[rogerg (Roger)]

Here in Perth, it seems that in the last 2 - 4 months traffic has become steadily worse, in general.

It used to be that I'd leave home at 7:30, my trip to work would take 45min. I'd leave home at 7:00, my trip to work would take 36 minutes. (average)

Now, no matter when I leave (in busy hours 6:50 - 9:00) it takes at least 45 minutes. The quiet period has gone.

There's no road works or any other obvious reason why it's taken longer, it's just that bit more busy that it takes longer. I really don't know why there's been the change. It was fine for a long time before that.

It's really quite frustrating. It's the same for everyone I talk to - there's been an increase of between 6 and 15 minutes across the board for everyone I talk to. Why?

More to the point, what can be done about it?

I'd love to catch the bus, but the public transport system here is close to being so bad it's unable to be helped. Buses are infrequent and do not cover enough routes. Trains do not branch out to enough suburbs. It'd be so nice to sit on a bus or train and just spend the time working on the laptop. I'd even buy a new Toshiba ultra-portable just to take advantage of it.

I can't help but think if they doubled the number of buses (increasing frequency on some routes and expanding to new routes) it would make a huge improvement. But no political party in WA has ever had the foresight to improve the public transport system that dramatically.

There are busier city's than Perth in the world (just about every city that is), how do you guy's cope? Or do you just sit in traffic for over an hour every morning?

Roger.