Explore the data
Best times to
travel on our roads
How good timing can smooth out those travel bumps
Flattening the
congestion curve
How small changes can help ease congestion for all
Wider benefits
of toll-road travel
How toll roads contribute
to liveability and growth
Best times to travel on our roads
Trip times on our roads vary, based on:
(AKA the number of vehicles on the road)
(for example, heavy rain that may impact traffic flow and speed)
(for example, a lost load or a vehicle breakdown)
In FY21 our customers collectively saved 376,000 hours in travel time every work day by choosing our toll roads over the alternate route.
Case study: Travel time savings in Sydney
The following table shows when travel time saved on our Sydney roads is highest, compared to the time it would take you on the alternate route.
For information about how much time, fuel and emissions toll roads could save you, check out our Trip Compare tool.
Best time to travel on our roads
While toll roads are generally the quickest way to get from A to B, they can get congested in peak times just like alternative routes. Congestion at peak hour is most noticeable in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia's two biggest capital cities. These charts show the times of day when your trip on our roads might take a little longer. You can use these charts to figure out how much extra time your trip would take at different times—compared to during a free run with no congestion.
This data does not provide a comparison with travel by alternate routes, it only reflects congestion on each Transurban road.
Flattening the congestion curve
Flexible working has become a part of working life for many following the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This new flexibility includes increased fluidity regarding in-person attendance, varied start and finish times and other arrangements.
But flexible working could also help prevent congestion returning to pre-pandemic levels or worse, and may even improve the efficiency of transport networks. For example, analysis of CityLink (Tullamarine Freeway) traffic in Melbourne shows that if 6% of motorists heading towards the city shifted their travel outside the busiest hours of 6am to 9am, traffic levels would be similar to those observed during school holidays and average speeds would increase by over 10 km/h. Find more detail about the best times to travel to avoid peak congestion on CityLink.
For employees wanting to get back to the office, but not especially excited about re-joining the peak-hour commute,
starting and finishing earlier or later might provide a better path back to the workplace.
We acknowledge that flexible working is an opportunity that is not available to everyone who works—but this trend (and employee expectations) may evolve over time as flexible working becomes standard across white-collar industries.
As it is today, across all kinds of industries, employers and employees are reassessing when and where work can and should happen.
Mobility trends data
For more information on how mobility has changed as a result of the pandemic, see link below.
Wider benefits
If reducing your own or your company’s emissions is on your mind (it’s definitely on our minds), shifting travel outside
peak hours reduces overall greenhouse gas emissions from transport, too. Read more about emissions reduction using the link below.
Tips for shifting your start-finish times
For those with access to flexible working arrangements, and those who commute regularly, shifting your routine could cut your travel time and create opportunities, too.
Eco-driving: better for the environment and your wallet
Driving outside peak hours on our toll roads means less stopping and starting, travelling at more efficient speeds and spending less time on the road
Transport emissions are linked to the amount of fuel consumed and free-flowing motorways offer significant savings in GHG emissions
Driving outside peak hour—avoiding start-stop traffic and getting home faster—can save you (on average) about 30% in fuel and greenhouse gas emissions, compared to travel on an alternate route
Eco-driving principles
Driving smoothly at a consistent speed is also one of the principles behind eco-driving. Eco-driving is a style of driving that, when combined
with measures such as maintaining good tyre pressure, reduces both your fuel consumption and the associated emissions.
We ran a study on the benefits of eco-driving and the results were compelling. You can find out more—and pick up some eco-driving tips—below.
Wider benefits of toll-road travel
Toll roads improve the productivity, and in turn, the prosperity of cities. For example, Sydney's toll road network will create $35.8 billion in economic benefits over 30 years due to its accelerated delivery by the private sector, according to KPMG research [PDF] commissioned by Transurban. This includes travel-time savings, reliability gains and reduced operating costs.
$35.8 billion in benefits
The total $35.8 billion in benefits includes $11.8 billion in benefits to business and freight users, $9.4 billion in benefits to personal users and $14.5 billion in wider economic benefits.
Job creation
The Sydney toll road network also brings jobs, and is expected to generate an average 5,300 new full-time jobs every year for the next 30 years.
Toll road benefits to personal users (Sydney)
Total benefits
Travel-time savings
Vehicle operating cost-savings
Travel-time reliability benefits