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I am moving to Australia from the US because my husband is Australian. I want to escape the car culture and be able to live in a big city that is pedestrian friendly and has excellent public transportation (like Europe!). I do not want to have a car. What is the best big city in Australia for that?
I think if you lived in the inner city of Melbourne including places like Southbank or the Docklands, with it's intensive tram/train network you could easily get by without a car.
Inner city Sydney similarly you can live without a car.
Suburbs like Bondi Junction, Glebe or Leichardt you could very easily survive without a car - as the buses, trains and light rail are that good.
Just about every other major suburb, such as Parramatta, Chatswood and Hurstville (where I spent considerable time) are on the train line, and very easily commutible to the city and other suburbs.
In fact, you would never be bothered driving into there, as there is no parking anyway.
Oz is car mad. Car is King. And for many, the noisier the better. But if you can manage to live without one in the above suggested areas, good for you. That's to be admired.
I used to live in the West End of Vancouver without a car and loved it. But then renting a car for the odd weekend jaunt was/is much cheaper in North America. Car rental here is pricey.
Well i live about 5km from the cetral business area of brisbane, and have never owned a car since i moved hear 6 years ago. I would say if you are prepared to live close to the centre of most major cities it is feasable. I miss one a lot sometimes, especially on sundays when the public transport services halve, and i cant really just get up and go to the beach or a national park whenever i want to, although it is easy and cheap to get to the gold coast on weekends.
I particularly like to bike paths in brisbane as well which have being substanitally developed over the last few years.
Last edited by danielsa1775; 11-21-2009 at 04:58 PM..
I was able to live in Adelaide without a car. I lived across the parklands from the city in North Adelaide. I relied on buses (including a free solar powered bus that took me into the city), trams, etc. Within the CBD the tram is free and there is a free bus that circles the city. At night I'd take public transport and if it was quite late I'd cab it home. At time I'd ride bikes with my friends into the city, go to a pub and bike back at night -- that was a lot of fun! Every other weekend I'd rent a car to get out of the city, to get my shopping done, etc. -- I'd find great deals online. Eventually I had a car, but frankly I used it to drive into the parking lot at my Uni (free for Alumni) and walk into where I wanted to go.
BTW, there are many parts of europe that are not car friendly. Just like in Oz, it depends where, for the most part living in the city you can use public transport. The more remote, the more a car is a necessity.
These are good comments because it's looking pretty likely that I'll be moving to Sydney, and I'm quite tired of my daily drive. One goal for my next job is to use transit every day. I'm not interested in living in a CBD, so the mention about suburbs was particularly helpful.
Melbourne has the best public transport system in the whole country, trams are excellent with frequent services. Trains are good too. Buses aren't that frequent or popular because of the trams. There is a tendency for buses to service areas that doesn't have trams.
Sydney PTS comes second to Melbourne - thats a fact. Sydney buses are very popular and can be hideously overcrowded in the summer months on popular routes, for example from Bondi Junction to the beach where buses will often be full and skip stops along Bondi Road so better off walking to and from, be aware that when walking from the beach to the Junction, it's a steep walk uphill! Buses from the city to Bondi Beach runs 24 hours 7 days a week.
Trains (double-deckers) are quite good with frequent services but many of them are old with no air conditioning which can be awful on hot/humid days. For some stupid reason, non air-conditioned trains are often in use on hot days and the opposite on cold days. There was a proposal to extend the train line from Bondi Junction to the beach a few years ago which met with very strong opposition from locals so was eventually scrapped.
In the outer, newer suburbs a car is definitely needed as PT is generally poor in such areas.
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Perth's public transport system is easier to use than Adelaide, and more user-friendly than Melbourne. The suburbs are still car-dominated but I think we'll be a transit city in the future. Apartments are springing up like wildflowers in the city.
But you'd really be limited to the centres of the major cities. If walkability and safety is a factor Melbourne might be what you're looking for.
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