The travel attitudes and behaviours of South Asian international students: a study from Monash University

In recent years, the Australian transport system is struggling to cope with increased demand driven by population growth, which in turn is driven by immigration and much of this immigration occurs through international students who settle in Australia. Yet there isn’t much research on the travel behaviour of immigrants in Australia, let alone international university students. One of the fastest-growing immigrant groups in Australia is from South Asia, where the travel circumstances are distinctly different to the Australian context. This study is an attempt to explore the past and present travel habits, attitudes and related variables that may influence the travel behaviour of South Asian international students in Australia. We found an increased importance and significance of owning and using a car among international students from South Asia when compared to native-born Australians. They have lower car access yet a higher rate of licence holding than Australian students; more importantly, car use increases and catches up with native-born Australians within three years, which has important implications for transport policy. This is one of the first studies that looks at immigrants’ travel habits in Australia, and it is clear that more work needs to be done to build upon this under-researched topic in Australia.