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Perth has one of the most inefficient and wasteful transport systems in the world according to a recent report produced on behalf of the World Bank.
 The World Bank commissioned the Institute for Science and Technology Policy (ISTP) to compile data on 37 cities around the globe to look at indicators of transport efficiency and desirable directions for change in the transport sector. This type of information is of vital importance to the World Bank when it is considering providing multi-million dollar loans for transport projects.
It chose the Murdoch University-based ISTP to conduct the research in recognition of the considerable amount of work that had already been conducted by the ISTP on global urban dynamics. For much of the past 25 years, researchers now brought together at the ISTP have been collecting data on cities all over the world, particularly with regard to the automobile and potential alternatives to its dominance.
"This focus not only looks at alternative transport technologies, but also the ways of designing and managing cities so people don't need to travel so much," said ISTP Director Professor Peter Newman.
Led by Dr Jeff Kenworthy and Mr Felix Laube, a research team with staff stationed as far afield as China, Malaysia and the Philippines tackled the World Bank project, adding to one of the most comprehensive data bases of its kind in the world.
The study identified which of the 37 cities -- located all around the world - have the most efficiency in their transport system.
For the first time, data was collected on the wealth of the cities -- their Gross Regional Product. Using that data, the cities were subsequently ranked according to what proportion of their wealth was going into transport.
"We found that the cities with the highest commitment to the automobile were the least efficient," said Professor Newman. "They had the highest proportion of their wealth going into transport."
"Unfortunately Perth came out highest of the 37 cities. A massive 17 per cent of Perth's wealth goes into passenger transport -- both private and public.
"It's not hard to see why. If a city has a very big commitment to the automobile, it sprawls over vast distances and, in so doing, becomes very expensive to service. This results in high direct and indirect costs associated with car-dominated transport systems.
"It is also very expensive to run public transport systems in these sprawling systems -- buses effectively travel hundreds of kilometres chasing around low-density suburbs looking for passengers.
"It's much easier to run an effective public transport system in a compact city.
"In addition there is an opportunity cost, in that the capital that is poured into these vast, sprawling suburbs to provide the necessary transport infrastructure is very large. And it is therefore an opportunity lost to invest that money in the development of industries.
"So what we've found is that the cities with the highest commitment to the automobile have less monies going into the development of industry, into new technologies for example."
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| Cities are consolidating and not sprawling at anywhere near the same rates of recent decades. |
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Professor Newman said cities in Europe and Canada, and the wealthier cities of Asia, which have 'better, more balanced transports systems' had between five and eight per cent of their wealth going into transport.
"The more public transport-orientated cities are, the more effective they are in their general economies," he said.
"This is a totally new perspective for transport planners," said Professor Newman.
"The approach up until now has been that public transport is something governments merely provide as a form of social justice -- for those who can't make it in the 'real world', the automobile-orientated society.
"In a car-dominated society, the private sector needs enormous quantities of space and large, expensive fast roads that rapidly fill with traffic.
"This is now a very tarnished model and one that we in Perth need to view with a much more critical eye.
"The auto-dependent city model is not efficient and is grossly inadequate in terms of meeting the needs of new phases in city development."
According to Professor Newman, cities are consolidating and not sprawling at anywhere near the same rates of recent decades. Densities within the entire range of existing residential zones are increasing for the first time for more than a century.
"What we're finding in our studies is that people are turning away from the sprawling suburbs," he said.
"The densities are particularly increasing in city centres and old sub-centres where people are coming back to live and work -- in Perth, in places like Northbridge, Fremantle and Subiaco for example.
"Despite recent predictions, the new information-orientated cities still need people to meet face-to-face, because work is generated in an interactive environment where professionals are able to meet and pool their creative forces.
"These meeting areas are forming in places which were originally designed for people to have face-to-face contact -- in city centres and old sub-centres where a lot of effort was made to create public spaces for people.
"The kind of 'coffee-shop areas' which have emerged are not merely trendy places for tourists and local holiday-makers, they are where much of the new business is occurring.
"Many firms are now locating their premises within walking distance of these centres and many of the staff are living there.
"Sure, people can follow up their face-to-face meetings with electronic communication, but this form of communication will never have the same value as the face-to-face meetings.
"As a result, the global cities which are part of this new information order are forming around these quality urban environments."
Professor Newman said the need for these sub-centres to be based around good quality public transport is paramount.
"They shouldn't be ruined by masses of cars and car parks," he said. "They need to have a considerable proportion of land given over to good quality public open space, where people can also walk comfortably and ride bikes.
"These places are becoming critical to the new economies of these cities."
The ISTP has since been commissioned by the Brussels-based International Union for Public Transport (UITP) to expand the ISTP's data-base to 100 cities. The $280,000 project, led by Dr Jeff Kenworthy and employing ISTP PhD candidate Felix Laube, will look at the complexities of public transport -- to further investigate, for example, the findings that cities with good rail systems are the most economically efficient, that transport is not an isolated urban element, and that public transport permeates a wide range of urban issues such as city planning, community development and the development of new technologies. Part of the work is being done by the Paris-based consultancy SYSTRA -- which will develop data on 40 of the 100 cities.
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| Many cities around the globe, like those on this page, promote 'people movement' without high vehicular dependence. |
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