Review of 2021 Census Topics - Australian Bureau of Statistics

Response 830479025

What is your submission about?

Please provide a brief summary of your submission

On the transport question regarding mode of getting to work. I think that capturing information as to why I chose that mode of transport would be valuable. I ride a bike. I would love to ride my bike to work as I am in a regional city and live only 5km from work. Yet it takes me 15 minutes to get to work and there is not enough infrastructure to allow me to ride safely between 7:30 am and 9:30 am when I would need to arrive at work. Some questions around choice would better inform planners as to what people would like to do rather than what they're doing now.

Choose your area of interest

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Population

Sex and gender

Households and families

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

Income and work

Unpaid work and care

Education and training

Disability and carers

Housing

Location

Transport

Cultural diversity

Religion

Topics on Transport

Choose one or more of the following topics that relates to your submission

Please select all that apply

Mode of travel to work

Name and address of workplace attended

Number of motor vehicles

Other/unknown

Assessment Criteria 1

1. This topic is of current national importance.

Data is required for planning purposes.

Assessment Criteria 2

2. There is a need for data from a Census of the whole population.

Data is needed for planners all over the country - urgently. Every new transport project which goes ahead without considering allowing flexibility in transport to work is an opportunity lost.

Assessment Criteria 3

3. The topic can be accurately collected in a form which the household completes themselves.

Yes I believe that there could be easily understood questions which could inform a demand.

Assessment Criteria 4

4. The topic would be acceptable to Census respondents.

Yes, this should be perfectly acceptable.

Assessment Criteria 5

5. The topic can be collected efficiently.

It should be possible to at least design a couple of very simple questions to capture enough data. It would even be as targeted as:
If you had a safe way to ride a bike to work would you choose to do this
Or a multiple choice asking what the obstacles were to not riding to work eg, don't like riding, unsafe, no change facilities etc.

Assessment Criteria 6

6. There is likely to be a continuing need for data on this topic in the following Census.

I think it would need to be reviewed to see if the information was taken up by planners? Also, to see whether it potentially had an effect on the answer to the question regarding how people get to work?

Assessment Criteria 7

7. There are no other alternative data sources or solutions that could meet the topic need.

I don't believe there is a reliable, country wide, source for this data. There would likely be a number of studies however many of these also contain bias depending on who has run the survey. The ABS census should be able to capture unbiased information which would inform specific areas country wide. There may be less expressed need in some areas.

Any further comments?

If you would like to tell us anything else about your submission, please comment below.

Nothing additional to add.