Source : Perth Now news
Anthony Albanese’s advice for Australians to switch to public transport in the wake of a national fuel crisis is detached from the reality of an average commuter, an expert has warned. Award-winning engineer and author Felicity Furey has argued public transport is no longer fit for purpose following massive changes to Australian lifestyles and living arrangements in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic and for many, driving is “the only practical option”.
Households now spend almost $447 a week on transport, with 96.4 per cent of that going toward private vehicle costs such as fuel, insurance, and maintenance, rather than public transport.
The Real Commute Report 2025 shows the average commuter spends $3557 a year getting to and from work, while the average daily commute has stretched from 54 minutes in 2022 to 64 minutes.
Over the same period, the average commute distance grew from 32 kilometres to 37 kilometres.
Award-winning engineer and author Felicity Furey said the issue is not Australians rejecting public transport, but transport systems struggling to keep pace with how people actually travel.
She argues the Prime Minister’s advice to take public transport amid the fuel crisis assumes a “standard commuter”, who no longer exists.
Before the pandemic, commuting followed predictable peak-hour patterns into CBD workplaces, she explained, but the Covid pandemic changed everything.
“Public transport use dropped significantly during Covid and still hasn’t fully recovered,” Ms Furey told NewsWire.
“Because of this, today’s commuter is much more hybrid.
“In the 2021 Census, 21 per cent of Australians worked from home, up from just 4.7 per cent in 2016, shifting travel habits from long CBD trips to shorter, local journeys across neighbourhoods.
She said the number is now likely closer to one in three Australians working from home at least once a week.
Ms Furey said modern commuting is no longer just a home-to-work return trip. She explained it is now multi-destination, often including daycare, school, errands, and caregiving throughout the day as both parents work full time.
More Australians are also moving to regional areas for housing, often facing longer commutes with limited transport options.
She noted her own trip to Brisbane takes 1.5 hours by car, or 2 hours by train, plus an additional 10 to 15 minutes to drive to the station.
To test public transport, Ms Furey left the Sunshine Coast at 5.48am and said the journey, involving driving to a station, buses and multiple trains, took more than 3.5 hours one way, compared to about 1.5 hours by car.
“Leaving that early also meant my kids were still asleep, so I didn’t get to say goodbye before the day started,” she said.
From an engineering perspective, she believes the issue is structural rather than behavioural.
“Our transport systems were built around a so-called ‘standard user’ travelling a standard route, and that assumption no longer reflects how people actually move through the world.”
She said much of today’s roads and infrastructure were designed decades ago, in a very different social context when travel patterns were more predictable and many women were not in the workforce after marriage.
“When I studied engineering, there was no GPS in cars and no Google Maps rerouting drivers around accidents in real time, so the system was designed for a very different era.”
The burden of rising fuel prices is not shared equally, she said.
“The people being hit hardest by rising fuel prices are often those with the fewest realistic alternatives, particularly people living in regional areas or those outer suburban growth areas that are not well connected to public transport.”
“For many Australians, driving is not a preference. It is the only practical option, and without it you need to make trade-offs.”
Governments have continued to invest heavily in major transport projects. The Grattan Institute reports governments have spent $34 billion more on transport infrastructure than planned over the past two decades, with nine projects now exceeding $5 billion each, up from just one project a decade ago.
But experts warn megaprojects alone cannot solve modern commuting challenges.
Research from the University of Sydney shows more than 40 per cent of the workforce now blends office and home days, with many workers willing to change jobs rather than return to full-time commuting.
Ms Furey believes the gap between policy and lived experience is growing.
“I am very supportive of public transport and use it regularly when I can, but too often, like engineering decisions, policy is built around an average or standard user rather than the reality of how people actually travel, and the different journeys.”
“Engineers, leaders and policymakers need to consider the range of new day-to-day realities people are navigating before assuming technical solutions alone will work for everyone.”
She said making public transport viable would require designing systems for different types of journeys and different stages of life.
“Public transport needs to be designed for a broader range of users and trip types, not just the traditional commuter travelling between home and the CBD.”
“That includes people living in regional areas and people making multi-destination trips across the day.”
“It also means designing for different seasons of people’s lives, including pregnancy, raising young children and caring for elderly parents, as well as improving safety for night workers and women travelling home late.”
