Higher Density Housing and Transport in Australian Cities

Abstract

Similarities of residential density and travel characteristics in the outer suburbs of both Australian and North American urban areas have led to the term “auto dependency”. The landscape, originally filled with coherent communities, now has, according to Kunster (1993) in the Geography of Nowhere, the unreality of the suburbs and the tyranny of comparative commuting, such that every place is a “no place”. Freeway investment encourages low-density development leading to the unsustainability of high car usage, petroleum consumption and air pollution. As referenced fully by Steiner (1994), a few researchers and real estate developers, and an increasing number of policy makers in many US states, and around the world, argue for infill housing, mixed land uses and increased density, especially around public transport services. These urban forms are variously referred to as urban consolidation, urban villages or “neo-traditional development”.