Estimating Time Use in Melbourne

To increase our understanding of how people travel in Melbourne, the Department of Transport commissioned Dr. Duncan Ironmonger of the University of Melbourne to gain perspectives on Melburnians' use of time, with a special focus on travel time.

Dr Ironmonger constructed a formal system of time accounts for Melbourne, along the lines of the economic System of National Accounts of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which could then be refined. The Second Edition of his report has been released.

The results of this and future studies on travel behaviour will enable those responsible for transport provision in Victoria to better understand the needs of people using its transport networks and services.

Note: The views and ideas expressed in the reports available on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Department of Transport or the Victorian Government.

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Reports

• A System of Time Accounts for Melbourne, Second Edition, 2008, (PDF, 524 KB, 125 pp.)
• A System of Time Accounts for Melbourne, First Edition, 2006, (PDF, 278 KB, 61 pp.)
• Travel Behaviour of Women, Men and Children: What Changes and What Stays the Same? (PDF, 766 KB, 41 pp.)

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Key findings

• The big change in travel behaviour in Melbourne over the last 15 years has been mainly a story of increasing number of trips, travel distance and travel time of women.
• Women made 3.9 million trips on public transport each week in 2006, up from 2.4 million in 1991.
• Average weekly trips by men remained at two, while women rose from 1.9 to 2.6.

Initial findings from the First Edition were presented to the 29th Annual Conference on Time Use Research in Washington DC in October 2007.
Download the presentation (PDF, 186 KB, 34 pp.).

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Sources of statistics

Sources of statistics include:

• the ABS Time Use Surveys for 1992, 1997 and 2006
• ABS hours worked
• ABS Censuses of Population and Housing
• commissioned activity and travel surveys
  • Victorian Activity and Travel Survey (VATS)
  • Melbourne Public Transport Revenue Allocation Survey
  • Victorian Integrated Survey of Travel and Activity (VISTA)

The Melbourne Public Transport Revenue Allocation Survey 1998-2001 (PDF, 1 MB, 40 pp.) produced a large sample of about 210,000 travel time experiences as a by-product of its initial objective. It was estimated that during 1998-2001:

• the average train trip of 15 km had a speed of 38 km per hour
• the average tram trip of 4 km had a speed of 14 km per hour
• and the average bus trip (excluding school bus) of 6 km had a speed of 20 km per hour.