RP2021: Greening suburban transport

Peer Reviewed Research Publications

RP2021: Conference Paper: Understanding the On-Time Performance of Bus Services across Adelaide Using Ticketing Data

Throughout the world, the reliability of public transport systems is constantly under review. Questions of reliability are particularly applicable to bus services, as they commonly share road space with other vehicles.

This study used graphical and statistical approaches to assess the reliability of services in Adelaide across a typical month. Using smartcard boarding data in conjunction with the published timetables, bus reliability measures were developed. To check the validity of using this boarding data, comparisons were drawn to the results previously obtained using Automatic vehicle location along a handful of individual routes.

The analysis suggests that passenger’s boarding and alighting, as well as traffic congestion, are key contributors to on-time performance of buses at the stop level. However, it was found that boarding where a ticket sale was involved did not contribute much to travel time variability although it slows down vehicles considerably. 

A paper presented to the 15th International Conference on Computers in Urban Planning and Urban Management, 2017, Adelaide.

cupum 2017 published paper (411695 PDF)

CRCLCL Project Reports

RP2021: Final Report: Greening Urban and Suburban Travel

This document presents the final report for Project RP2021: Greening Urban and Suburban Travel, which was supported by the CRC for Low Carbon Living. 

The overarching objective of this research was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from passenger car usage in urban and suburban areas. Transport activity is one of the major sources of emissions related to the combustion of fossil fuels in Australia. In 2010, transport contributed 83.2 Mt CO2 or 15.3% of Australia’s net emissions with road transport accounting for 71.5 Mt CO2 or 86% of national transport emissions. Passenger car usage in urban areas was the largest transport source, contributing 8.5% of Australia’s net emissions and accounting for around 39.7 Mt CO2.  

This research was fundamentally an investigation into new methods to provide urban and suburban public transport and active travel options that offer efficient, affordable and flexible trips while reducing reliance on private vehicle use. There were several components to this project which enabled a national team to investigate interesting questions that are of immediate practical importance. These include development of a number of tools for estimating the carbon emissions benefits from proposed intervention measures. Specifically, the research comprised three complementary work packages which included investigations of travel demand; investigations of travel supply and transport planning studies focusing on pathways to increasing customer usage of alternative modes of transport; and development and application of a framework for supporting effective investment decisions that increase the uptake of the high priority low carbon transport interventions. 

Final Report: Greening Urban and Suburban Travel (4237403 PDF)

RP2021: Interim report 3: Greening Suburban Travel: Smartcard data analysis

This report analyses Smart Card data provided by the Department of Planning Transport and Infrastructure (DPTI) in Adelaide, South Australia for the month of May 2017.

3 interim report rp2021 (953704 PDF)

RP2021: Interim report 1: Greening urban and suburban travel current situation, challenges, opportunities and emerging trends

Prospects for the decarbonising of Australian cities will depend on opportunities for a reduction of transport energy use. This project focuses on the most significant challenge to Green House Gas reduction in urban transport -- specifically, that relating to provision of public transport and active travel options for low density suburban areas that are currently car dependent. This interim report gathers and collates information from a wide body of literature to assist the CRC partner organisations in responding to the impacts of this global challenge, and to inform their policy and advocacy positions.

Greening urban and suburban travel current situation, challenges, opportunities and emerging trends - Interim report 1 (2317997 PDF)

Book Chapters

Low Carbon Mobility for Future Cities: Principles and applications

CRCLCL Researcher Hussein Dia was the dditor of this book Low Carbon Mobility for Future Cities: Principles and applications and also authored a few chapters. Other CRCLCL researchers also contributed including Peter Newton, Mike Taylor, John Stone, Rocco Zitto and Peter Newman.

Book description:

Urban Transport energy efficiency and environmental sustainability continue to present big challenges for city leaderRP2021s and policy think tanks. As the share of the world’s population living in cities grows to nearly 70 per cent between now and 2050, urban transport energy consumption is forecast to double to meet the travel demand in the world’s future cities. This urban growth will also dramatically change the scale and nature of our communities, and put a tremendous strain on the built environment and infrastructure that delivers vital services like transport.

This book presents a cohesive body of work on the policy principles and practical applications to drive sustainable mobility services in tomorrow’s smart cities. Topics covered include policy principles for low carbon mobility; low carbon mobility and reducing automobile dependence; integrated land-use and transport planning for future cities; decarbonising suburban mobility; public transport for the urban millennium; impacts on public health; active transport, health and wellbeing; mobility and the sharing economy; autonomous shared mobility; gamification and sustainable mobility; and digital innovations and disruptive mobility.

CRCLCL Presentations

Workshop: Low Carbon Mobility: Greening Suburban Travel

The team behind CRCLCL project workshop RP2021: Greening suburban transport held a workshop aimed at sharing knowledge and insights about case studies, initiatives and on-going research related to improving mobility and reducing transport emissions for low density suburban areas that are currently car dependent.

RP2021 Workshop Proceedings (17292626 PDF)