Review of 2021 Census Topics

This is one of several submissions made on behalf of this agency.

The focus of this submission is information that is collected to create the journey-to-work data.

This submission recommends that
• Journey to work data is available for smaller geographic areas in regional areas of NSW.
• Journey to work is expanded to also collect information on the journey to education.
• Journey to work data includes a question of how long it takes to travel to work or school.

Information about the journey to work in used extensively in NSW for service delivery and infrastructure planning. It is also used to inform strategy development, such as the recently published Greater Sydney Plan: A Metropolis of Three Cities (https://www.greater.sydney/metropolis-of-three-cities ). It is built on “… built on a vision of three cities where most residents live within 30 minutes of their jobs, education and health facilities, services and great places”.
The evidence about commuter patterns for education is sparse, making public transport planning for students a challenge.

While detailed information is available from the census about the commuting patterns of people to their job, there is a lack of comprehensive information about the travel patterns of children to school, or of young people and other adults to post-school education.
However, the impact of travel patterns for education is considerable, and is most noticeable during school holidays when commuter volumes are noticeably smaller. The following article discusses this observation in Melbourne https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/how-the-school-holidays-change-the-way-we-travel-20161219-gtdzz6.html .
An understanding of their travel patterns and the mode(s) they use to get to and from home will assist in planning of public transport around significant education sites, management of traffic flows and providing for the health and safety of children while in transit.

Travels times are also a crucial factor for people living in regional areas, but the geographic scale of data available from the census does not allow for detailed analysis of patterns linking regional centres, towns and rural areas.

A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald wrote about the considerable distance that some children travel to school each day - https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-sydney-students-travelling-phenomenal-distances-to-get-to-school-every-day-20180403-p4z7lo.html

While some information is available to trips to school from the NSW household travel survey, the sample is small and it is also geographically confined to Sydney, the Illawarra and Hunter regions. So, little is known about the commuting patterns of children in regional areas of NSW.

Another important consideration is not only the distance that people travel to work (or school) but also the time that this trip takes – this is explicitly stated in the Greater Sydney Region Plan (see criteria 1). People’s perceptions about how far they will travel to work differs throughout the state and will affect the trade-offs they make about where they live and where they work

Questions are already asked about the address of a person’s place of work and the methods used to get to work on Census day. Similar questions could be asked of the address of any education institution attended on Census day. Consideration should also be given to asking a similar question of school children under 15. This question would also have to include a response option of home-schooling or studying at home.

I do not believe that this question would be considered intrusive.

Many stakeholders that this agency deals with have asked why this information could not be collected by the census.

A similar process could be used as currently undertaken for the collection, and processing of journey to work information.

People will continue to travel for education purposes; transport planners will continue to plan for the demand of these trips on the road and public transport networks.

Time series data will allow the state government to see to what extent its strategic goals, such as those set out in the Greater Sydney Region Plan, and the NSW Transport masterplan are being achieved.

While some education-related trip data is collected by the NSW Household Travel Survey, the geographic coverage is limited to the Sydney, Illawarra and Hunter regions. Even so, as it is a sample, the geographic scope of available data is limited.
https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/performance-and-analytics/passenger-travel/surveys/household-travel-survey-hts

Trip data is also available from the opal card, but will not identify part-time adult students travelling for education purposes.

Neither sources provide information on the travel patterns of people in regional areas of NSW.