Charting Transport

How have the mode shares of journeys to work changed by different home locations in Melbourne?

The following animations show various mode shares for journeys to work from census collection districts for 2006 and Statistical Area Level 1 (SA1) for 2011. These are the smallest geographies available for each census. All the data is by place of usual residence.

I’ve animated each image to alternate between 2006 and 2011, so you can gaze at them and spot the changes. But you’ll need to click on them to enlarge and see the animation.

Public transport

Public transport mode share is mostly up across the board. Some exceptions include:

• Langwarrin (east of Frankston)
• Dingley
• Greenvale
• Hillside
• Eastern parts of Rowville

Sustainable transport (only)

This map excludes those who used private transport to reach public transport. It shows that on the suburban fringe, the vast majority of people are still using private motorised transport to get to work. Areas without significant growth include Sunbury, South Morang, Greenvale, Rowville, Berwick north, Skye/Carrum Downs, Mt Eliza, Dingley, areas around the Ringwood-Lilydale rail line, and Westmeadows.

[minor corrections to map made 5 Nov 2012]

Train

[minor corrections to map made 6 Sep 2013]

There is growth across mode areas of Melbourne. You can see a massive difference in Roxburgh Park Craigieburn area following the extension of suburban electric services to Craigieburn.

Bus

You can see a substantial increases:

• in Doncaster area following the introduction of 7 SmartBus routes (including 4 to the CBD).
• in pockets between the Ringwood and Dandenong rail lines in the middle eastern suburbs. These areas had SmartBus routes introduced in 2002/2005, and perhaps it is taking a while to translate to bus in journey to work.
• Around Abbotsford/Collingwood, perhaps reflecting increased train crowding and introduction of four SmartBus routes along Hoddle Street creating an extremely frequent service to the city.

Tram

You can see increased mode share across the network, particularly around the outer end of the tram route to Bundoora (zone 2 only in 2006, included in zone 1 in 2011) (but less so in Vermont South).

Active transport (only)

You can see gains in the Brunswick, Northcote, Kew and Foostcray areas.

Walking only

I can see little change between 2006 and 2011, which is in line with little change in the overall share for Melbourne.

Cycling

Cycling continues to grow rapidly in the inner northern suburbs, but also a little to the inner east and inner south.

Train and Bicycle

With the introduction of Parkiteer cages at train stations, was there any increase in the number of people riding to train stations?

The numbers are so small, it is difficult to see spatially, but there was a substantial increase in overall numbers from around 1200 to 1800.

Train and bus

You can see increases around the Dandenong rail line, between the Glen Waverley and Ringwood rail lines, around Werribee/Tarneit, and around Sydenham.

Public transport mode shift by SLA

Here’s a map showing the mode shift towards public transport by Statistical Local Area (SLA), the smallest geography for which results are available for both the 2006 and 2011 censuses.

The biggest mode shifts were in the City of Melbourne, followed by Wyndham – south (Point Cook), South Yarra/Prahran, and Moreland – north. Nowhere in Melbourne did public transport mode share reduce.

I’m sure other people will find more patterns in the maps than I have been able to today. Please comment on any interesting finds. I might come back later and update this post when I have more time.

I will aim to do a similar exercise for other cities soon.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2012 at 5:27 pm and is filed under Melbourne, Mode share, Mode shift. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.