Mathew Hounsell, a researcher at the University of Technology's Institute for Sustainable Futures, said commute times could be rising because growing population density in many areas is putting additional pressure on road and transport networks. "The road system in Sydney has become saturated and more investment in needed in heavy rail and metro alternatives," he said. "If we provide people with a faster, reliable alternative to driving, we'll get them out of cars and commute times will start to go down to something more reasonable." Residents of Strathfield, Pittwater, Cronulla, Bankstown, Blacktown North, Mount Druitt and St Marys spent at least 25 per cent more time getting to work than they did five years ago.

Commute times increased in 30 of the 44 statistical areas that Sydney suburbs were divided into for the survey and remained the same in one (Canterbury). Times fell in 13 areas, including the Blue Mountains, where people spent 20 per cent less time, or nine fewer minutes, getting to work last year. Those living in Fairfield, Auburn, Leichhardt, Eastern Suburbs North and Hornsby also spent about 10 per cent less time getting to work, while commute times fell by five per cent for those in Kogarah, Blacktown, Liverpool, Penrith and Hurstville. Commute times have increased in most areas across Sydney over the past five years. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer A Transport for NSW spokesman said the government was investing billions in infrastructure to improve travel times in Sydney's west.

They said government planning was now focused on three separate cities across the Sydney basin - the eastern harbour city, a central city (Parramatta) and a western city. "Customers will be able to travel to one of these cities, or to their nearest strategic centre, within 30 minutes of where they live by public transport or active transport," the spokesman said. The average distance travelled fell or stayed almost the same for nearly all of the places where commute times fell. Most notably, the average commute fell by about 6.2 kilometres for those in the Blue Mountains, 2.9 km for those in Fairfield and two kilometres in Auburn and Leichhardt. Mr Hounsell said people in those areas could be working closer to home or benefiting from new modes of transport such as the inner west light rail extension.

At the same time, the average journey got longer for most of the places where commute times increased. People in Wyong travelled an average of 7.4km more during their commute last year, those in Pennant Hills and Epping travelled 6km more, and residents of Blacktown, Mount Druitt, Cronulla, Rouse Hill and Merrylands all travelled about 5km more. Longer commuting distances could be a product of the housing market, with "people travelling further to work so they can get a nice place they can afford", Mr Hounsell said. Exceptions to this include Eastern Suburbs South, North Sydney, Warringah, Botany, Marrickville, Sutherland and Canada Bay, where the average commuting distance fell or stayed the same but commute times increased. The opposite occurred in the Eastern Suburbs North, Hornsby, Kogarah, Liverpool and Hurstville, where the average distance increased or stayed the same but commute times fell.

The Transport for NSW survey includes about 3000 households in Greater Sydney and each year's figures pool data over the past three years and expand it to the latest population benchmarks to expand the sample size and "stabilise the volatility of annual movements", according to the agency. Commutes made up an average of 17 per cent of all weekday journeys across Greater Sydney, while 25 per cent of trips were for recreation or social reasons, 15 per cent were to go shopping, 10 per cent were for education and childcare and the remainder were for work-related or personal business, "serving passengers" or "other" reasons. Driving was the most dominant mode of transport, accounting for an average of 44 per cent of all trips last year. However, there were major differences in preferred mode within Sydney. While driving accounted for 66 per cent of all trips in Dural, it was used in only 15 per cent of trips in Sydney's inner city and 19 per cent in Marrickville. Loading