Bid to make traffic congestion woes a key election issue

SO YOU think your daily commute is bad? Well, the “job-killing drag on the economy” that is traffic congestion is worse than most of us realise.

SO YOU think your daily commute is bad? Well, you don’t know just how bad it is.

But now there is an app that can give you the sad news, and might even uncover Australia’s worst transport ordeal.

You enter your modes of travel and times taken and it calculates how much you spend each year going to and from work and what else you could have done with it.

But be warned: On average, daily trips take up 10 to 15 days of our year — spent in a bus or train or a car just to get to one place and back again.

A test exercise by news.com.au revealed that the commute entered took 18 days off our year, during which we could have driven the entire Australian coastline, and had time for the Tasmanian ferry trip.

The app does more than remind you of your daily drudgery. Its sponsors, the Australian Automobile Association (AAA) and its state-based motorists’ club members, want you to get angry and tell election candidates about it.

The Australia’s Worst Commute app is aimed at telling commuters “exactly what congestion and delays cost them and their families in lost time, due to chronic under-investment in transport Infrastructure”, the AAA said.

It aims to pressure politicians to allocate more funds to reduce the $16.5 billion annual cost of traffic congestion.

The daily grind of traffic congestion. Picture: Lorraine Hanna

Association spokesman Nick Tyrrell said the app would “empower more Australians to make the personal cost of congestion and chronic infrastructure under-investment an issue at this federal election”.

“Every Australian loses out from this job-killing drag on the economy,” Mr Tyrell said.

“From farmers whose trucks grind to a halt at the edge of our cities, to parents doing the childcare drop-offs, and to long-suffering public transport users on late and crowded carriages and buses.

“It’s only getting worse, but our politicians have the power to fix it if we tell them we care about it.”

When the app gives you the bad news, it also provides a form of words you could send to an election candidate demanding action on transport.

“People know their commute is getting more expensive as fuel prices and public transport fares rise,” Mr Tyrell said.

“They know they are spending longer in their car or on late or crowded public transport. But many have no idea they spend on average 10 to 15 entire days every year getting to work and back.”

The AAA wants governments to:

● Establish a transport infrastructure fund into which a guaranteed minimum of 50 per cent of net fuel excise will be paid

● Establish an independent inquiry into future transport funding based on Infrastructure Australia’s recommendations

● Make long-term funding commitments to critical national road safety programs.

How bad is your commute? Take the test here.