Reduce the need for travel in "vulnerable" Australian cities says report launched by minister

Australia's cities are vulnerable to growing congestion and dependency on fuel imports and therefore need to reduce the need to travel by car, a report launched by a minister says today.

The report by Australian Council of Learned Societies warns that cities have grown to "extend well beyond the reach of public transport". With Melbourne and Sydney's populations set to swell to more than seven million people each this century, "the environmental pressures and economic consequences of car dependency will intensify". An opportunity exists, before the emergence of Australian megacities "to re-think urban development".

Launched by the minister for cities, Jamie Briggs, the _report urges polycentric development, "bringing origins and destinations together," a shift in planning philosophy in which demand is moderated. This is an aim that "implies significant planning reforms," and would see all Australian cities of 100,000 people or more developing sustainable urban mobility plans, within a national framework.