While Australia’s major cities remain among the world’s most liveable – with bicycle use at the highest level in 40 years – changing work-force patterns pose future challenges for transport infrastructure planning.
Those are a few of the trends detailed in the State of Australian Cities 2013 report, which was released last week by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, The Hon Anthony Albanese MP.
Compiled by the Major Cities Unit, this latest ‘report card’ builds on the previous three, providing an even more comprehensive analysis of the progress and performance of the nation’s 18 biggest cities.
The first three editions of this publication generated enormous interest and have been downloaded more than three million times.
In 2013, for the first time, the spatial focus of State of Australian Cities 2013 is significantly enhanced through the addition of a large number of interactive maps of the major cities. Around 1,000 maps are available in two versions: a medium resolution PDF version and a high resolution interactive version.
A summary of the key findings is available here [pdf], with the full State of Australian Cities 2013 available here.
As well as giving us a better understanding of how our cities work, the report also identifies the specific initiatives of local councils and state planning authorities which are proving effective at promoting more productive, sustainable and liveable urban communities.
As one of the most urbanised societies in the world, and with our cities generating 80 per cent of our national income, our continuing prosperity largely depends on the productivity, sustainability and liveability of our cities.
