HS4: Transport

Introduction

For information on this indicator see Background: Human Settlements. 

This section assesses private and public transport which accounts for the vast majority of transport demand in the ACT. Transport undertaken for business and industry purposes is not assessed.

Reductions in transport emissions are particularly important for the ACT with 58% of ACT’s greenhouse gas emissions coming from transport in 2021–22 (see section Climate Change).

Vehicle numbers and use

The number of registered vehicles in the ACT has grown from around 253,000 vehicles in 2010, to over 331,000 in 2023 — an increase of over 30% (Figure 17). Between 2020 and 2023, registered vehicles increased by more than 20,300 — a 7% increase over three years.

The annual kilometres travelled by vehicles has not been available for the ACT since 2020. Data up to 2020 shows that following long term increases, vehicle usage decreased in 2020 in response to COVID-19 restrictions. Whilst it is not known whether this decline has continued in response to further COVID-19 restrictions and the significant increase in working from home arrangements, vehicle usage is estimated to increase in the future, but likely at a slower rate than pre COVID-19 years. In 2020, passenger vehicles were responsible for over 80% of the total kilometres travelled, with light commercial vehicles accounting for nearly 16%.

In 2023, passenger vehicles were responsible for 82% (around 273,000) of the total vehicle registrations in the ACT (Figure 18). Light commercial vehicles accounted for 12% of the total vehicle registrations, an increase of around 2% since 2018. Light commercial vehicles include some types of sports utility vehicles, which are being increasingly used by the community for non-work purposes. These large vehicles are more damaging to the environment, with increased emissions of air pollutants due to higher fuel usage.

Vehicle registration data and annual kilometres travelled shows that private vehicles are the main contributor of transport activity in the ACT. Reducing vehicle use remains a priority to reduce the impacts of transport on the environment, particularly in terms of greenhouse gas reductions and air quality.

The high numbers of registered vehicles and vehicle use in the ACT not only impacts on the environment, but also congestion on the roads. Modelling of traffic flows by Transport Canberra and City Services have estimated the increase in the ACT’s morning and afternoon peak hour traffic between 2021 and 2031, including:

• a 13% increase in the number of car trips
• a 10% to 11% increase in vehicle kilometres travelled, and
• an 18% to 19% increase in vehicle hours travelled.

This estimated continued increase in traffic flows follows previous research which found that the ACT’s daily commute times increased by 65% between 2002 and 2017, raising the mean daily commute time from 31 minutes to 52 minutes.^[2] This was the highest commute time increase of any Australian city.

Ongoing increases in the ACT’s traffic will further increase the time spent on commuting and other daily activities, and the level of inconvenience and stress experienced in travel. Increased travel time impacts on the liveability of a city and also has an economic cost because of reductions in work time.

Transport modes

The ACT community is highly dependent on cars. A 2022 survey of daily weekday travel in the ACT and Queanbeyan–Palerang Regional Council found that there were around 1.56 million daily trips, with 75% undertaken by car, including 53% as a driver and 22% as a passenger (Figure 19).^[3] Cars were used for a range of purposes including work, social, shopping and education showing that cars are the main transport choice for a range of daily activities.

Bus transport only accounted for 3% of trips, and cycling only 2%. Walking was the second highest mode with 18% of the total trips taken. However, it should be noted that walking data includes that undertaken for recreation (for example, exercise and dog walking) which accounted for nearly 40% of all walking trips, and so does not necessarily represent travel to a specific destination.

Results from the 2022 survey are similar to those found for the 2017 survey with the largest change an increase of 4% in walking.

The ACT community’s dependence on cars is also demonstrated by the transport modes used to travel to work. Cars were used for over 86% of travel to and from work (Figure 20) including 79% as a driver and 7% as a passenger. This not only shows the dominance of car use for travel to work, but also that most commuting by car is undertaken with the driver as the sole vehicle occupant. Public transport was used for only 7% of travel to work, and cycling and walking 3% each.

Results from the 2022 survey show a 5% increase in commuting as a vehicle driver compared to the 2017 survey. Public transport saw a small decrease (1%) between 2017 and 2022 and cycling saw a 2% decrease. Whilst these changes are small, they do show the lack of community uptake for public transport and cycling in favour of increased car use.

The ACT Government has set commuting to work targets to be achieved by 2026.^[4] These include increasing the mode share of public transport to 16%, and walking and cycling to 7% each. The travel to work data reported here shows that these targets are currently not being met and are unlikely to be met by 2026.

Vehicle fuel types

The number of diesel powered vehicles continues to grow in the ACT. In 2010, diesel vehicles accounted for 6% of registered passenger vehicles in the ACT, this has increased to 20% in June 2023 (Figure 21).^[5]Based on registration data from Access Canberra, includes goods vehicles under 4,500 kg, excludes all trucks and goods vehicles over 4,500 kg. Diesel vehicles also increased by 2% between 2019 and 2023. Petrol powered vehicles decreased from 93% of registered vehicles to 75% between 2010 and 2023, coinciding with the increase in diesel vehicles. The rise in diesel vehicles may reflect a consumer choice for larger models such as sports utility vehicles and four wheel drives.

The large increase in diesel vehicles is of concern because their impact on greenhouse gas emissions (see Climate change — Indicator CC3: Greenhouse gas emissions). The impacts of diesel vehicles on air quality is also becoming recognised as a problem in both Australia and globally. For example, diesel engines generally have higher emissions of nitrogen oxides and much higher emissions of particulate matter (see Air).

In 2023, electric vehicles accounted for less than 2% of the total registered passenger vehicles in the ACT, with hybrid cars accounting for 3%. But in terms of vehicle numbers, there has been a greater uptake of electric and hybrid vehicles in recent years in the ACT. Between January 2019 and June 2023, electric vehicle registrations increased from 184 to 4,737 and hybrid vehicles from 2,802 to 9,741. Since 2019, electric vehicle numbers have roughly doubled annually and in the first half of 2023 one in five newly registered vehicles were electric.

Public transport

Public transport use varied widely over the 10 years from 2013–14 to 2022–23 (Figure 22). There were annual increases in boarding from 2014-15 to 2018-19, followed by significant decreases in 2019–20 to 2021–22 because of COVID-19 restrictions and the significant increase in working from home arrangements. This number of public transport boardings in 2020-21, and especially 2021–22, were the lowest on record since 1983–84. The number of boardings in 2022–23 increased greatly and was almost as high as pre COVID-19 years.

The light rail commenced operation on 20 April 2019, with annual boardings ranging from 2.3 million to 3.7 million, although these were also impacted by the COVID-19 restrictions in 2020–21 and 2021–22. Despite this, the light rail has proven to be a successful public transport addition to the ACT. This is evidenced by the increased public transport boardings for the services operating along the Gungahlin Town Centre route which increased from 2.1 million boardings in 2017–18 to 3.7 million in 2022–23. Even the years most impacted by COVID-19 restrictions had higher boardings than the period prior to the pandemic.

Current public transport use remains significantly lower than previous decades. For example, there were 25.1 million public transport boardings in 1989–90 (over 90 boardings per capita), compared to 19.3 million boardings in 2018–19 (47 boardings per capita), the highest number in the past 10 years. This is despite a population growth of over 150,000 between 1989–90 and 2018–19. These results show that the ACT currently has a greatly reduced patronage of public transport services, particularly when combined with the preference for car use in the Territory.

Cycling

An increase in cycling participation is important to reduce transport impacts. The ACT Government has set a 7% cycling target for commuting to work by 2026.^[6] However, in 2022, only around 2% of people cycled to work (see Transport modes in the ACT). Despite this, the ACT has a higher rate of participants cycling to work than any other state or jurisdiction.^[7]

Cycling is highly variable across the ACT with the Civic area having a significantly greater uptake of cycling than other parts of Canberra. This is likely due to a flatter terrain and shorter distances to work and study centres.

Between 2011 and 2021, cycling participation in the ACT was higher than the national average for weekly, monthly, and annual participation. In 2021, the ACT had the highest cycling rate of Australian jurisdictions for weekly participation and third highest for monthly and annual participation.^[8]

Cycling participation is also recorded by the ACT Government bike barometer at the juncture between the Sullivan’s Creek shared path and MacArthur Avenue in O’Connor. Data is provided on an hourly basis in two directions, capturing trips coming from the north towards Civic and from the south heading towards Gungahlin.

Between 2018 and June 2023, the barometer counted around 2.08 million cyclists (Figure 23). The number of cyclists is highly variable and appears related to climatic conditions, particularly for days of high temperature, rainfall and wind. The data also showed that cycling is highest from Tuesday to Thursday and lowest on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, suggesting that most of the trips recorded are for work and education. The data also shows decreases in cycling caused by COVID-19 restrictions, smoke from the 2019–20 bushfires, and wetter conditions from 2020.

The impact of hotter weather on cycling participation is of particular interest for future cycling uptake with the likely increase in hotter conditions due to climate change in the ACT (see Climate change).

The absence of a growing trend in cycling participation in Australia is contrary to the investment made by governments in promoting and encouraging cycling.^[9] This is certainly the case for the ACT which has extensive cycling infrastructure. In 2019, the ACT had around 3,100 km of shared paths and some 600 km of on-road cycling lanes. The paths cover ten principal cycle routes in the ACT, links between these routes, and connect town centres and major employment districts. Given the high level of cycling infrastructure in the ACT, there is much scope for improving cycling participation, including across gender and age groups.