The transport system is
designed to cater to the community needs and provide accessibility to goods and services and also provide “escape
routes” during disasters. The travel pattern of movement in a network may change dramatically after a disaster, due
to people evacuating an area or people entering an area to render assistance (Nicholson & Du 1997). Transport
networks needs to be improved as well as new networks needs to be planned and constructed to cater to the growing
urban population growth and to improve social status of people. Economies in developed countries depend heavily
upon their transport systems. These dependencies are likely to increase due to the trend towards just-in-time
production methods, which involve reducing the space and investment associated with storage and reliance on fast
and reliable transportation system (Nicholson & Du 1997). Australia has always been a strongly motorised country
and internationally has been ranked third in car ownership levels per capita since the 1950's. An average of 71% of
people above 15 years of age use a car as either a driver or passenger every day (ABS 1996c) and this rises to 80%
of both males and females in the 25 to 55 years age group (Roads in the Community, 1997). And most of the
increased travel by cars during the last two decades has been due to an increase in car ownership. Car ownership has
closely followed increases in GDP/capita over the full period from 1971 to 1995(Roads in the Community, 1997).
Australia’s population has grown by three million in the past decade (State of Australian Cities 2011)