Travel attitudes and mode use among Asian international students at an Australian university (original) (raw)
Related papers
2019
In recent years, the Australian transport system is struggling to cope with increased demand driven by population growth, which in turn is driven by immigration and much of this immigration occurs through international students who settle in Australia. Yet there isn’t much research on the travel behaviour of immigrants in Australia, let alone international university students. One of the fastest-growing immigrant groups in Australia is from South Asia, where the travel circumstances are distinctly different to the Australian context. This study is an attempt to explore the past and present travel habits, attitudes and related variables that may influence the travel behaviour of South Asian international students in Australia. We found an increased importance and significance of owning and using a car among international students from South Asia when compared to native-born Australians. They have lower car access yet a higher rate of licence holding than Australian students; more imp...
Australian Personal Travel Characteristics
Australian Personal Travel Characteristics, 1987
This report describes a systematic examination and person-oriented analysis of a number of the household interview surveys carried out in Australia between 1970 and 1981. The aim of the report is to concentrate on the person based travel characteristics rather than the household as a prime emphasis. The household age structure, as a lifecycle description, is examined as a basis part of this concentration on person travel. Regularities between different types of household and person are explored, and detailed patterns of travel time and other activity time exposure are presented. The special roles of different forms of travel for different age groups and people of each sex are examined, and the exposure and travel differences between the two sexes are examined. The results provide an effective way of expressing the special characteristics of often comparatively neglected modes, such as walking and bicycle riding, in similar terms to the major car usage and public transport modes. The findings presented here have been selected to provide a visually-oriented factual basis for considering personal travel characteristics in a consistent and graphical format by all modes in the cities considered, and have been placed in an international context where the data are available to do so. Details are given of the sources in various machine readable and directly usable formats in a companion volume, ARRB Technical Manual 24. It is recommended that optical media now be used to create more stable and self-documented archival access to these and similar data sets
People’s Travel Behaviour in a Multicultural Society
New Zealand in general and Auckland in particular are experiencing a significant change in population composition for the last few decades. The increasing of pacific Islanders and Asian population in Auckland makes the city becomes more multicultural than in the past. Along with population and diversity growth, travel volume in Auckland also shows a significant increase marked by an increase in the car ownership and public transport use. This paper seeks to find out the ways ethnic demographic characteristics might affect travel behaviour in a multicultural society. It uses material from two sources, Statistics New Zealand and the Ministry of Transport New Zealand. Statistics New Zealand provides details on demographic characteristics which was collected from 2006 Census of Population and Dwellings and the Ministry of Transport feeds the data which was collected from 2010 New Zealand Household Travel Survey. This study found that ethnicity does matter in terms of travel choices, travel distance and needs. For example, the NZ Europeans was the group with the highest use of cars, especially as a driver and Pacific Islanders was the largest in car use as passengers compared to other ethnic groups. The study also found that income, household structure and residential location can have a significant impact on ethnic groups' travel behaviour. Understanding the differences in travel behaviour among ethnic groups and the possible explanations for these differences can help in the development of more appropriate policies, best suited to meet the travel needs of all population groups. As Auckland becomes more diverse over the next few decades, a significant amount of growth in travel demand will undoubtedly come from minority population. Therefore, differences in travel behaviour, such as those identified in this paper are likely to have wide-reaching consequences for short-and long-term travel demand forecast, planning, and policy development.
Transportation
A range of studies have found that immigrants generally start out using different travel modes but over time they ‘assimilate’ toward adopting similar travel modes to the general population. These studies tend to focus on ‘when’ and ‘if’ travel assimilation occurs, with some studies using socioeconomic factors to explain ‘why’ this occurs. But few studies have explored the role of culture, attitudes and other ‘soft’ factors in shaping the process of travel assimilation among immigrants. In Australia, South Asians have been the largest and fastest growing immigrant group, and as skilled migrants they face few ‘hard’ barriers to car use. The aim of this paper is to explore the interaction between cultural influences, attitudes and initial travel experiences upon arrival in Australia on long-term travel assimilation amongst South Asian immigrants. Qualitative interviews with 20 South Asian immigrants were used to identify a range of cultural and psychosocial factors, such as perception...
2021
This thesis explores the mobility choices of South Asian immigrants in Australia. By using various datasets, the research in this thesis addresses the unique travel patterns and lifestyle choices that set them apart from native-born Australians, including less travel by car and more travel by public transport and active travel. Unfortunately, this evolves into high levels of car-dependency over time due to concerns with and perceived higher costs of non-car modes of travel. With Australia’s population growth fuelled by incoming immigrants of various cultural backgrounds, such research has the potential to better understand and serve their, and the broader population’s, travel needs.
Immigrant groups’ travel behaviour: does it differ from majority groups?
In many major cities, including in Auckland, New Zealand, an increasing number of immigrants put a huge pressure on public services, including transport. Immigrants have different socio-demographic characteristics to those of majority groups that lead to different travel behaviour. This condition challenges local authorities to produce policies that create equal opportunities to all groups in societies to participate in everyday activities. Universities can be used as a living laboratory for identifying problems, testing and implementing various transport policies and strategies. This study examines immigrant ethnic groups' travel behaviour within the University of Auckland. Through surveys, we found that immigrant groups have different travel behaviours compared to majority groups. The findings from this study have significant implications for policies to promote mobility equity for different groups in a society.
Understanding residential and travel preferences of South Asian international students
2019
Australia’s population is on the rise, and immigrants, including international students, are playing a big role in this growth. Because of the resulting strain on the transport system in the country, it is important to have some insight into how immigrants travel. Research in Australia has found demographic and travel habit differences between native-born Australians and immigrants but the reasons for these differences are not clear. To learn more, focus groups were undertaken amongst domestic and international (South Asian) students attending Monash University, a large suburban university campus in Victoria. New insights into public transport and car use were noted, with carpooling and carsharing amongst South Asians being an important mode. For South Asians, living with friends or family in an area reminding them of home was convenient; however, this often resulted in longer travel times and poorer connectivity which is a price most South Asians were willing to pay. For the Austra...
Travel perceptions, behaviors, and environment by degree of urbanization
Preventive Medicine, 2008
Objectives. This study examines how engagement in transport-related physical activity (TPA), perceptions of the commute route, actual travel distance, and perceptions of travel distance vary by degree of urbanization in rural and remote areas of Central Queensland, Australia.
New Zealand in general and Auckland in particular is experiencing a significant change in travel volume, marked by an increase in the car ownership and public transport use. The increase in the travel volume is accompanied by a growth of new immigrant population in Auckland. This paper seeks to find out the ways ethnic demographic characteristics might affect travel behaviour. It uses data from two sources, Statistics New Zealand and the Ministry of Transport New Zealand. Statistics New Zealand provides data on demographic characteristics which was collected from 2006 Census of Population and Dwellings and the Ministry of Transport feeds the data which was collected from 2010 New Zealand Household Travel Survey. This study found that demographic characteristics, ethnicity in particular, do matter in terms of travel choices, travel distance and needs. For example, the NZ Europeans was the group with the highest use of cars, especially as a driver and Pacific Islanders was the largest in car use as passengers compared to other ethnic groups. The study also found that income, household structure and residential location can have a big impact on ethnic groups' travel behaviour. Understanding the differences in travel behaviour among ethnic groups and the possible explanations for these differences can help in the development of more appropriate policies, best suited to meet the travel needs of all population groups. As Auckland becomes more diverse over the next few decades, a significant portion of growth in travel demand will undoubtedly come from minority population. Therefore, differences in travel behaviour, such as those identified in this paper are likely to have widereaching consequences for short-and long-term travel demand forecast, planning, and policy development.