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Using results from a design-research studio analysing rail station access in Melbourne, this article considers how differing Autonomous Vehicle (AV) deployment models might fit into a suburban landscape. The results challenge assumptions about AV deployment. If AVs are low occupancy, peak demands may require station carparks to be used entirely as pick-up/drop off zones. This suggests little opportunity to re-purpose car parks for non-transport uses. Further, with AVs uncoupling station demand from existing feeder bus and park-and-ride provision, a re-distribution of demand along rail corridors may occur. The work has broad applicability to the policy challenges of an AV future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among policymakers and researchers at an international level, there is great interest in the performance of the Melbourne rail franchise model. This review attempts to examine the Melbourne model in an international context and assess the performance of the system under current contracts. Potential flaws are highlighted including lack of information, concerns over performance and contestability, and the treatment of the potential long-term maintenance backlog under short-term contracts. The authors conclude with an overall stance of there needing to be far greater public information transparency to allow proper scrutiny of the effectiveness of these contracts for the public good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melbourne and Vancouver share many similarities, but there are significant differences in the content and outcomes of transport and urban planning policies since 1970. Melbourne has built a large urban freeway network and is struggling to create a coherent transit network from its large but fragmented transit system. Vancouver has achieved some enviable successes in urban planning, but is still facing significant car-dependence in its outer suburbs. This paper provides a conceptual theoretical model that asserts the centrality of local politics as the source of reasons for particular urban transport policy trajectories. It describes the political and institutional context for the development of transport policies and the behaviour of key actors in the two cities, and identifies some of key factors behind transport and planning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melbourne's public transport system, despite its extensive train and tram lines, is facing major challenges. From a point of near-extinction in the late 1970s, Perth's historically smaller public transport system is arguably now better placed to deal with growing environmental and economic pressures. The election of reformist governments in Victoria and WA in the early 1980s provided critical opportunities for public transport in both cities. This article documents the striking differences in the behaviour of the politicians, bureaucrats and civic action groups engaged in contention over transport policy in the two cities during this period. These differences had a significant influence on the performance of public transport in Melbourne and Perth today, and point to changes that will be required to improve transport policy outcomes in Melbourne [image omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]