Gorgeous beaches, the dish rack, and the Harbour Bridge aside, Sydney’s traffic is probably one of our city’s defining features. In fact, in a recent reader roud-up, we asked our audience to share the small things that grind their gears, and Sydney’s roads came out on top. But it turns out, others might have it worse. A new study by Novated Lease Australia revealed the worst cities for traffic in Australia, and Sydney didn't make top place. Something to smile about?
According to the study, Australians are the most traffic-fearing drivers in the world, with more searches for the term “live traffic” than any other country (an average of 18,000 searches per month). And although we’ve got reason to be concerned about being stuck on the road – with 21 million registered cars all sharing the country's 873,500km of roads and highways – Sydneysiders don’t have it as bad as our friends down south in Melbourne. To calculate the worst cities for traffic in Australia, Novated Lease Australia collated data from TomTom to evaluate several factors and determine which city dwellers have the hardest time when it comes to getting around by car. The factors evaluated: yearly emissions due to congestion, yearly petrol price due to congestion, yearly travel time and yearly time spent in congestion. Melbourne came out as the worst city for drivers in the country, with Sydney coming in at number two.
The study found that Sydney clocks up an average of 83 hours of traffic per year – we spent an average of $175 on fuel last year due to congestion. According to data from TomTom, from 5pm to 6pm on Wednesday evenings is the worst time for traffic in Sydney every week – with the office attendance habits of Sydneysiders having a lot to do with traffic conditions.
Although it was the Victorian capital that took the top spot, NSW cities loomed largest in the list of most-congested cities, with three of the ten worst cities for traffic in the country being right here in NSW.
According to the study, the worst cities for traffic in Australia are:
- Melbourne
- Sydney
- Adelaide
- Brisbane
- Perth
- Hobart
- Newcastle
- Gold Coast
- Canberra
- Wollongong
Want more data on the state of driving in cities across the country? You can read the full report over here.
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