of usual residence. It looks at use of different transport modes based on where a person lives by reporting on the transport mode shares in 2006 and how these have changed since 2001.

2006 snapshot

Table 6.2 summarises the mode shares of transport used by employed usual residents of SEQ to get to work on census day in 2006. About 11 per cent of employed SEQ residents did not go to work on census day, and another 2 per cent did not report a method of travel.

The analyses in this section and elsewhere in this chapter focus on those who attended work and provided information on their mode of travel. The mode share calculation differs from the usual method in that those who worked at home were retained in the analysis.

Of those who reported a mode of travel to work, over two thirds (68.8 per cent) drove a car to work, and another 10.1 per cent were either driven to work, or drove in another private vehicle. In other words, almost 4 in 5 workers (78.9 per cent) travelled to work in a car or other private vehicle.

Table 6.2 Journey to work by transport mode for employed usual residents of South East Queensland, 2006

Mode of transport Employed usual residents

(number) Employed usual residents (per cent of subtotal)

Car (as driver) 773 989 68.8

Car (as passenger) 80 822 7.2

Other private vehicle 32 461 2.9

Train 56 433 5.0

Bus 50 918 4.5

Other public transport 5 639 0.5

Cycling 11 819 1.1

Walking 39 880 3.5

Other modes 13 519 1.2

Worked at home 59 233 5.3

Subtotal 1 124 713 100.0

Did not go to work 140 570 —

Method of travel not stated 20 496 —

Total employed residents 1 285 779 —

Notes: Percentages are of total employed persons who attended work on census day and who stated their method of travel. Individual figures may not sum to totals due to rounding and confidentialisation. ‘Other private vehicles’

includes trucks and motorbikes/scooters. ‘Other public transport’ includes ferries, trams and taxis.

Source: BITRE analysis using ABS 2006 Census DataPacks: basic community profile release 2 (Cat. 2069.0.30.001).

Ten per cent of workers used public transport to get to work, comprised mostly of train (5.0 per cent) and bus (4.5 per cent) travel. In comparison, the residents of Sydney and Melbourne were much more likely to catch a train than a bus, while in Perth, like in SEQ, the train and bus shares were very similar (although unlike SEQ, the bus share was slightly higher).⁵⁰ Less than 1 in 20 workers (4.6 per cent) either cycled or walked to work (known collectively as active transport), while a slightly higher proportion (5.3 per cent) worked from home.

Map 6.1 illustrates the public transport mode share for people’s journeys to work by the Census Collection District (CCD) in which they live. This reveals that public transport use is higher in the CCDs closer to the city centre, and also in certain corridors (such as between Brisbane and Ipswich in the west).

50 Residents of the Sydney Greater Metropolitan Area were more than twice as likely to use a train than a bus (12.0 per cent train share compared with 5.3 per cent bus share). In the Melbourne working zone, residents were almost seven times more likely to catch a train to work (9.4 per cent mode share) than bus (1.4 per cent), but tram (2.2 per cent) also played a significant role. In the Perth working zone, the train mode share (4.0 per cent) was slightly lower than the bus share (4.3 per cent). For more information, please see BITRE (2010, 2011a, 2012a).

Map 6.1 Public transport mode share for journeys to work by Census Collection District of residence, South East Queensland, 2006

Source: BITRE analysis of ABS 2006 Census Basic Community Profile release 2 (Cat. 2069.0.30.001).

Regions

Table 6.3 shows the journey to work transport mode shares by region of residence in 2006.

This reveals some considerable spatial variation.

In particular, Inner Brisbane’s commuting transport mode use is quite different from that of the other regions. Workers who lived in Inner Brisbane in 2006 were much more likely than workers in other areas to walk to work, with just under one in five (19.4 per cent) travelling to work in this way, compared to about one in 28 (3.5 per cent) employed residents in SEQ overall. Residents of Inner Brisbane were also more likely to cycle to work (3.1 per cent, compared to the overall SEQ figure of 1.1 per cent).

Table 6.3 Transport mode share for journey to work by sector and subregion of

Middle North 69.7 2.5 18.1 1.3 3.1 1.0 4.2

Middle South 72.0 2.2 16.9 1.1 2.5 1.0 4.3

Middle West 69.6 1.9 16.6 1.5 3.7 1.2 5.4

Brisbane Total 73.4 2.9 13.5 1.1 3.5 1.2 4.5

Gold Coast 81.9 2.7 3.9 1.0 3.2 1.2 6.1

Sunshine Coast 79.9 3.0 2.5 1.1 3.9 1.3 8.4

Toowoomba 84.8 3.0 1.4 1.3 4.4 1.2 4.0

West Moreton 76.6 4.9 1.4 0.4 4.9 1.4 10.3

SEQ Total 76.0 2.9 10.0 1.1 3.5 1.2 5.3

Notes: Percentages are of total employed persons who attended work on census day. Individual figures may not sum to totals due to rounding and confidentialisation. ‘Other private vehicles’ includes trucks and motorbikes/scooters.

‘Public transport’ includes trains, buses, ferries, trams and taxis.

Source: BITRE analysis of ABS 2006 Census Basic Community Profile release 2 (Cat. 2069.0.30.001).

The higher takeup of these modes in Inner Brisbane is likely to reflect their nature as short-distance methods of travel. In a Sydney study, mode share was examined in terms of journey length. This revealed that walking dominated trips of less than 5 kilometres (just under half of all journeys), but this share dropped to virtually nothing for longer journeys (Xu, Milthorpe and Tsang 2011). On the other hand, the train mode share increased with length of journey, up to 30 kilometres. The bus mode had its largest share in journeys of 5 to 10 kilometres, but for longer journeys, its share decreased as the length of journey increased, in each 5 kilometre increment, up to 30 kilometres (ibid).

Aside from the high proportion of active transport use in Inner Brisbane, the remaining regions had active transport mode shares of between 2.1 and 5.7 per cent.

The four areas with the lowest percentages of active transport modes were the Outer subregions of Brisbane (Outer East, Outer North, Outer South, Outer West), all with less than three per cent. West Moreton had the lowest cycling share (0.4 per cent), along with the Outer subregions (0.4 to 0.7 per cent).

Public transport use was higher than the overall SEQ figure of 10 per cent in the Inner sector (21 per cent) and in all four Middle subregions (ranging from 16.0 to 18.1 per cent).

Car use tended to dominate method of travel to work in all regions. With the exception of Inner, the car share ranged from 69.6 per cent (Middle West) to 84.8 per cent (Toowoomba).

In the Inner sector, corresponding to its higher use of active and public transport, car use represented just under half of all commutes (49.1 per cent).

The four Middle subregions had smaller car use shares than the Outer subregions (a range of 69.6 to 72.0 per cent, compared with 77.8 to 81.7 per cent in the four Outer subregions).

Table 6.4 shows the use of public transport modes, by region of residence. The varying composition of transport mode shares across regions is likely to be due to proximity to public transport (both at the home and work locations) and suitability of routes and connections.

Table 6.4 Detailed public transport mode share for journey to work by sector and subregion of residence, South East Queensland, 2006

Region/Sector/

Subregion Public transport mode Total public

transport

Train Bus Ferry Taxi

(per cent)

Inner 4.5 13.1 2.1 0.9 20.6

Middle 8.1 8.3 0.3 0.4 17.1

Middle East 6.6 7.8 1.2 0.4 16.0

Middle North 10.8 6.8 0.0 0.4 18.1

Middle South 4.4 12.1 0.0 0.4 16.9

Middle West 9.4 6.5 0.5 0.3 16.6

Outer 5.9 2.3 0.0 0.2 8.3

Outer East 4.3 2.7 0.1 0.2 7.3

Outer North 8.3 1.3 0.0 0.2 9.8

Outer South 2.3 4.4 0.0 0.2 6.8

Outer West 7.4 0.7 0.0 0.2 8.4

Brisbane Total 6.9 5.9 0.3 0.3 13.5

Gold Coast 1.6 2.0 0.0 0.2 3.9

Sunshine Coast 0.7 1.6 0.0 0.1 2.5

Toowoomba 0.1 0.8 0.0 0.5 1.4

West Moreton 0.9 0.5 0.0 0.0 1.4

SEQ Total 5.0 4.5 0.2 0.3 10.0

Notes: Percentages are of total employed persons who attended work on census day. Individual figures may not sum to totals due to rounding and confidentialisation.

Source: BITRE analysis of ABS 2006 Census Basic Community Profile release 2 (Cat. 2069.0.30.001).

This table reveals that there are some regions with a proportionately greater level of train use (such as the Middle North and Middle West subregions), and some with a greater use of buses (such as the Middle South subregion and the Inner sector).

The ferry and taxi modes have smaller shares overall, and both have higher shares in the Inner sector, which tend to decrease with distance from the city centre. This is unsurprising as the ferry network is limited, and taxis are more likely to be used for shorter trips.

Statistical Local Areas

Map 6.2 illustrates how the private vehicle mode share for journey to work varies for residents across Statistical Local Areas (SLAs) in SEQ. Private vehicles include cars (as driver or passenger), trucks, motorcycles and scooters. The private vehicle mode share in each SLA ranged from 20 per cent to 92 per cent of employed residents.

Car use (as a driver) represented most of private vehicle use in each SLA. Across SLAs, in the private vehicle category:

• Between 71 per cent and 92 per cent of private vehicle use was ‘car as driver’

• Between 4 and 16 per cent was ‘car as passenger’

• Between 0 and 6 per cent was ‘truck’

• Between 0 and 17 per cent was ‘motorcycle’.

As shown on the map, the pattern of private vehicle use follows a clear pattern of being lower in the CBD and increasing with distance from the city centre. The level of dependence on private vehicles is pervasive outside the core area of Brisbane, but even amongst Inner SLAs, private vehicle use ranges from 31 per cent to 63 per cent of all commuting.

Of the 291 SLAs, 283 (97.3 per cent) have a private vehicle journey to work mode share of 50 per cent or more, and just under half of the SLAs (140) have an 80 per cent private vehicle share or more.

The SLAs with the highest levels of private vehicle share are:

• Rosalie Part A (92 per cent)

• Jondaryan Part A (91 per cent)

• Pacific Pines-Gaven (90 per cent)

• Cambooya Part A (90 per cent)

• Toowoomba South-East (90 per cent).

With the exception of Pacific Pines-Gaven on the Gold Coast, all these SLAs are in Toowoomba.

This may reflect public transport access, as three of the SLAs have some of the lowest shares of public transport (under one per cent: Jondaryan Part A, Rosalie Part A and Cambooya Part A). While Toowoomba does have a bus service, it is not part of the TransLink service area, and has no commuter trains to Brisbane.

Map 6.2 Private vehicle mode share for journey to work by Statistical Local Area of residence, South East Queensland, 2006

Source: BITRE analysis using ABS 2006 Census Basic Community Profile release 2 (Cat. 2069.0.30.001).

Among the 25 SLAs with the highest private vehicle shares, 15 are Gold Coast SLAs, 5 are Toowoomba SLAs, and 5 are Outer South SLAs. Conversely, of the 25 SLAs with the lowest private vehicle mode levels, 16 are Inner SLAs, 8 are Middle SLAs, and one is an Outer East SLA (Redland Balance).

The SLAs with the lowest levels of private vehicle mode share are Moreton Island (20 per cent—

although this only represents 24 trips), City Inner (31 per cent), Spring Hill (32 per cent) and City Remainder (34 per cent).

Of the 37 SLAs which have truck mode shares of 3.5 per cent or more, 16 are in the regions outside Greater Brisbane (including all six West Moreton SLAs), 18 are in the Outer sector and 6 are in the Middle sector.

Map 6.3 illustrates the proportion of employed residents in each SLA using public transport to travel to work. This ranged from 0 per cent to 29 per cent of employed residents in each SLA.

An interesting feature of this map is how the innermost SLAs do not have the highest public transport mode shares on a place of residence basis. In fact, the City Inner SLA only has a public transport mode share of 8.8 per cent. This is due to the use of active transport (walking, cycling).

The three SLAs with the highest public transport mode share (all about 29 per cent) are Taringa, Lutwyche and Toowong. These SLAs are in the Middle sector, but very close to Inner Brisbane, and either contain one or more train stations (Taringa and Toowong), or are adjacent to SLAs with train stations (Lutwyche).

Map 6.3 Public transport mode share for journey to work by Statistical Local Area of residence, South East Queensland, 2006

Source: BITRE analysis using ABS 2006 Census Basic Community Profile release 2 (Cat. 2069.0.30.001).

Of the 25 SLAs with the highest public transport mode shares, four are in the Inner sector of Brisbane, with all remaining 21 in the Middle sector of Brisbane, as follows: Middle North (ten SLAs), Middle West (six SLAs), Middle South (four SLAs) and Middle East (one SLA).

The SLAs with the lowest share are Willawong (0.0 per cent), Jondaryan Part A (0.4 per cent) and Crow’s Nest Part A (0.7 per cent).

Most of the SLAs with the lowest public transport commuting use are outside the Brisbane region. Of the 25 SLAs with the lowest public transport journey to work mode shares, there are nine in Toowoomba, six each in West Moreton and the Gold Coast, three in the Sunshine Coast and one in Middle South Brisbane.