Issues with Urban Transport -- people and freight data

David Gargett

Transport Research Leader, BITRE

Issues with Urban Transport – Passenger and Freight

DataTwo data (and modelling) types:

Aggregate

Detailed network

Four major data pictures to fill in:

Passenger and commercial (including freight) Tasks

Resulting traffic (versus capacity)

Resulting fuel use and emissions

Resulting congestion

Major Determinants of the City Transport Task

• Passengers “It’s population growth”

• Freight “It’s the economy, Stupid”

City Mode Share 1977 to 2008 (est)

Total Passenger Task Melbourne

Issues with Urban Transport – Passenger and Freight

DataTwo data (and modelling) types:

Aggregate

Detailed network

Four major data pictures to fill in:

Passenger and commercial (including freight) Tasks

Resulting traffic (versus capacity)

Resulting fuel use and emissions

Resulting congestion

City Traffic Estimates and Projections

Traffic in Individual Cities

City Congestion Cost Estimates

Issues with Aggregate City Data

• Most data comes from the ABS Survey of Motor Vehicle Use

• Due to budget cutbacks, the SMVU will not be repeated for 3 years

• Solutions:– Modelling– UPT data from authorities– Vehicle use estimates from city fuel data

Detailed Network Data and Modelling• Passenger Traffic

– Data from State surveys and ABS journey to work survey– Models mostly 4-stage – Results are light vehicle traffic simulations on the city network

• Freight Traffic– Data (in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane) from industry surveys– Tonnage -> Trucks -> Traffic on routes

• Traffic count data– New methods of computer processing to get accurate vehicle type

counts on road sections

Detailed Network Data and Modelling• Issues

– Cost = who pays?– Cost = do they pay regularly and consistently?– Cost = How much can we (should we) afford?– Cost = Is there a better (cheaper) way?– Output = What do we need in the way of data?– Output = How regularly?– Output = in what detail?– Analysis system = retaining/training key staff– Analysis system = sharing ways and means between cities

Our Cities

• Two out of every three Australians dwell in our capital cities

• The trends/issues around increasing congestion, oil depletion and greenhouse emissions mean city transport is involved in many of the issues facing us as a nation.

• But transport is also now more generally involved with the quality of life of Australian city dwellers, making the issues of data collection and model construction more important than one might think