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These Are The Most Congested Days For Commuting In Australia

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Being stuck in traffic always sucks, and some days are worse than others. Data from GPS manufacturer TomTom highlights which cities in Australia have the biggest congestion problems, and which days are the worst to travel on.

Picture: Simon_sees

TomTom’s Traffic Index draws on the company’s live traffic data across 2014. It calculates congestion levels, which are expressed as a total average percentage increase in travel time (relative to a journey with no congestion).

TomTom’s announcement of the index also identifies the best days for commuting:

In Australia Tuesday and Wednesday were shown to be the worst mornings to commute, with morning peak hour traffic superseding afternoon traffic. Commuters across Australia experience the least traffic congestion on Monday morning.

Sounds like working at home on Wednesday is a good idea (and a good way to break up the week).

Here are the detailed congestion figures for Australia’s biggest cities, including average congestion levels, morning and afternoon peaks, and the differences between highway and non-highway driving.

City Average Morning peak Evening peak Highways Non-highways
Sydney 35% 66% 64% 31% 37%
Melbourne 28% 52% 51% 21% 35%
Perth 27% 46% 46% 20% 29%
Adelaide 25% 45% 41% 25% 26%
Brisbane 25% 43% 46% 18% 28%

Unsurprisingly, Sydney is the most traffic-congested city in Australia. These are the average congestion level rankings for major cities in Australia and New Zealand, which include cities that don’t have the same level of detail seen in the table above:

City Congestion level
Sydney 35%
Auckland 32%
Wellington 29%
Melbourne 28%
Perth 27%
Christchurch 28%
Adelaide 25%
Brisbane 25%
Canberra 17%

Those levels are high enough to be annoying, but pale in comparison to Istanbul, which has a 58% congestion level. Perth, Adelaide and Canberra have remained steady compared to 2013, but everywhere else is getting worse.

TomTom Traffic Index

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