Sustainable Australia: Containing Travel in Master Planned Estates

Low density suburban development and excessive use of automobiles are associated with serious urban and environmental problems. These problems include traffic congestion, longer commuting times, high automobile dependency, air and water pollution, and increased depletion of natural resources. Master planned development suggests itself as a possible palliative for the ills of low density and high travel. The following study examines the patterns and dynamics of movement in a selection of master planned estates in Australia. The study develops new approaches for assessing the containment of travel within planned development. Its key aim is to clarify and map the relationships between trip generation and urban form and structure. The initial conceptual framework of the paper is developed in a review of literature related to urban form and travel behaviour. These concepts are tested empirically in a pilot study of suburban travel activity in master planned estates. A geographical information systems methodology is used to determine regional journey-to-work patterns and travel containment rates. Factors that influence selfcontainment patterns are estimated with a regression model. This research is a useful preliminary examination of travel self-containment in Australian master planned estates. INTRODUCTION The relationship between urban form and travel behaviour has been of substantial interest to urban researchers (see Handy 1995; Ewing et al. 1996; Miller and Ibrahim 1998; Crane 2000; Cervero 2001). The link between land use patterns and travel demand is, however, complicated by the varying socio-economic and travel preference factors associated with different land uses (Stead et al. 2000). According to Stead (2001: 499) “the variation in socio-economic characteristics increases the difficulty in establishing the precise relationship between land use characteristics and travel patterns, and adds complexity to the comparison of travel patterns in different areas.” The key aim of this research is to investigate the dynamics of travel self-containment by exploring and mapping the relationships between urban form, urban structure and trip generation. The notion of ‘travel self-containment’ is used by urban scholars to describe the spatial travel patterns of residents within a given locality. Empirically, it is the proportion of trips that are internal to the locality, relative to all trips made by residents (Cervero 1995; Healy and O'Connor 2001). A high rate of travel self-containment indicates a set of land use and transport conditions able to satisfy