Investigating private motorised travel and vehicle fleet efficiency: using new data and methods to reveal socio-spatial patterns in Brisbane

Australian cities have seen continued growth in car travel that has imposed increasing vehicle energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This paper investigates the spatial patterns of vehicle energy consumption on urban areas through an analysis of vehicle travel and efficiency of the vehicle fleet in Brisbane. This is achieved through by combining motor vehicle registration records and Australian government’s ‘Green Vehicle’ fuel efficiency data. Through a spatial analysis of the vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) derived from journey to work (JTW) data and fuel energy consumption associated with the private-owned vehicles decomposed to local areas, the results show that vehicle energy use per VKT tends to be greater with increasing distance from the city centre (e.g. CBD). This analysis demonstrates that not only VKT levels but also the lower frequency of highly efficient vehicles in the outer suburbs aggravates vehicle energy consumption in those locations. The paper then compares vehicle energy intensity results for Brisbane against spatial patterns of suburban socio-economic disadvantage. The paper demonstrates that vehicle fleet technology may compound other forms of socio-economic disadvantage and vulnerability.

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