3 November 2023

Canberra is one of Australia's least walkable cities, but more people are ditching the car

| Lizzie Waymouth
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people walking on footpath

US website Walk Score ranked Canberra as Australia’s 10th most walkable large city, putting it behind Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Newcastle, Wollongong, Gold Coast and Central Coast. Photo: Living Streets Canberra Facebook.

More people in the ACT are choosing to walk or take public transport, but Canberra remains one of Australia’s least walkable cities.

According to the latest Household Travel Survey, which looked at the travel and activities of 5100 people in the ACT and Queanbeyan, just under one in five (18.1 per cent) of trips were made by walking.

In comparison, in the previous survey conducted in 2017, walking made up approximately 13.6 per cent of all trips.

The proportion of trips made by car fell slightly from 77.6 per cent in 2017 to 74.7 per cent in 2022.

“While most activities currently rely on access by private vehicles, there is a willingness to use alternative methods,” the report concluded.

“For example, about one-fifth of trips involve ‘active transport’ modes (walking and cycling). These are typically used for local travel, or for shorter journeys once a primary destination (eg work) has been reached.”

The light rail is also helping Canberrans make the switch to using public transport. At the end of October, light rail reached a milestone of 15 million total passengers, and in the past three months alone 22 per cent of all public transport journeys across Canberra were on the light rail.

“It’s been a real win for Canberrans who live on the northside being able to skip the traffic on their way into work, the city or surrounding suburbs on the light rail line,” Transport Minister Chris Steel said.

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For some suburbs, the impact has been particularly notable.

“The latest data shows that public transport mode share in Gungahlin has increased by nearly 50 per cent since the introduction of light rail. Private car usage has declined further with the highest drop recorded in Gungahlin and North Canberra, along the light rail alignment, reducing by nine per cent in Gungahlin, and 13 per cent in North Canberra,” Minister Steel said.

A recent survey also found that 51 per cent of passengers said they planned to continue their journey through the city using light rail stage 2A in future.

“Buses alone won’t deliver increased patronage on public transport, or the mass transit we need to move more people as our city grows. Light rail stage one has already shown it can provide these benefits to our city and it’s why we are extending the line to the southside,” Minister Steel said.

Canberra is notorious for its car dependency and it still lags behind other Australian capital cities in terms of its walkability.

US website Walk Score ranked Canberra Australia’s 10th most walkable large city, putting it behind Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Newcastle, Wollongong, Gold Coast and Central Coast.

Its score of 40 was lower than any of the country’s other capitals.

Some suburbs are better than others, though: according to Walk Score, the most walkable suburbs in the ACT are Civic, Kingston, Barton, Reid and Braddon, whereas the least walkable suburbs are Isabella Plains, Casey, Banks, Crace and Harrison.

The 2023-24 ACT Budget has earmarked more than $26 million for improving Canberra’s walking and cycling infrastructure, including more than $5 million to improve and maintain the city’s footpath and cycle network.

The latest suite of the ACT Government’s Age Friendly Suburbs program was also announced earlier this year, which will focus on Chifley, Reid, Scullin and O’Connor.

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However, some say while it’s great to see better quality pavements and paths in our city, the ACT Government’s approach to improving walkways is lacking.

Living Streets Canberra spokesperson Gillian King said the ACT Government needed to look at the city as a whole, rather than specific suburbs.

“What we need is a shift away from small, itty-bitty and often expensive piecemeal approaches,” Ms King said following the announcement.

“What we need are urgent and universal upgrades of our [path] infrastructure.”

Ms King argued there were many Canberra suburbs that didn’t have fit-for-purpose pathways, or pathways at all.

“The way the ACT has approached people walking and cycling in recent decades would not be tolerated by people who are driving,” she said.

“People need to have a choice and need to be able to get around without a car, either because they want to or because they’re unable to.

“[The ACT said] it wants to be Australia’s most walkable city … but is that still the case?”

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The Minister (below) does not, IMO, prove the case for Light rail to Woden.
It’s not surprising that the first stage of LR has attracted users since a right of way was constructed and the previous bus services were largely stopped.
A similar outcome would have occurred if electric buses were introduced instead.

To the future, what about substituting electric buses on the existing light rail route, and then using them onwards from Civic to Woden and elsewhere.
Politically embarrassing – sure.
But would that be financially cheaper & environmentally better & quicker to implement than Light Rail to Woden (my recollection is even the ACT Govt says it won’t happen till 2030)?

Minister Steel : “Buses alone won’t deliver increased patronage on public transport, or the mass transit we need to move more people as our city grows. Light rail stage one has already shown it can provide these benefits to our city and it’s why we are extending the line to the southside”.

davidmaywald6:21 am 06 Nov 23

The public transport share FELL from 4.6% in 2017 to 3.6% in 2022. This was acknowledged in the Canberra Times article four days ago, but is absent from the above article… In fact, the first sentence of this article says “More people in the ACT are choosing to walk or take public transport” (highly misleading), and then “The light rail is also helping Canberrans make the switch to using public transport” (not true from the aggregate results of the survey)… This loose interpretation of the results is akin to “putting lipstick on a pig”, and seems to have been a light re-write of a Labor government media release. I’ve come to expect more from Riotact.

“A recent survey also found that 51 per cent of passengers said they planned to continue their journey through the city using light rail stage 2A in future.”

That secret base by the lake is really getting popular.

If people are going to be able to go for a decent walk, they also need to be able to get from one suburb to another without a car. They also need access to seats along the way so those who’re older or less mobile can rest as needed whilst still getting out for a walk. It’d also be good if there was access to water and toilets when walking. Currently people can get caught out with nowhere to go, which is especially an issue for children and people with health issues. Safe road crossings would be a novelty, with traffic lights that allow children, older people or the less mobile to get from one side of major roads to the other before the lights change. Clearly no-one in the ACT government walks very much, else they’d know this.

GrumpyGrandpa5:16 pm 05 Nov 23

I think we all know that stats can be spun by any politican, with an agenda.

It’s no surprise that in older more established areas, walking is more common:

1. The maps shows us that people who live closer, walk more than those in – Banks or Taylor. Pretty obvious. They live a long way from everywhere.

2. More people would jump the bus and not drive, had the government not removed the Expresso services from the outer suburbs, and removed direct services like “Tuggy to Belco”.

3. The other thing about older areas is that they are more likely to house older people, like me. Old retired farts like me, no longer need to drive to work. Not driving to work simply means I walk a lot more than I used to.

Interesting how the newer suburbs are less walkable than the older ones. What is wrong with the planning?

Leon Arundell2:29 pm 05 Nov 23

The Transport Minister seems to be unaware that the ACT Government estimates that a 12 kilometre bus rapid transit route would increase Canberra’s total daily public transport travel from 210,100 km in 2011 to 591,700 kilometres per day in 2031. That’s seventeen per cent more than the estimated 506,100 kilometres under business as usual.
Stage 1 of Canberra’s mass transit achieved a peak of 18,782 daily boardings on 28 February 2020. Stage 2 is expected to move up to 23,000 passengers per day in 2046.
The Transport Minister also seems to be unaware that Curitiba’s Transmilenio bus rapid transit can move 23,000 passengers, along a single route, in half an hour.

Leon Arundell2:25 pm 05 Nov 23

Based on distance travelled, Canberrans are travelling more in “vehicles,” and travelling less by public transport, walking and cycling.
From 2017 to 2022 vehicle driving increased from 65.2% to 66.5%. Travelling as a vehicle passenger increased from 22.6% to 23.6%. Public transport fell from 6.5% to 5.2%. Walking fell from 2.5% to 2.2%. Cycling fell from 1.9% to 1.3%.

davidmaywald6:27 am 06 Nov 23

Thanks for your helpful analysis and interpretation Leon

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