According to recent data, Sydney has experienced a decline in car usage on its roads, attributed to the ongoing fuel crisis; however, the traffic on toll roads has remained consistent.<\/p>\n
There has been a modest rise in public transport usage, while more individuals are opting to walk or cycle as a means of transportation.<\/p>\n
Since the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East, which has led to a global increase in fuel prices, there has been a notable decrease in vehicles on Sydney’s busiest routes. Six weeks into the conflict, it appears that drivers in Sydney are altering their travel habits in response to unprecedented fuel costs.<\/p>\n
The average price for unleaded and E10 petrol surged from $1.68 per liter in February to approximately $2.20 in April, as reported by the FuelCheck website from the New South Wales government. Diesel prices have also escalated, rising from about $1.83 in February to approximately $3.01 in April.<\/p>\n
Data from Transport for NSW indicates that weekday car trips on the Sydney Harbour Bridge dropped around 6 percent since early March. Additionally, car usage on the City West Link decreased by 7 percent, while both Epping Road and Parramatta Road saw a decline of about 5 percent.<\/p>\n
This decline in vehicular traffic aligns with a slight uptick in public transport ridership. Since mid-March, traffic on Sydney’s major roads has significantly decreased, coinciding with the realization that elevated fuel prices would persist.<\/p>\n
Traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge fell sharply from 143,510 weekday trips at the conflict’s onset to 134,835 trips by the end of March. Similarly, weekday trips on Epping Road decreased from 71,557 in early March to 68,433 by the end of the month.<\/p>\n
Public transport use has seen a small but clear increase since late March, around the same time many motorists began to cut back on car trips. During the week starting March 23, there were an average of 2.408 million weekday Opal card trips, a rise from 2.378 million in the same week of 2025, marking a 1.2 percent increase. The following week, the average was 2.405 million trips compared to 2.369 million in the same week of 2025, representing a 1.5 percent increase.<\/p>\n
Further analysis of train and metro usage shows a consistent week-on-week rise in daily trips compared to the same timeframe last year.<\/p>\n
Data from private motorway operator Transurban reveals that average daily traffic on toll roads grew slightly by 0.6 percent during the March quarter, indicating stability in toll road usage. This data covers major toll routes like The Hills M2, M5 West, Lane Cove Tunnel, Cross City Tunnel, Eastern Distributor, Westlink M7, NorthConnex, and WestConnex, suggesting that drivers on these routes have not significantly altered their travel patterns.<\/p>\n
There is also evidence of an increase in active transportation modes such as walking and cycling, as individuals seek to lower their transportation expenses. Cycling activity in Greater Sydney has risen by 10.4 percent since January, according to data from Transport for NSW.<\/p>\n
While cycling figures can vary widely based on local government areas and daily conditions such as weather and school holidays, a closer look at the average daily counts from 294 monitored cycling sites across Greater Sydney over the past six weeks indicates a clear upward trend.<\/p>\n
In light of this, Tuesday has been highlighted as a typical peak commuting day for work, school, or university. A similar upward trend is observed in walking statistics across the region, with a 37.69 percent increase recorded at 99 sites in Greater Sydney over the past three months, according to Transport for NSW data. The trend for Tuesdays since early March shows a consistent increase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
According to recent data, Sydney has experienced a decline in car usage on its roads, attributed to the ongoing fuel crisis; however, the traffic on toll roads has remained consistent. There has been a modest rise in public transport usage, while more individuals are opting to walk or cycle as a means of transportation. Since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[43,55,405],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-au-petrol-prices","category-au-transport"],"yoast_head":"\n