cars and suburbia ATTRIBUTE #5 - Suburbia typically creates car-dependent lives for their residents. ![]() Demand for car travel is increasing faster than population growth. Over the last 20 years, Sydney’s population has grown by 21 per cent, while the number of car trips has increased by 41 per cent and the number of cars by 58 per cent. We are even relying on the car for short trips instead of walking or cycling – in Sydney, for example, 55 per cent of all car journeys are less than five kilometres and 33 per cent are less than three kilometres. Source : NSW State of the Environment. NSW Department of Environment and Conservation. Sydney, December 2006 Since 1981, the proportion of children driven to school in NSW has doubled to more than 50 per cent, while the share of children walking and cycling has almost halved to about 20 per cent. These car trips to school tend to be short and contribute significantly to the demand by families for a second car The requirement for a second car in a household not only has an effect on car usage but has a dramatic effect on the space requirements on site, the house design or at the very least, the on-street space required. Cars are mostly located at or near the front of the property. Increasing car numbers increases the visual dominance of the car on our environment in the form of the cars themselves or in the form of additional garages
CARS AND POLLUTION
cars and health
Source : Health Impacts of Transport Emissions in Australia: Economic Costs, Working Paper 63. Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics. Canberra, 2005
To return to Suburbia Now click here To go to the next attribute, Sustainability of Suburbia, click here |