Traffic speeds on Moggill Road in Brisbane’s west are so slow it would be faster to ride a scooter or bike than drive a car – although without off-road paths that would be tricky too.
It is just one of several Brisbane roads that grind to a crawl during morning and afternoon rush hours.
Median speeds during the morning and afternoon weekday peaks were all slower than 25km/h on Logan Road, Moggill Road, Stanley Street inbound and Vulture Street outbound during December, according to Brisbane City Council data.
It took almost 11 minutes (median) to travel the 3.3 kilometres on Moggill Road between Indooroopilly and Toowong in the PM peak in December, at a median speed of 18km/h – that’s despite a speed limit of 60km/h outside school zone hours.
Moggill Road speeds are slower than they were pre-COVID, and an extra 54 vehicles, on average, were travelling on the road in the stretch between Toowong and Indooroopilly each hour during the PM peak compared with six years ago.
A $257 million revamp of the bottleneck at the Moggill Road roundabout opened in May after 3½ years of roadworks.
Brisbane Councillor Ryan Murphy said more than 600 people were moving to Brisbane every week, which was putting pressure on infrastructure.
Murphy said projects, including the Moggill Road upgrade, had improved travel times, and the council had redesigned the bus network and created the Metro.
“We’re committed to making the changes our city needs, including implementing our clearway action plan that will free up space on key arterial roads,” Murphy, the council’s Infrastructure chair, said.
“We are also delivering more options for residents to move around our city without a vehicle, easing traffic congestion, with new bikeways like Viola Place and the upcoming Sylvan Road.”
But it’s not just Brisbane.
Across the entire south-east Queensland road network, it now takes an extra minute – 11 minutes on average – to travel 10 kilometres in the PM peak compared with four years ago, according to Transport and Main Roads data.
Trips were slower on the Pacific Motorway to Brisbane in the PM peak and towards the Gold Coast in the AM peak, on the Ipswich Motorway to Brisbane in the AM and PM peak, and on the Bruce Highway to Brisbane in the AM peak in 2024-25 compared with four years earlier.
In January, Brisbane Times revealed the government’s dire forecasts of travel times by 2046, with a trip to the Gold Coast to blow out to 2.5 hours.
South-east Queensland continues to outpace the nation in population growth, with the corridor set to be home to 4.5 million residents by the 2032 Olympics and as high as 5 million just four years later.
Hugo Davis, a strategic planner, lives in Brisbane and commutes to Murwillumbah two days per week and said the slow points on the Pacific Highway northbound were always in the same spots – Nerang and Slacks Creek.
“From that point on it’s usually a crawl into the Brisbane CBD,” he said.
“The fact that I can’t easily or conveniently catch a train from home to work is a real pain and is, in my opinion, down to the shortsighted and car-dependent growth planning and politics over the past 50 or so years.
“According to Google Maps, it would take me around three hours 40 minutes (an extra two hours) to get to work using public transport.
“No wonder people opt for the car.”
Davis said housing availability and his daughter’s schooling meant his family were unlikely to uproot from Brisbane, and he was lucky to be able to work from home on some days to save travel time.
Queensland University of Technology transport Associate Professor Jonathan Bunker said population growth increased traffic volumes, with tended to reduce speeds.
“On the arterial road network linked signalling helps to even out travel times,” he said.
“But increasing road capacity is needed under certain situations to improve flow and travel times.
“Other strategies such as improving availability of public transport options can help to shift some of the road travel demand to public transport, particularly commuter peaks.
“Improving cycling infrastructure can also help, particularly for shorter trips.”
A Transport and Main Roads spokesman said the government was planning for the state’s future by building the roads and infrastructure to get Queenslanders home sooner and safer.
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