Are cars the way to address outer suburban transport disadvantage?

Many work in the city centre or attend recreational and cultural activities there. They travel by train because the city centre is the hub of the entire metropolitan public transport system; the spokes serving the hub are trunk routes able to support frequent services (e.g. every 10 minutes) and extended hours of operation at night and on weekends.

Just as importantly, driving to the centre isn't a realistic option. Heavy traffic congestion and high parking charges make it uncompetitive, either in terms of cost or travel time (or both), relative to using public transport.

But there's no equivalent in the outer suburbs of the dense concentration of jobs and activities in the city centre. The great majority of outer suburban workers don't commute to the centre; they work in dispersed locations in the suburbs. For example, only 5% of workers in outer suburban Casey commute to the CBD (see The jobs are already in the suburbs).

These scattered suburban activities are much easier to get to by driving than even by very good public transport because there's no walking, waiting, transfers, or bad weather. Critically, free parking is ubiquitous and the level of traffic congestion is much lower than it is in the city centre and inner city.

Public transport's traditional strength is in work trips, but many low income outer suburban residents don't have a job; they're unemployed or they're not in the workforce. Most of their trips are local and much more easily and quickly accomplished by driving than by public transport.

It's instructive that 94% of households earning more than $800 per week who live in the middle and inner suburbs of Melbourne, where public transport is better than in the outer suburbs, nevertheless own at least one car and 59% own two or more (see exhibit).

In fact even in the inner city suburb of Clifton Hill, 88% of all households have at least one car and 37% have two or more. In middle ring Rosanna, 94% have at least one car and 52% have at least two (13% have three or more). Members of these households might use public transport to get to the city centre, but they much prefer driving for the much larger number of local trips they make.

Cars are expensive to own and operate but they offer advantages that travellers living in almost all parts of Australian cities and of all incomes value very highly.

Direct financial assistance to low income outer suburban households to help meet the costs of driving would offer them a much better outcome in terms of convenience and travel time, than trying to convince them they should do the shopping by bus while their better-off neighbours drive.

It would cost government a lot less than trying to provide and sustain a level of public transport that's so useful it could attract low income drivers out of their cars. All the households in Melbourne that meet Currie and Delbosc's definition of forced car ownership could be provided with $2,500 p.a. to assist with the costs of car ownership for an all-up cost of $100 million annually.

Driving has environmental negatives that public transport doesn't; but most of these – like emissions, pollution, noise and excessive speed – can be addressed at the level of the vehicle through regulation and taxation. The burden of dealing with the negative externalities associated with driving should be carried by all motorists not just the poorest ones.

None of this means though that there isn't a continuing need to improve public transport in the outer suburbs for low income travellers (and others) who don't have access to a car. Currie and Delbosc also found 18,864 low income households living in the outer suburbs without a car; that's 4% of all outer suburban households and 1% of all Melbourne households.

Progressives concerned about social justice should embrace the idea that the best way of improving the mobility of low income outer suburban residents is by increasing their incomes.