Transport behaviour among residents of areas of intensive public housing in Aotearoa

Public housing tenants in New Zealand tend to be individuals and families who experience significant socioeconomic disadvantage, which means that their transport mode choices are likely to have a sizeable influence on other aspects of their wellbeing and quality of life. In addition, transport mode choice more generally has direct and indirect implications for carbon emissions and aspects of urban sustainability, such as traffic-related injury rates and local air quality. Despite this, the transport mode choice of public housing tenants, as is the case with many disadvantaged groups, is an understudied area. The ‘Public Housing and Urban Regeneration – Maximising Wellbeing’ programme, which is led by Te Pokapū Rōnaki Tāone-nui / The New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities, broadly aims to improve the holistic wellbeing of public housing tenants while also improving the environmental sustainability of public housing. This research forms part of that programme. It uses quantitative methods involving descriptive and inferential statistical techniques, including multiple logistic regression, to illuminate the transport patterns of residents of public housing-intensive areas. It draws on several datasets, including from the New Zealand Household Travel Survey and the Easy Access and Sustainable Transport survey by Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, to describe the current travel behaviour of public housing tenants in terms of mode choice, whether and how these choices differ from those of other groups, and to examine a range of factors that influence travel decisions.

This study found more active and public transport trips amongst residents living in public housing-intensive meshblocks, as well as a higher proportion of trips made as passengers, compared to residents living in less public housing-intensive meshblocks. Several key sociodemographic characteristics differed markedly between the two sets of residents, with public housing-intensive meshblocks having more households with children compared to households in other meshblocks and more households having no private vehicle. Analysis of the built environments in question revealed that public housing-intensive meshblocks tended to be further from the central business district on average than less public housing-intensive meshblocks, but that features of the built environments included in the study were not strongly associated with transport mode choice. Household type in terms of the presence of children was found to be one of the factors with the strongest influence on mode choice.

Overall, the analysis reveals constrained transport options amongst public housing tenants that may contribute to increased socioeconomic disadvantage. This may indicate that the potential effectiveness of strategies for carbon mitigation that target mode shift is somewhat limited. However, the findings also reveal that public housing tenants will tend to utilise local destinations where access to further destinations may be more restricted, which highlights that the provision of local amenities that appropriately meet needs without requiring use of a car may be a useful strategy to improve accessibility without increasing emissions or transport disadvantage. Further, the tendency for residents of public housing-intensive meshblocks to travel as passengers, including carpooling between households, suggests that community transport and on-demand flexible-route public transport could play a useful role in improving mobility and accessibility to destinations further from the home while encouraging mode shift away from the private car. Initiatives to reduce the transport carbon emissions of the public housing stock through mode shift must emphasize equity considerations to ensure that the transport needs of public housing tenants are being met.