Travel Zones (TZs) are the spatial unit of geography for Transport for NSW (TfNSW). The TZ spatial layer is applied to data sources used by TfNSW for transport modelling and analysis, including the Travel Zone Projections and key transport models such as the Strategic Travel Model (STM). The Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Edition 3 boundaries provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) form the foundation of the Travel Zone geography. Generally, a TZ is an aggregation of whole ABS Mesh Blocks. The ASGS are based on population counts, whereas TZ boundaries are defined using population, employment, housing and transport infrastructure, with consideration for planned future changes in land use. Some of the State’s greenfield growth areas have deviated from using whole Mesh Blocks. Instead, Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI) growth area precincts have been used to create more functional TZs in those areas (for example, the Aerotropolis). TZs are designed to have standardised trip generation levels across all zones. This causes zones to be different sizes across NSW. As with many other spatial boundaries, TZs tend to be small in areas with high land-use densities and larger in areas of lower density. As areas and transport infrastructure change over time, TfNSW creates new Travel Zone geography in line with each ABS Census of Population and Housing, the latest being 2021. Below you can download spatial files of the Travel Zone 2021 (TZ21) geography, the TZ21 fact sheet, as well as concordance tables for various geographies to TZ21 and vice versa.

The Travel Monitoring Analysis System (TMAS) - Stations dataset was compiled on December 31, 2023 and was published on July 22, 2024 from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). Geospatial station data from the FHWA TMAS database contains latitude and longitude data from over 7,000 permanent (temporal data representing each time period) traffic monitoring sites in all 50 states plus DC. Data from these stations are submitted to FHWA every month and is a result of a long standing partnership between FHWA and the state DOTs.

The Transport Performance and Analytics (TPA) produces travel forecasts using the Strategic Travel Model (STM). This model is a world class tool that projects travel patterns in the Sydney Greater Metropolitan Area under different land use, transport and pricing scenarios. It can be used to test alternative settlement, employment and transport policies, to identify likely future capacity constraints, or to determine potential usage levels of proposed new transport infrastructure or services. The STM is built largely in the EMME transport modelling software. It is comprised of a series of models and processes that attempt to replicate, in a simplified manner, people’s travel choices and behaviour under a given scenario. The STM combines our understanding of travel behaviour with likely population and employment size and distribution, and likely road and public transport networks and services to estimate future travel under different strategic land use and transport scenarios. The STM produces travel forecasts by origin (2,690) and destination (2,690) STM zones for: The Sydney Greater Metropolitan Area which includes the Sydney Statistical Division, Newcastle Statistical Subdivision and Illawarra Statistical Division. 5 yearly intervals from the latest Census year up to a 35-year horizon 9 travel modes: Car driver, Car passenger, Rail, Bus, Light rail, Ferry, Bike, Walk and Taxi 7 purposes: Work, Business, Primary/Secondary/Tertiary education, Shopping, Other 24 hour, average workday (Monday to Friday excluding public holidays) am/pm peak, interpeak and evening travel