Activity Centre - Transport

Transport

Many cities like Melbourne have had to deal with population growth, which has brought about an increase in travel movements. This growth has also increased concerns for the environment, congestion and sustainability. It is the goal of activity centre policy to reduce individual car usage and encourage people to use public transport. This idea also means that there is a reduction in fuel consumption, saving money and time and is more efficient in the long term. In order to make public transport an attractive option to get to activity centres without the correct transport infrastructure in place, people turn back to their private forms of transport. This can be seen in a study into Activity Centres under taken by P. McNabb and the University of Melbourne research team in 2001 showed that “75% of trips to Melbourne activity centres were by car”. The use of public transport to access activity centres is one of the key principles outlined in Melbourne 2030 and in many other international activity centre policies. If such policies are to succeed, authorities will need to take responsibility and show a united front to developers and the community by reinforcing this policy, or risk losing another policy to the private sector.