# Perceived Accessibility: Impact of Social Factors and Travel Modes in Melbourne's West
## 5 Conclusions  
This study reveals that despite the rapid expansion of metropolitan Melbourne towards the western region and consequent increases in infrastructure development, the perceived accessibility, safety, and service quality associated with public transport may be hampering liveability and sustainability in the area. Using data collected from a survey in Point Cook, one of the rapidly growing suburbs, this study finds significant declines in perceived accessibility of public transport as the primary mode of travel. Safety and service quality concerns are also rife, particularly concerning travelling to/from stations at night. First- and last-mile travel is seen as increasingly inconvenient due to poor connections within the public transport system and with other sustainable modes such as cycling and walking. This has impacted the reliability and frequency of services and essentially dissuaded usage. A more worrying pattern is the increased concern that specified demographic groups, such as women, older adults, and infrequent users of public transport, show when asked about perceived accessibility, safety, and service quality in relation to public transport in the study area. As a result, these groups of people are increasingly isolated from society and excluded from access to social and economic possibilities. Such revelations contradict the expectation of public transport to foster accessibility and inclusion, particularly among vulnerable populations such as women, the disabled, and older adults [12; 32]. It is obvious that inadequate planning and the distribution of scarce public transport services are endangering people's accessibility, health, and well-being along a popular growth corridor accommodating much of Melbourne's recent population boom. In the selected suburb of Point Cook, this exclusion is partly attributable to longer walking distances between homes and public transport stations/stops (spatial separation), poor network connections, and infrequent services, as well as the unreliable schedules that travellers often have to grapple with. These factors potentially create social exclusion among vulnerable populations for whom the use of alternative modes of travel is also compromised due to gender-defining roles and power, functional abilities, and financial capacities. Previous studies indicated that women's travel behaviour is increasingly influenced by their relatively lower wages, job locations, and inequitable access to household vehicles [33; 34]. Moreover, sensory and mobility limitations hinder the capacity of older adults to adopt alternative travel modes [27], forcing them to primarily rely on public transport as their primary travel mode. With an ageing population, older adults are expected to constitute a more substantial proportion of Melbourne's residents in the future. Hence, more concerted effort is required to address these concerns to leverage public transport investments for greater health and well-being benefits in a post-pandemic world. Satisfaction with perceived accessibility, safety, and service quality is more likely to induce greater use of public transport services. Our findings of perceived accessibility, safety, and service quality in the Point Cook area can be used as a reference for further evaluation in combination with interventions aimed at improving any of these social values. There are some limitations of this study. As a pilot study, the study area was confined to the suburb of Point Cook. Despite the fact that Point Cook is one of the fastest-growing areas in Melbourne with rapid population expansion, it may not be appropriate to generalise the findings to other regions in Australia. Although 156 survey responses were collected, this may not comprehensively represent the residents and travellers in the study area. For future research directions, it is recommended to extending the area study to the entire City of Wyndham, other appropriate suburbs in Victoria, or even to other states in Australia for comparison.