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The relationship between transport and disadvantage (Australia)

This Resource Sheet is designed to provide practitioners and policy-makers who plan and/or deliver services to children and families, especially within disadvantaged communities, with an understanding of how transport and disadvantage intersect and why some groups are especially vulnerable to transport disadvantage. It was released by the Australian Institute of Family Studies in August 2011.

This publication provides an overview of research that investigates the relationship between transport and disadvantage in Australia. There is a specific focus on transport disadvantaged areas, Indigenous Australians, families with young children and people with a disability. It concludes with some comments on the implications of this body of research for practitioners and policy-makers.

For practitioners and policy-makers planning and/or delivering services to children and families on low incomes in outer-urban areas, it is important to note that clients who come from a family where at least one parent is employed, and they are paying off a mortgage, are more likely to own a car than not.

For these families the transport difficulties they experience are more likely to relate to the stresses associated with owning a car, rather than the stress of not having a car at all. In some instances, these families will be more restricted than other families who live within walking distance of venues/activities and don’t have a car. It is important to note, however, that some families who are reliant on public transport, especially sole parent families and families with young mothers, are likely to be especially prone to transport disadvantage.

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