Australian Travel Time Metric 2020 Edition
In our latest Australian Travel Time Metric, developed using Uber’s anonymised ride share data, we see that peak travel times across Australia’s four largest cities have not increased over the past four years. This is despite populations and demand for the roads in these cities growing substantially over this time.
Infrastructure Partnerships Australia has released the Australian Travel Time Metric 2020 Edition.
In our latest Australian Travel Time Metric, developed using Uber’s anonymised ride share data, we see that peak travel times across Australia’s four largest cities have not increased over the past four years. This is despite populations and demand for the roads in these cities growing substantially over this time.
With COVID-19 having hit the reset button on transport networks, there is an opportunity to reshape transport demand. We should build on the hard-won improvements of recent years and implement a range of long-overdue reforms.
Infrastructure Partnerships Australia will continue to monitor the performance of Australia’s transport networks as we emerge from this crisis and provide advice on the reforms and investments required to support the economic recovery.
Key Findings
Commuters travelling from Melbourne’s outer metro to the CBD spend 79 hours each year stuck in traffic
Perth recorded the fastest overall morning commute, at under 13 minutes
In 2019, commuters from Sydney’s outer metro spent 48 per cent of their trip to the CBD stuck in traffic
COVID-19 turned Sydney’s peak hour congestion into pre-pandemic evening off-peak levels, with speeds improving in some corridors by up to 70 per cent
Brisbane commuters travelling between its outer metro and the CBD experienced the lowest share of peak delays, compared to other major cities
All cities except Melbourne experienced bigger delays driving from inner to outer metropolitan areas in the morning peak, compared to the evening
Travel time from the Airport to Sydney’s CBD was 87 per cent longer in the morning peak –the most delay for any city’s airport corridor.
Despite being the second longest in distance, the evening peak trip from Brisbane’s CBD to the Airport corridor was the quickest and least delayed for any city during a peak period. The trip was under 21 minutes with just a six per cent delay
Over the four years leading up to 2020, the delay in travelling from Perth’s CBD to Airport decreased by 42 per cent – the biggest drop for any airport corridor
Melbourne’s reliability in peak trip times deteriorated by 22 per cent in the four years since 2015, while Sydney’s worsened by 16 per cent
Reliability in peak trip times was similar across the four cities, with Brisbane leading the pack with the lowest coefficient of variation for travel times
Full Report
Contact Information
Adrian Dwyer
Chief Executive Officer
Mollie Matich
Head of Policy and Research
Prabash Sedara
Infrastructure Partnerships Australia
Boronia Morison
Head of External Affairs
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