David Hensher is Professor of Management, and Founding Director of the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS): The Australian Key Centre of Teaching and Research in Transport Management in The Business School at The University of Sydney. David has published over 600 papers in leading international transport and economics journals, as well as 16 books. In January 2023, he was appointed a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia (OA).
David is also responsible for the ITLS Transport Opinion Survey (TOPS). The biannual survey measures the public's opinion on transport-related issues; It’s the only regular national survey that tracks changes in the public's views around public transport.
What you’ll learn:
What is the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies?
What is the Transport Opinion Survey (TOPS)?
Some of the key headline figures from the latest TOPS, released in March 2023
How public sentiment towards transport has changed over time and differs between states and territories.
Quotes:
“When you start looking through time over a number of years, there's definitely a reduction in overall confidence in the delivery of transport infrastructure.”
“Government has been talking about cutbacks on key infrastructure projects that's been happening for a while, or projects being delayed when people assume there'll be ready at a certain time. So you put all this in the mix, what we're seeing is reduced confidence in support from the public.”
“But what's so fascinating and really about the work is that my great surprise and great delight, employers are highly supportive of working from home because they didn't see a loss of productivity. “
“The [TOPs] survey showed roughly half roughly 76% of people have been ordering online in the last period, but roughly half was click and collect and half was being delivered at roughly three to $400 a month is being spent.”
“I think the major difference is really between New South Wales and the other states and it's to do with the public transport being more of a concern than anything to do with the roads.”
“In the Metropolitan context, it's the greater interest in providing better services locally to reduce the need to travel further and also includes I have to say we're regional as well, where there are some issues about good access to certain types of services.”
“A greater focus on what we call living locally and developing city hubs, not mobility hubs because mobility hubs imply just a transport interface. And the city hub is where you can provide a whole range of support services, childcare, places where you can charge your electric cars and they can also have good access to public transport if you need to travel further afield.”
Links:
ITLS' Transport Opinion Survey
ITLS Thinking Outside the Box series
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ITLS Transport Opinion Survey: How has public sentiment towards transport changed?