Australia’s peak motoring body has released its latest Transport Affordability Index showing weekly costs have for the first time risen above $400 for the average Australian metropolitan household.
Australian household are now spending 14.6 per cent of their budget on transport costs. This is the highest percentage since the Index commenced five years ago.
Household transport costs fell in the year of Covid as Australian families spent 4.6% less on transport in 2020 than the previous year. A typical household spent $310 per week on transport, or 12.5% of its income.
The AAA’s final quarterly report benchmarking the performance of the Strategy shows its key targets to reduce road deaths and serious injuries by at least 30 per cent by the end of 2020 have not been met.
This edition shows that transport costs, like the economy, are showing early, tentative signs of recovery back into growth as Australia emerges from the pandemic-fuelled downturn, increasing by 1.2 per cent in the third quarter.