SYDNEY, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Growing communities in Australia's main cities are being left behind by a lack of access to public transport, with millions of residents suffering from lower service levels, longer travel time and poor service frequencies, according to a major infrastructure report on Friday.
"While existing transport infrastructure serves inner city areas well, people living on the outskirts of our major cities are being disadvantaged by a lack of access to frequent public transport services. This impacts their ability to access jobs, education and other opportunities to improve their quality of life," Peter Colacino, the executive director of policy and research at the country's independent infrastructure advisor, Infrastructure Australia, said in a statement.
The group's report assessed the frequency and accessibility of public transport services in major cities as they faced "unprecedented population growth in coming years."
"Close to half the population of our five largest cities -- Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide -- live in the outer suburbs, however our research shows that people living in these areas experience lower levels of service and accessibility to public transport, poor service frequencies and longer travel times compared to inner city residents," said Colacino.
"Across all five cities, a substantial number of people living in the outer suburbs do not have frequent public transport services within walking distance of their home. In Melbourne more than 1.4 million people fall into this category, with more than 1 million in Sydney and Brisbane, half a million people in Perth and 200,000 people in Adelaide," he said.
The report "makes a clear case" for governments to consider new transport models such as on-demand buses and ride-sharing to complement more traditional modes like bus and rail, said Colacino.
The infrastructure advisor also called on the authorities and transport operators to "do more to encourage people to transfer between public transport services, which helps to increase the flexibility and reach of the network."
Those include extending integrated ticketing systems for new modes and introducing fare incentives for people to make transfers.
