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Abstract
Transport in Sydney is dominated by the car, as research over many years has demonstrated. Government policy at the Federal and State levels seeks to change this dependence for more sustainable methods of urban movement. This thesis concerns itself with why that seems to be such an elusive objective. It looks to the detailed nature of travel by individuals, measures the time and cost of this travel and examines the effectiveness of the Metropolitan Plan to satisfy the revealed travel demand. Looking at the travel patterns establishes a picture of individual trips that are short, multi linked and that vary greatly in their destinations and directions of travel. Detailed measurement demonstrates that public transport suffers a very large time disadvantage in performance of these typical trips, but is less clear about costs. A review of transport times and coverage show that although public transport may efficiently serve the central CBD and regional centres, it does not offer a viable alternative to the car for the major type of urban travel, when considered in terms of the time and cost of that travel. A theoretical examination of route morphology suggests that the basic layout of Sydney s transport system is inefficient and differs from some overseas examples in basic layout and
philosophy. Sydney s system is constrained by that layout in delivering a timely service for the types of trips that dominate here. The data also showed that there is a clear correlation between residential density and non motorised travel, but not with the use of public transport. Past infrastructure projects and those suggested in the Metropolitan Plan appear to have a mixed effect on those controls that would substantially reduce car dependency.