Abstract
Suburban offices constitute a growing proportion of the metropolitan office stock in Melbourne. The relocation of around 1700 Coles Myer employees from the Central Business District to Tooronga, 8.5 km south east from the GPO, is an example of office decentralisation. A study of the resultant impacts arising from the relocation has been conducted utilising a ‘before-the-move’ and ‘after-the-move’ survey of Coles Myer employees. Both surveys generated response rates in excess of 60%. Office relocation can have various short and long term impacts on employees and will influence decisions relating to residential location, car ownership and the resultant travel and activity patterns. It is not until these impacts are quantified that planners can gain acceptance for strategies designed to minimise the negative impacts associated with dispersed employment opportunities.
This paper discuses the suburbanisation of office employment in Melbourne and studies the travel related effect on the employees, whose headoffice is relocated from the CAD to a suburban location. One of the great challenges for transport in the 90's will be the successful management of office location and the resultant impacts on travel.
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Abbreviations
- CAD:
-
Central Activities District; the CAD is defined as a slightly larger area than that previously referred to as the Central Business District (CBD)
References
Bell DA (1986) The Influence of Social Changes in Work Trip Choice. Australian Transport Research Forum (pp 193–216).
Daniels PW (1986) Office Location in Australian Metropolitan Areas: Centralisation or Dispersal? Australian Geographic Studies 24: 27–40.
Kilmartin L (1987) Coles New World and The Status of The Plan. Journal of Urban Policy and Research, Volume 4, December 1986.
Bell DA (1990) Coles Myer Ltd Travel Survey. Report 1 — Basic Data Description, and Report 2 -Travel Impacts of Relocation.
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Bell, D.A. Office location — city or suburbs?. Transportation 18, 239–259 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00172938
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00172938