Metropolitan Adelaide in Australia is dominated by low-density suburbs with an extensive and large road supply, which brings with it car-dependent lifestyles that are ultimately unsustainable in the longer term. Spatial changes are needed to make a city such as Adelaide less car-dependent towards a city that relies on more sustainable transport modes for its day to day urban travel needs. On the other hand, to date, the impacts of local urban form on travel behaviour have not been adequately investigated through empirical research in Australia. The importance of research on this matter rises from the institutional and academic efforts to modify the growing car-dependent lifestyle in Australian cities through spatial planning and quality design. This thesis presents the results from a comparative study of travel patterns among residents of four suburban residential areas in metropolitan Adelaide. Using existing datasets together with inventory data of urban environment characteristics from original fieldwork, this research examines to what extent there are associations between various attributes of a particular urban location as they relate to travel behaviour and household socio-economics. The findings derived from quantitative and qualitative methods suggest that urban form/design must be taken into consideration in policy making for mobility reduction. Well-connected streets, and close proximity to jobs and key functions were shown to induce non-motorised travel. From an urban design and planning policy perspective, this suggests that greater daily activity and consequent health and environmental benefits might accrue from designing human-scale, walkable communities that appeal to the preference of different social groups versus investment in master-planned communities in the hope of swaying travel behaviour. That is, pedestrian-friendly places suited to the taste preferences of socio-demographic groups might induce more physical activity over the long run through the process of residential self-selection than overt efforts to create fully planned, attractive and quality landscapes all over suburbia. / Thesis (PhDPlanning)--University of South Australia, 2007.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/267106 |
| Creators | Soltani, Ali. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | copyright under review |
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