The 2017 ACT Household Travel Survey took place in 2017 and was published in 2018. The next 2022 ACT Household Travel Survey has gone to tender in 2022 but we will not see the results until 2023. With the 2022 ACT Household Travel Survey report a year away, it seemed to be a good time to look back on the 2017 Survey.
Contents
- Overview
- What is it?
- Overall findings
- Try it yourself
- Cycling destinations from home
- Inner North
- Gugahlin
- Belconnen
- Woden Valley
- Weston Creek
- Tuggeranong
- Inner South
- Queanbeyan
- Top facts from the travel survey
- ACT top facts
- Belconnen top facts
- ACT region
- Belconnen district
- Further information
Overview
The 2017 ACT Household Travel Survey shows that the daily commute is typically one of the longest journeys we make in our daily lives. Schools, shops, doctors and sport are usually in the local area, and then the distance travel is almost always shorter. A survey of Canberrans’ cycling habits from 2017.
The 2017 ACT Household Travel Survey gives some insight into where Canberrans work, live and play and how this impacts on their daily lives.
What is it?
The 2017 ACT Household Travel Survey is interesting. The data was collected between October and November 2017. The previous survey of this type was conducted before that in the ACT in 1997. Since 1966, the ABS Census was repeated every 5 years. We can only hope that the ACT Household Travel Survey, too, will be repeated every 5 years.
“Transport Canberra and City Service Directorate and the Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council engaged Ipsos Social Research Institute in 2017 to undertake a survey that collected information about how, where and when members of a selected household travels over a single day. A total of 1,785 households and 4,611 people in both the ACT and Queanbeyan contributed to the survey and completed a travel diary for a single specified day.”
ACT and Queanbeyan-Palerang Household Travel Survey (ACTQP HTS), ACT Government, 2018
Overall findings
The data from the survey is available on the ACT Government website as an interactive tool. The data cannot be downloaded. The data is shown graphically or in tables for the whole of Canberra or any one district. The districts are Belconnen, Gungahlin, North Canberra, Queanbeyan, South Canberra, Tuggeranong, Weston Creek / Molonglo Valley, and Woden Valley.
In the first example below, we see that only 25.9% of the trips are work related. Education is only responsible for 10.5% of the trips.
Mode share refers to the method of travel. For this survey the options were walking, cycling, bus, vehicle driver, vehicle passenger, or other. 54.7% of all trips were as a vehicle driver. After that, the next most common was vehicle passenger.
The comparison chart below shows the data for Belconnen compared with the great Canberra area. Belconnen seems to be quite typical for Canberra.
The data can be shown in tables. This table shows the reasons people are travelling to each district.
Try it out yourself
Hard to see here and online due to the print size, but the tabs across the top are for each graph type: mode share, purpose, local trips, trip distances, total distance, travel locations, origins of travel, and more.
Ideally, the data would be made available as an Excel file, as the ABS does with the Census. This is currently not the case.
Cycling destinations from home
The destinations we cycle to, not surprisingly, depends on where we live. The 2017 ACT Household Travel Survey breaks down the trips depending on the “region” of origin (district). The most likely destination is always the same district (locally). Where we cycle depends on where we live.
Inner North
Those living in North Canberra cycle to Belconnen and South Canberra mostly, but Gungahlin and Weston Creek as well.
Gungahlin
Those living in Gungahlin cycle to North Canberra and Belconnen.
Belconnen
Those living in Belconnen cycle to North Canberra and Weston Creek mostly. It is interesting that so few cycle to Gungahlin.
Woden Valley
Those living in Woden Valley cycle to North Canberra and Weston Creek mostly, but some to South Canberra. Interestingly, cycling to Tuggeranong is very rare.
Weston Creek
Those living in Weston Creek cycle to “outside the study area”, and north to North Canberra and Belconnen mostly. This is the only group that cycle “outside the study area”, whatever that might mean.
Tuggeranong
Those living in Tuggeranong cycle to South Canberra, North Canberra and possibly Weston Creek. Interestingly, cycling to Woden is very rare. South Canberra and Weston Creek is much more likely.
Inner South
Those living in South Canberra cycle to North Canberra and, to a lesser extent, Tuggeranong or Belconnen. That North Canberra is a popular destination is no surprise, but that cycling to Tuggeranong is more common than Belconnen or Woden Valley is.
Queanbeyan
Those living in Queanbeyan cycle only in Queanbeyan. The implication here is that those living in Queanbeyan take public transport or drive to the ACT.
Top facts from the travel survey
A district focus of the 2017 travel survey for Canberra from the ACT Government. The top cycling facts for the ACT, Belconnen being the example. The survey tells us much about Canberra but the top facts are always worth keeping in mind.
The potential for cycling in the ACT is apparent when we keep in mind these key travel facts. The 2017 ACT and Queanbeyan-Palerang Household Travel Survey (ACTQP HTS) can be found here.
ACT top facts
In the ACT (2017), the average distance we travel to work is less than 10 km. (ACT Household Travel Survey 2017)
In the ACT (2017), most trips were in a car (77.6%) either as a driver (54.7%) or passenger (22.9%). Walking was 13.6% of the trips, bus 4.3% and cycling 2.4%.
2017 ACT Household Travel Survey
In the ACT (2017), the purpose of trips was work related (25.9%), social / recreation (21.8%), pick-up / drop-off someone (12.6%), education (10.5%), other / not stated (8.7%), and personal business (8.6%). (ACT Household Travel Survey 2017)
In the ACT (2017), the activities that are most like to be satisfied locally are (ranked): buy something, education, personal business, pick-up / drop-off someone, other purpose, social / recreation, and least likely are work related trips. (ACT Household Travel Survey 2017)
Belconnen top facts
In Belconnen (2017), the greatest distance travelled was work related, making up 35% of daily kilometres. (ACT Household Travel Survey 2017)
For a resident of Belconnen (2017), the most likely destination for a trip is (ranked): North Canberra, South Canberra, Gungahlin, Woden Valley, Canberra East, Weston Creek, Queanbeyan, outside the study area, and least likely Tuggeranong. (ACT Household Travel Survey 2017)
The origins of all trips ending in Belconnen (top 6, from 2017 and by time period) is Belconnen followed by North Canberra, Gungahlin, South Canberra, Woden Valley, and Tuggeranong. (ACT Household Travel Survey 2017)
The destination of all trips starting in Belconnen (top 4, from 2017 and by time period) is Belconnen followed by North Canberra, Gungahlin, and South Canberra. (ACT Household Travel Survey 2017)
ACT region
In the ACT (2017), the average distance we travel to work is less than 10 km. (ACT Household Travel Survey 2017)
In the ACT (2017), most trips were in a car (77.6%) either as a driver (54.7%) or a passenger (22.9%). Walking was 13.6% of the trips, bus 4.3% and cycling 2.4%. (ACT Household Travel Survey 2017)
In the ACT (2017), the purpose of trips was work related (25.9%), social / recreation (21.8%), pick-up / drop-off someone (12.6%), education (10.5%), other / not stated (8.7%), and personal business (8.6%). (ACT Household Travel Survey 2017)
In the ACT (2017), the activities that are most like to be satisfied locally are (ranked): buy something, education, personal business, pick-up / drop-off someone, other purpose, social / recreation, and least likely are work related trips. (ACT Household Travel Survey 2017)
Belconnen district
By selecting the “region” Belconnen, the graph shows where people travel to and at what time of day. For people living in Belconnen, North Canberra and Gungahlin are the most common destinations.
The destination of all trips starting in Belconnen (top 4, from 2017 and by time period) is Belconnen, followed by North Canberra, Gungahlin, and South Canberra. (ACT Household Travel Survey 2017)
The next graph is similar but shows where the people COME from that travel to Belconnen, as opposed to those travelling from Belconnen ELSEWHERE (above). Perhaps not surprisingly, those travelling TO Belconnen COME mostly from North Canberra and Gungahlin.
The origins of all trips ending in Belconnen (top 6, from 2017 and by time period) is Belconnen followed by North Canberra, Gungahlin, South Canberra, Woden Valley, and Tuggeranong. (ACT Household Travel Survey 2017)
The possible reasons for travel in the survey were: work related, personal business, pick-up / drop-off someone, education, buy something, social / recreational, or other purposes. The portion of the time for each activity is shown in the graph below. The same is done for the time of day travelled.
In Belconnen (2017), the greatest distance travelled was work related, making up 35% of daily kilometres. (ACT Household Travel Survey 2017)
For a resident of Belconnen (2017), the most likely destination for a trip is (ranked): North Canberra, South Canberra, Gungahlin, Woden Valley, Canberra East, Weston Creek, Queanbeyan, outside the study area, and least likely Tuggeranong. (ACT Household Travel Survey 2017)
Urban planners are not only interested in why people travel but whether this travel is local. The ambition that most of our needs should be available locally in the district. Belconnen, in this respect, is better than the ACT average. The exception is work, where Belconnen is average. In the ACT, only 30% of ACT residents find work in the district in which they live. As the districts are close together and the travel distance is less than 10 km for half of us, this would suggest that work in adjacent districts are important, too.
Further information
canberra.bike 