Urban mobility trends: how we’re working and travelling

Urban mobility trends:

how we’re working and travelling

Jessica O’Brien | General Manager Corporate Affairs, Investor Relations and Sustainability, Transurban

I have enjoyed reconnecting with family and friends this year – during weekends away, over a meal out, or at a backyard barbeque. In these moments it can be easy to forget the immense changes the world has undergone in response to the pandemic.

There are tell-tale signs that things have changed though, for instance, when conversation lulls, I have noticed people now fall back on a new conversation starter – working arrangements. For those with the ability to work remotely like me, there is particular curiosity in how many days a week we travel into our workplace.

For me, the answer is three days a week, which is about average according to Transurban’s latest Urban Mobility Trends report. The report surveyed 3,000 people across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and found most people have settled on 3.5 days a week.1 While CBD occupancy is still well below pre-pandemic levels, the office is far from “dead” as some have suggested. We found inner-city workers travel to their workplace just as often as those who work in middle or outer suburbs (Figure 1).

FIGURE 1 Average number of days people travel to their workplace or place of study (or travel around for their job/study) in the inner city, compared to all metropolitan locations – Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, Australia.

Average Inner city average

Brisbane Average

Australia - average

Sydney

Melbourne 3.7

3.5

3.4

3.4 Inner city average

3.6

3.4

3.4

3.3

The impact of increasing flexibility – whether it be in the form of working from home or working flexible hours – on transport networks is more complicated than it might appear on face value. It hasn’t just affected the frequency or time of travel, but also people’s preferences when it comes to the type of transport they choose to commute. Our research found around one in four respondents across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane have changed the mode of transport they use to get to work and/ or study, with most switching from public transport to private vehicles (Figure 2).

FIGURE 2 Proportion of people across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane who have changed the mode of transport used to commute to work since the start of the pandemic.2

While there are likely a variety of factors driving the change (such as ongoing public health advice around wearing masks on public transport), it could be that some people have changed their routines as a result of increasing flexibility. For example, someone who took the train or bus to work five days a week prepandemic may now choose to drive three days a week at a time that suits them.

Another factor in how people decide to travel to their workplace is the flexibility of when they can start and finish, which could give them the ability to avoid peak times. We found that 71 per cent of respondents in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane now have access to varied start and finish times, which is substantially higher than the 37 per cent of respondents who said they had access when we first asked in January 2021.

1. Independent survey commissioned by Transurban of 3,000 people ages 18+ with a driver’s licence across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, reported in Transurban’s Industry Report, Urban Mobility.

Trends August 2022. The survey was also conducted in Greater Washington Area and Montreal (1,000 people in each city). 2. See above

These changes in people’s travel habits appear unlikely to revert over the short term, given the survey found that most people expect their use of all modes of transport to stay more or less the same over the next 12 months.

While the past two years has seen rapid tchanges when it comes to people’s work habits and transport preferences, it seems we are entering a period of relative stability. We now have a clearer picture of how people are working and getting around their cities, allowing us to evaluate the impact to transport networks and consider how cities should respond.

The fact that people expect to travel to their workplace for the majority of their work week, coupled with a significant proportion of commuters switching from public transport to private vehicles has the potential to increase pressure on our cities’ road networks as population growth eventually resumes. Our research found that more people use arterial roads and motorways to commute to work, when compared to toll roads. This extra demand is likely to lead to higher levels of congestion, on what are already relatively congested roads and motorways.

Transurban Insights hub

Every day, more than two million trips are made on our Australian and North American roads. Whether heading to work, visiting friends or delivering goods – every trip made contributes to the productivity and liveability of our cities.

Technology and data drive everything we do at Transurban, including helping make every one of these two million+ trips as safe and efficient as possible. The information we collect and analyse can also reveal lot about how cities grow and function. We use this information to improve our roads and ensure we continue to support our cities as they evolve over time.

Take a dive into our data and learn more about the role our roads (and our operation of these roads) play in city life at insights.transurban.com Increasing congestion could be offset by greater flexibility helping to spread the AM and PM peak. However, despite increasing availability of varied start and finish times we are observing a return to AM and PM peak hour congestion on the road networks across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane (Figure 3).

FIGURE 3 Congestion levels from June 2019 (pre-pandemic) to June 20223

Finding ways to maintain, and improve upon, the adoption of flexibility, such as varied start and finish times will be vital to manage future demand across the road network.

At Transurban we support a range of flexible work options. While I head into the office most days, some days I’ll start work later to meet a tradesperson at my house or leave early to do the school pick up. Small changes like this don’t just have a big impact on my wellbeing, but role model behaviour to my colleagues and helps to contribute to a more sustainable transport system.

Read the full Urban mobility trends report on our new Insights hub.