The ABS has released data confirming what we know – Aussies love cars
July 26, 2013
A statistic released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in its recent Australian Social Trends report is likely cause for concern among public transport planners.
ABS Assistant Director of Social and Progress Reporting Jane Griffin-Warwicke says the report found 71 percent of Australian adults using a passenger vehicle to get to work or full time study.
And of those who drove themselves, three-quarters did not take a passenger with them.
“One of the main reasons people give for driving their cars to work or study is that they can’t access public transport,” Griffin-Warwicke says.
“Over half said lack of public transport services at the right time – or at all – was the reason they used a car.”
Sydney has the lowest proportion of people using a passenger vehicle to travel to work at 70 percent, and the highest public transport use at 25 percent.
Adelaide has the highest passenger vehicle use to travel to work (84 percent) and Darwin had the lowest public transport use (4.8 percent).
Griffin-Warwicke says while cars gave people greater freedom in travelling and going out, wide-spread usage has its down side as well.
“Just over a third of people thought that noisy driving and dangerous driving were social problems in their neighbourhood,” she says.
“The analysis also showed that even though deaths from car accidents were declining over time, there were still over 1,300 people who died as a result of a traffic accident in 2011.”
In 2013 there were 13 million cars registered in Australia. The most common brands registered were Toyota (2.6 million), Holden (2.0 million) and Ford (1.6 million).
Cost is the most common thing people think about when buying a car (59 percent), followed by fuel economy/running costs (46 percent), size (41 percent) and type of car (36 percent).