A new study has found Australians’ daily commute has not worsened, despite the country’s population growth.
Australian public policy research centre, The Grattan Institute, has found commute times and distances have barely increased over the past five years.
The Institute's transport program director Marion Terrill said commute distances have barely changed, even as cities grow.
150 train services were cancelled on Monday. Source: AAP
"The media reports are often saying things like their 'cities are grinding to a halt', 'we’ve got terrible gridlock', 'we’re going to have to stop population 'growing', or stop migration'," she said.
"But in reality it’s true that we’re more crowded and congested than we used to be, but what seems to be happening is that people are making all sorts of adaptations so their commutes are still tolerable."
Ms Terrill said many people have either moved to be closer to their job or have taken a job closer to where they live.
"The CBDs typically have about 15 per cent of the jobs in the city and then other employment centres like Parramatta for example, for Sydney, it’s a second CBD but it’s only got 2.3 per cent of Sydney’s jobs," she said.
The average median travel time has not gone up. Source: SBS News
"And three-quarters of all jobs are spread right over the city - that’s true for Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane - and so what it means is that people aren’t all converging in the one place.
“What they’re doing is they’re going from wherever they live to jobs that are spread all over the city, and it allows us to get more use out of the infrastructure that we already have."
Cities and Populations Minister Alan Tudge disputes the research findings, saying "travel times are getting slower... to suggest otherwise is fanciful”.
Mr Tudge said the federal government is "examining how to take population pressure off our fast-growing cities."
In Sydney, commuters have been thrown into traffic and transport chaos following the seven-month closure of a popular rail-line due to be upgraded.
It's expected the temporary closure of the rail line between Epping and Chatswood will impact around 20,000 people, every day for seven months.
NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance said commuters will eventually reap the benefits of the Epping shut down. Source: AAP
NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance said it's part of an $8.3 billion investment to introduce the next generation of metro trains to the
"People know that obviously the short-term pain that they're experiencing, we're well underway in terms of the work to deliver what will be an incredible world-class metro which is why we've obviously had to make these changes, these temporary changes with the Epping to Chatswood rail link,” he said.
