The chart below gives information about the average number of trips per person on public transport in four Australian cities, namely Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart, and Canberra, over a 110-year period since 1900.
Overall, most cities experienced a downward trend throughout the period. While Sydney was the leading city despite a significant decline, Canberra accounted for a negligible number of trips per person on public transport.
Sydney started with around 240 trips, which was approximately four times as many as Hobart. The figure then skyrocketed to around 450 trips in 1920, whilst a corresponding increase was seen in Habort to 220 trips. In 1950, the number of trips in Sydney and Hobart reached their peak at 450 and 400 trips after experiencing a significant fall in 1940. Turning to 1970, Sydney and Hobart had gradually plunged, with roughly 200 and 130 trips, respectively. By the end of the period, the number of trips in Sydney remained unchanged at 200. Meawhile, the figure for Hobart gradually decreased to 40 trips, with the exception of a slight increase of 10 trips in 1980.
A similar trend can be seen for Adelaide and Canberra. The former started at 140 trips in 1900, while the latter began approximately 20 years later. There was a significant increase to 200 in the frequency of journeys on public transportation in Canberra in 1950. This was followed by a notable fluctuation between 50 and 200 at the end of the period, before ending at 75. In contrast, Adelaide’s public transport usage reached its peak at 320 by 1950 and gradually fell to only 50 trips at the end of the timeframe.