Wollongong motorists lose more than two days each year due to traffic congestion, according to a new report.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
With congestion adding an extra 13 minutes travel time for motorists each day, it means Wollongong is rated the 10th most congested city in the country in the TomTom Traffic Index.
The index is complied through real-time infomation coming from GPS systems on the road, including those built into cars.
“All this data is collected anonymously and analysed to find out the increases in congestion and time spent in traffic,” a TomTom spokesman said.
The index found congestion added an average of 49 hours travel time for Illawarra motorists over the course of the year.
The worst times to travel, according to the index were Tuesday and Wednesday morning peaks, where travel time was increased by 22 per cent, compared to uncongested travel.
Sydney was easily the worst Australia city for congestion, with 151 hours – almost a week – lost to congestion.
Other cities ahead of Wollongong were Newcastle with 79 hours lost and Canberra with an extra 70 hours of travel.
The index found the extra time Wollongong drivers spent stuck in traffic could be worth as much as $2.3 million a year in lost labour costs.
“Traffic congestion in Wollongong has increased by three per cent over the last eight years, with Wollongong being the 10th most congested city in Australia,” said TomTom’s Christopher Chisman-Duffy.
““It’s clear businesses in Wollongong are losing millions of dollars in wasted labour costs due to congestion.
“Understanding traffic and transport patterns could help business overcome this problem.”
He said there were several options to avoid congestion or reduce the amount of time spent in it.
These included looking to leave at different times to avoid peak periods or following the route suggested by your GPS, even if it was one you usually didn’t take.
“By utilising real-time traffic information in combination with historical traffic data, collected from the millions of connected vehicles, routes can be calculated based on actual speeds driven on roads, not just maximum speed limits,” Mr Chisman-Dutty said.