More cars, but less car travel

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Survey of Motor Vehicle Use results from last year showed the number of vehicles on Australian roads grew from 16 to 16.6 million.

Passenger vehicles made up 76.4 per cent of all registered vehicles. Freight vehicles accounted for 18.8 per cent of all registered vehicles with the remainder (4.8 per cent) comprising buses, motor cycles and non-freight carrying trucks.

That vehicle fleet covered 232.4 billion km last year, enough for 5.8 million laps around the Earth's circumference. It's also a 2.6 per cent increase from 226 billion km in the last motor vehicle use survey results from 2010.

But the ABS research found the average distance covered per vehicle has dropped slightly to 14,000km a year and assistant director of transport statistics unit Jon Williams said that trend was apparent internationally.

“We've had the increase in the distance travelled, but the average distance travelled has continued to decrease, something that's been in our data for a while and is something that has been occurring internationally since 2004,” he said.

Vehicles registered in Queensland travelled the furthest, covering an average of 14,900km, ahead of ACT and Victoria-registered vehicles which also covered just over 14,000km, while vehicles in NSW and WA were just under 14,000km.

Vehicles in SA covered just over 13,000km while NT-registered vehicles were just under that mark. Tasmanian-registered vehicles recorded the lowest average of 11,600km. Mr William said the increase in vehicle numbers and distances had also seen a two per cent increase in fuel used.

“The number of vehicles is up, the fuel consumption is up by 2.1 per cent from 2010, from 31.2 to 31.8 billion litres, which is related to the increase in the number of vehicles,” he said. A lap of Australia's mainland, through each state capital, is a journey of 12,700km.

Passenger vehicles made up 76.4 per cent of all registered vehicles. Freight vehicles accounted for 18.8 per cent of all registered vehicles. The remaining 4.8 per cent of registered vehicles are buses, motorcycles and non-freight carrying trucks.

Articulated trucks had the highest average fuel consumption with 57.7 litres per 100km and had the highest average distance travelled - 83,000km. Business travel made up one third of all kilometres travelled, while travelling to and from work accounted for just under a quarter; more than half (53%) of all travel was within capital cities.