Are people deserting the suburbs to escape high fuel prices?
A new report by the Federal Government’s department of transport predicts that people will begin to desert the outer suburbs of Australia’s main cities if fuel prices continue to climb.
The report says residents will move to the inner city and begin taking public transport to escape lengthy, expensive commutes to work.
It claims that petrol price hikes have already prompted people to use their cars less and that the recent petrol price spike has caused an 8.2 per cent drop in fuel use.
The authors of the report say those who do keep driving will switch to diesel or hybrid cars, while four-wheel-drive sales will eventually fall.
It’s an interesting theory, but there seems to be very little evidence of people shying away from four-wheel-drives at the moment.
Sales of 4WDs are up by 10 per cent in the first seven months of this year. In fact, they are growing at twice the rate of light car sales and almost three times the rate of small cars.
And the bigger the 4WDs, the more popular they seem at the moment. While sales of compact offroaders are up by just 3 per cent, medium 4WD sales are up 17 per cent and large 4WDs are up 30 per cent.
One of the Government’s claims that is backed up by sales, however, is the continuing shift to diesel-powered vehicles. Sales are up by close to 30 per cent this year, following strong growth in 2006 and 2007 (although diesel passenger cars still make up a fraction of sales). The high price of diesel doesn’t seem to have put the brakes on oil-burner sales just yet.
What do you think? Is this report just out-of-touch bureaucrats crystal-ball gazing or does your personal experience back up their analysis?
Have you thought of moving closer to the city – or even to a less crowded city – to escape a hefty fuel bill and a long commute?
Alternatively, are you using your car less? Perhaps you’ve switched to the train or the bus for the weekday commute, or bought a smaller car?
Finally, have you made the switch to diesel or hybrid to cut the cost of your weekly commute?
Richard Blackburn