Travel and lifestyle impacts of new bus services in outer suburban Melbourne

This paper presents a summary of a research project aimed at understanding the transport and social impacts of providing new bus services in fringe urban Melbourne. The research included a series of surveys to assess the impacts of three new bus routes introduced in January 2006 in the Pakenham area of Melbourne. This paper describes the context for new bus service provision including a summary of the scale of service changes introduced. It then outlines the survey methodology deployed to understand bus user and community impacts of the services. The results of the surveys undertaken are then described. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for public transport service development related to addressing social need. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E216058.