Australian cities have been transformed from fairly tightly knit core-and-spoke configurations, to sprawling suburban low-density configurations. This transformation of urban land use has been accompanied and made possible by a rapid improvement and spread of the road system, and an even more rapid expansion in per person car ownership.

• Urban Transport: Looking Ahead
  
  is_014.pdf
  (336.24 KB)

Increasingly in Australia, trucking is an essential feature of economic activity, with road being the only mode possible for much freight traffic (eg in cities), and with rail tending to be less competitive than road on many intercity links.

• Trends in Trucks and Traffic
  
  is_015.pdf
  (212.06 KB)

Urban car travel in Australia is expected to continue to grow appreciably over the next 20 years (by close to 30 per cent) though at a somewhat slower rate of growth than for the last few decades.

• Urban Congestion: the Implications for Greenhouse Gas Emissions
  
  is_016.pdf
  (124.61 KB)

This information sheet provides estimates of non-bulk freight flows over seven intercity corridors for the 25 years from 1970 to 1995.

• Freight Between Australian Cities
  
  is_017.pdf
  (181.96 KB)

BTRE has examined trends in the fuel consumption of new passenger vehicles. The overall trend in fuel consumption was down during the 1980s. However during the 1990s, a more gradual reduction in the fuel consumption of cars, coupled with increasing sales of 4-wheel-drive vehicles, saw fuel consumption for new passenger vehicles as a whole stabilise.

• Fuel Consumption by New Passenger Vehicles in Australia
  
  is_018.pdf
  (80.89 KB)

This paper provides estimates of interstate non-bulk freight rates. The estimates show that, in real terms, it has never been cheaper to ship goods in Australia.

• Freight Rates in Australia
  
  is_019.pdf
  (613.51 KB)

This paper provides estimates of non-bulk freight flows over seven intercity corridors for three decades from 1972 to 2001. Earlier estimates to 1995 were published in Information Sheet 17.

• Freight Between Australian Cities 1972 to 2001
  
  is_022.pdf
  (191.2 KB)

This Information Sheet provides indexed trends in average interstate non-bulk freight rates, from 1964–65 to 2007–08, updating the freight rate indexes previously published in Freight Rates in Australia, Information Sheet 19 (BTRE 2002). The estimates show that, following generally declining real freight rates over the previous two decades, real freight rates for road, rail and long-distance coastal shipping have risen since 2000–01 (Table 1 provides nominal and real indexed freight rate series and Figures 1 to 4 illustrate indexed trends in real freight rates). Recent increases in crude oil prices, and flow through to diesel fuel prices, have been an important contributing factor in recent freight rate increases for road, rail and coastal shipping.

• Freight Rates in Australia 1964–65 to 2007–08
  
  is_028.pdf
  (358.72 KB)

Information Sheet 31 analyses the trends in passenger transport in Australia's eight capital cities over the period 1977 to 2008. Although car travel continues to dominate travel in our cities, urban public transport has accounted for much of the growth in travel from 2004 to 2008.

• Urban Passenger Transport: How People Move About in Australian Cities
  
  is_031.pdf
  (399.38 KB)

This information sheet provides key trends in air transport services in regional Australia from 1984 to 2008, updating figures previously published in Air Transport Services in Regional Australia: Trends and Access, Report 115 (BITRE 2008) with new data from 2006 to 2008.

• Air transport Service Trends in Regional Australia (2009 Update)
  
  is_035.pdf
  (758.33 KB)