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CONNECTING AUSTRALIA TRANSPORT CHALLENGES Driving innovation


Australian transport professionals are presented with significant challenges to ensure the safe and efficient movement of people and goods. Prof Phil Charles examines the contributory factors


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ustralia’s transport challenges are unique: long distances, from west to east around 3,900km from Perth


to Sydney, about the same distance south to north from Melbourne to Cape York; low density, compared to the US, Australia’s land area is 80 per cent the size, but the population is only 7 per cent. And it’s highly urbanised as 90 per cent of Australians live in urban areas. This all means that transport profes- sionals are faced with connecting popu-


CONNECTED AUSTRALIA SUPPLEMENT


lations and shipping goods over very long distances, which results in high per capita travel, but low tax revenue to pro- vide infrastructure. Traffic congestion is becoming a major


challenge in the larger cities, with few motorways and an increasing number of toll roads solving the dual problem of high urban traffic on major urban roads and limited government funds. As a result, Australians are known for combining new ideas with cost-effective


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use of ITS from Asia, Europe and North America. Innovation is driven by the scale and complexity of transport problems, in a constrained budget environment.


SAFETY Success in improving road safety, dramat- ically reducing the road toll from 26.59 deaths per 100,000 population in 1975 down to 5.08 in 2015. This resulted from being at the forefront of introducing com- pulsory seatbelt wearing, random breath


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