Perth is the longest city in the world (apparently) because of urban sprawl. The article is exactly right in that the city is entirely dependant of being able to travel from work to home and that commute is both ling and decentralised.

In my completely uneducated opinion if there was affordable high density housing around business areas, or if commercial/industrial areas were more uniformly spread amongst the suburban housing then public transport and other methods (such as cycling) would be more viable options (when commutes arent so rediculously far).

I think the inner 10km around the CBD needs to prioritise public transport, then active transport over private cars. More bus lanes, actual cycle infrastructure (not murder strips / paint), traffic lights that favour buses / active transport.

Why the government needed an FOI to release this i don't know. Its not exactly surprising given, as they say, the nature of our transport infrastructure.

Now what dot needs to do is accept the poor historic choices made and work within the system we have to reduce tge car reliance for as many, as soon as possible. That does not mean trains (too much new construction required), or even bikes (distances are too great) unfortunately. Though hopefully we can build them in slowly.

What is needed is a complete transformation of our bus infrastructure. The buses need to have more frequency, and a rollout of frequent CATs for every LGA for intra-city/township transport. These CATs will relieve pressure on the 'big green limousines' to wander about suburbs looking for passengers, as well as give more felxibility for more specific routes in those suburbs that the smaller CATs can get to more easily.

A two tiered synchronised bus system will be the cheapest and quickest transport solution to cars. Because they require much less changes to Perth's infrastructure, or people's lifestyles, if we get them frequent and flexible enough to become a reasonable replacement for some car trips.

It's gonna take decades. Even then, in WA we're so isolated, even if we have heaps of non-car transport infrastructure it's tricky to see people weaning themselves off cars completely, because we have the Perth hills and the Southwest on our doorstep. Tricky to have a long weekend in Busselton without a car.