It might feel like your daily commute is dragging out longer each year, but half of us travel for only half an hour to get to work each way, new research finds.

The 5pm crush at Flinders Street. Credit:Paul Harris

Never mind the population boom, modelling by the Grattan Institute has found that our commutes are not that bad - half of Melbourne's population has travelled for 30 minutes a day, since 2004.

The vast majority - 90 per cent - travel no more than an hour to the workplace, according to the institute's analysis of data from the longitudinal study of Australian households, HILDA.