This report presents the results of a BTRE study to estimate likely future levels of noxious pollutant emissions from motor vehicles in Australian metropolitan areas.

• Urban Pollutant Emissions from Motor Vehicles: Australian Trends to 2020
  
  cr_002.pdf
  (1.68 MB)

Over the last few years, the Commonwealth has devoted considerable resources to the task of helping local government authorities maintain and upgrade their road systems. The major initiative was an extra $1.2 billion in road funding paid directly to councils through the Roads to Recovery programme but federal authorities have also been directed to work with their local government counterparts to improve road policies and practices. The Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics' main contribution to this initiative has been to carry out two research projects. A regional analysis of council road finances was published last year in BTRE Working Paper 44, Spending on Local Roads, and this report presents a complementary study of State and Territory spending on roads including the assistance they provide to local government. It also identifies the roads for which State and council authorities are respectively responsible in each jurisdiction. The BTRE would like to thank State, Territory and Local Government organisations that assisted in the preparation of this report by providing information or advice on road finances. The data presented in this report is based on the responses provided by the States and Territories to the BTRE's Survey of State Government Spending on Roads. The BTRE has made every effort to ensure the figures are internally consistent and has relied on the State and Territories to ensure the accuracy of the data.

• State Spending on Roads
  
  wp_056.pdf
  (2.26 MB)

The BTRE projects that the total freight task will continue to grow strongly. Such growth will increase the infrastructure maintenance needs and possibly hasten the need for capacity expansion. Setting prices for infrastructure use that reflect costs provides important signals as to the appropriate level of transport activity, choice of transport mode, and the level of infrastructure spending. At the Australian Logistics Council (ALC) meeting on 7 November 2002, the Council asked BTRE to provide a comparative analysis of current land transport pricing regimes and their objectives and to present the findings at the next Council meeting, held on 27 February 2003. This working paper comprises the paper prepared for the ALC and already released by the ALC as a discussion paper.

• Land Transport Infrastructure Pricing: An Introduction
  
  wp_057.pdf
  (648.07 KB)

On rural roads, the speed that a driver chooses will affect their travel time, vehicle operating costs and crash costs. Recent Austroads valuations of these costs are used in this paper to estimate the total economic cost to society of travelling at different speeds on roads with different crash rates. Critical in this analysis is estimating the change in crash cost that would result from a change in vehicle speeds. This report assumes a 10 km/h change in average speeds produces a 30% change in crash costs based on international evidence. For a hypothetical mix of cars and trucks on a rural road with an average crash cost, the speed that produces the lowest total of travel time cost, vehicle operating cost and crash cost is between 90 and 100 km/h. On a hypothetical road with a low crash rate (and a crash cost one quarter of the average), the optimum speed is between 110 and 120 km/h. Achieving different speed regimes is not just a matter of changing the posted speed limit. The paper concludes by suggesting that ITS technology could be used to vary and manage speeds.

• Road Speed Limits: Economic Effects of Allowing more Flexibility
  
  wp_059.pdf
  (274.7 KB)

Paper presented by David Gargett, Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics.

• Predicting Traffic Growth in Australian Cities
  
  sp_001_Predicting_Traffic_Growth.pdf
  (1.64 MB)

Paper presented by David Gargett, Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics & John Gafney, VicRoads Melbourne.

• Traffic Growth in Australian Cities: Causes, Prevention and Cure
  
  sp_002_Traffic_Growth_in_Australian_Cities.pdf
  (1.71 MB)

This paper presents the results of a desk study of the road freight industry. The aim of the study is to update our knowledge of the Australian freight industry by bringing together and analysing information that is currently available. The study is intended as a 'building block' for a future larger survey-based study of the road freight and logistics industries. It is now 20 years since comprehensive studies of the road freight industry were undertaken, by the Bureau of Transport Economics and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

• An Overview of the Australian Road Freight Transport Industry
  
  wp_060.pdf
  (1.06 MB)

There is an increasing body of evidence that the earth's climate is changing with some of the changes attributable to human activities. Climate change can have direct and indirect impacts on road infrastructure.

• Impact of climate change on road infrastructure
  
  cr_001_climate_change.pdf
  (5.94 MB)

This paper presents the results of applying a policy model to simulate the effects on greenhouse gas emissions from trucking in Sydney of various abatement scenarios. These include vehicle efficiency scenarios, traffic efficiency scenarios and alternative infrastructure and land use scenarios. The model developed is quite comprehensive. It includes the effects of the interaction of trucks with car traffic in the city. And it extends the results, not only to the recognised greenhouse gases, but also to the effect of the scenarios on pollutant emissions from road transport and thus on pollution in the Sydney airshed. The research reported on here shows that, using the model developed, answers can be given as to detailed effects of transport policy measures on emissions in Sydney. Just as importantly, it points to methods that can be used to build such a model in other cities. The series of five technical papers describing the construction and make-up of the model and its capabilities is available on the CSIRO website (www.energytransformed.csiro.au). CSIRO was the co-ordinator of the research, with Parsons Brinckerhoff and the Transport Systems Centre of the University of South Australia contributing components. CSIRO prepared this report. The Transport and Population Data Centre of the NSW Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources provided the datasets of traffic and now owns the model framework. All of the research was made possible by a grant from the Australian Greenhouse Office.

• Modelling Responses of Urban Freight Patterns to Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scenarios
  
  wp_062.pdf
  (2.37 MB)

Staff paper given by Dr Mark Harvey to the 28th Australasian Transport Research Forum, 28–30 September 2005, Sofitel Wentworth Hotel, Sydney.

• The Economic Efficiency of Lane Differentiation Policies
  
  sp_003_Economic_Efficiency_of_Lane_Differentiation_policies.pdf
  (855.26 KB)