Melbourne traffic: Transurban 2022 mobility trends released

More workers are expected to drive in when they head back to the office, but a new report has revealed how traffic chaos can be avoided.

Melbourne’s can avoid traffic by allowing working flexible working arrangements. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

Flexible working arrangements for employees would help reduce traffic chaos during peak hours, with fewer Melburnians planning to use public transport for their daily commute, a Transurban report shows.

The latest mobility trends report for 2022, to be released on Thursday, found almost half of motorists would avoid driving in peak hour if they had set work from home days.

More than 40 per cent of respondents said flexible start and finish work times would change when they chose to hit the road.

The research reveals a 55 per cent of workers would consider quitting their jobs if they weren’t allowed to continue splitting time between the office and home following the end of the coronavirus pandemic.

And of those willing to look for other work if refused flexibility, 11 per cent said they would leave their employer immediately.

But employers have overwhelmingly heeded that call, with 73 per cent of people saying their workplace offers flexibility, up from 53 per cent for the same period in 2021.

Transurban spokesman Phil Naulls said Covid-19 had changed working culture, giving employees more choice on how they commute.

“As we continue our return to the office, it’s important we think about how people can get better journey times, and embracing flexible work provides great opportunities to beat the peak, even if it’s leaving an hour either side of the traditional peak times,” he said.

The report says there will be a 41 per cent drop in the number of public transport passengers catching the train, tram or bus to work every day, compared with pre-pandemic.

It has also tipped a more than 10 per cent rise in people driving their cars daily.

Almost one in five Melburnians said they felt “very unsafe” using public transport and carpooling during Covid-19.

More people said they believed public transport to be safer than carpooling.