Greening the Commute: Assessing the Impact of the Eleanor Schonell ‘Green’ Bridge on Travel to the University of Queensland, Australia

Abstract

The ability of targeted infrastructure to effect change in travel behaviour is axiomatic in transport planning but rarely does the opportunity arise to directly quantify the impacts of infrastructure on the travel behaviour of a discrete urban population. This article explores the impact of the Eleanor Schonell ‘Green’ Bridge on the travel and residential distribution of staff and students of the University of Queensland (UQ) St Lucia Campus, one of the largest daily traffic generators in the Brisbane metropolitan region. We examine the volume and modal split of trips to and from the campus prior to and post construction of the bridge in 2006. We then explore shifts in the residential distribution of staff and students over the same period according to the accessibility and socio-economic status of the neighbourhoods in which they are resident. We show that opening of the bridge was followed by a measurable improvement in transport sustainability at the campus, as well as a significant redistribution of staff and students across the metropolitan area.

特定基础设施改变出行行为的能力，是交通规划的应有之义，但是由于都市人口分散，基础设施对其出行行为的影响难以直接量化。本文考察埃莉诺• 肖奈尔 “绿色” 桥梁 (Eleanor Schonell “Green” Bridge) 对昆士兰大学圣卢西亚校区的教职工和学生出行及居住分布的影响。这个区是布里斯班每日人流最多的地区之一。我们观察 2006 年建桥 前后出入校园的流量和交通方式划分，并根据小区的方便程度和社会经济状况，考察师 生居住分布的变化。研究显示桥梁的开通极大地改善了校园的交通可持续性，并导致师 生在整个市区居住分布发生了很大变化。

Keywords::

• Commuting
• service populations
• transport sustainability
• infrastructure
• university

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge The University of Queensland's Property and Facilities Division and Central Administration for providing data and support for this research.

Notes

^1. Bus speeds represent a ‘best case scenario’ (i.e. off-peak travel) and are largely based on data presented in Queensland Government (2010). If comprehensive travel speed data for Brisbane were available, a further analysis could examine changes in the off-peak and peak network speeds between 2003 and 2011 to identify their implications for accessibility.

^2. Bicycle speeds are set constant for all road types as no studies provide any specific details for Brisbane. As such the average bicycle speed of 14.5 kilometres per hour is used following Börjesson and Eliasson (2010).

^3. Walking speeds are set constant for all road types and assume that all roads have footpath facilities. An average walking speed of 4.5 kilometres per hour is based on previous work by Hof et al. (2002).