Stuck in traffic: We need a smarter approach to congestion than building more roads

The equation doesn't look pretty. Chart 1: For many Sydney commuters, congestion is very modest Additional minutes compared to free flow The horizontal black line in the coloured bar is the median of all journey-to-work routes, weighted by the number of people who used a car to travel to work on those routes in the 2011 Census reference week. Chart 2: On commutes into Sydney's CBD, the average morning-peak delay is 11 minutes The horizontal black line in the coloured bar is the median of all journey-to- work routes, weighted by the number of people who used a car to travel to work on those routes in the 2011 Census reference week. Chart 3: Travel in suburbs surrounding the Melbourne CBD is highly delayed Increase in travel time relative to free flow travel time Average delay is calculated as the ratio of trip duration at each point throughout the day to the minimum trip duration observed for that route over the sample period Some commutes are frustratingly unpredictable Most travellers don't just care about how long a trip usually takes. Chart 4: Travel on routes to Melbourne's CBD that rely on Eastern Freeway and Hoddle Street are noticeably delayed and unreliable Increase in travel time as a proportion of free-flow travel time, weekday morning peak, commutes into Melbourne CBD The boxes cover the 25th to 75th percentiles.