News location:

Wednesday, November 6, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Reduce car trips and get fitter, happier, study shows

The study found people who left the car at home felt better connected to their neighbourhood.

By Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson in Brisbane

AUSTRALIANS are happier, more active, less stressed and better connected to their communities when they replace car trips with alternative modes of transport, a study has revealed. 

But the research, conducted for Uber, also found households faced barriers to accessing alternative transport, planning trips was not as simple as it could be, and older Australians were among the least likely to replace travel in private cars.

The findings came during a record-setting year for new car sales in Australia and as the rate of car ownership in the nation exceeded that of other countries.

Uber’s One Less Car study, conducted by The Behavioural Architects, challenged 58 Australians to give up the use of one of their cars for four weeks.

Participants included 31 people with two cars at home, 21 people with one car, and six who did not own a vehicle.

During the study, the group’s average number of car trips dropped from 21 to 19 trips per week while time walking increased by 75 per cent, and transport on bicycles and e-bikes jumped by 322 per cent.

Participants also took more trips on public transport, in ride-share vehicles and used carpooling.

Uber strategy and planning head Anna Paula Brito told AAP many participants reported doing more exercise as a result of the transport change, as well as feeling better connected to their family members and neighbourhoods.

“We saw steps went up for everyone but in the anecdotes… a lot of people talked about their stress levels being a lot lower,” she said.

“People felt closer to their communities and even the people in their houses.”

The study also identified differences between participants based on their age and circumstances, with older people less likely to give up car rides completely.

“We definitely saw (single and double income households with no kids) and the families were more successful at re-moding away from cars into the other types of transport,” she said.

“The empty-nesters, even though they were successful at giving up their private car… they were a bit more hesitant to move away from the comforts of a private vehicle.”

The research also uncovered barriers to ditching car trips, including inequitable access to public and active transport options, inconsistent alternatives, difficulty planning alternative transport routes, and participants’ emotional attachment to cars.

But Uber Australia general manager Dom Taylor said the results proved it was possible for households to reduce their dependence on privately owned vehicles.

“We believe that Australia’s road to zero emissions depends not solely on EV adoption but on a fundamental shift across society away from private car dependence,” he said.

“The results have been clear that there is appetite and opportunity for real change.”

Australians have purchased a record number of new cars this year, however, with figures from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries revealing sales broke the one million barrier in October.

The federal government estimates there are more than 15.1 million privately owned cars on local roads, putting Australian car ownership rates above the UK and Germany.

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Australian Associated Press

Australian Associated Press

Share this

3 Responses to Reduce car trips and get fitter, happier, study shows

Curious Canberran says: 21 November 2023 at 2:25 pm

Oh jeez – more of this nonsense.
Does anyone else get sick to the back teeth of reading stuff like this.
Perhaps you just skip it now days – which is pretty much where I am at.
More far fetched rhetoric like: “…shift across society away from private car dependence” – yeah, pull the other one.
“The results have been clear…” what! based on 57 people for a 4-week period and you come to a grand societal conclusion. What rubbish.
I hope the Government did give a grant for this type of frivolous tosh to be undertaken by ‘The Behavioural Architects’.

Reply
cbrapsycho says: 21 November 2023 at 4:48 pm

When studies are this small, they have no scientific validity at all. Nothing they find can be generalised to a wider population, especially when they’re not even a random sample. This is meaningless crap. I don’t know why would anyone bother reporting on it because you can’t draw any conclusions from it. The Behavioural Architects can obviously not be considered a credible researcher, whilst Uber are fools for paying for such rubbish, but then they were obviously doing it on the cheap. But why bother at all? Dom Taylor of Uber needs to realise that this ‘study’ proves nothing at all.

Reply
cbrapsycho says: 21 November 2023 at 4:52 pm

Is this writer working for the car industry, for Uber, or some marketing company, or does she just not realise that this is not valid research and it exposes her ignorance to write about it as if it was valid?

Reply

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews