This Information Sheet presents 2013—14 road traffic volumes across the Australian National Land Transport Network (NLTN)–the integrated network of land transport linkages of strategic national importance. It is an update on estimates presented for 2011—12 in BITRE Information Sheet 63. The busiest intercapital corridor on the network is the Pacific Highway/Motorway, between Sydney and Brisbane, with average traffic volumes of 24 809 vehicles per day in 2013—14. This corridor links many large regional centres, which contribute significantly to overall average corridor traffic volumes. (Corridoraverage traffic volume estimates reported herein are calculated as the length-weighted average of traffic across all segments of each corridor.) The Sydney—Melbourne corridor, comprising the Hume Highway/Freeway, is the second most heavily trafficked intercapital corridor on the national network, with average traffic volumes of 15 274 vehicles per day in 2013—14. These two corridors also have the highest volume of heavy vehicles of any intercapital corridor–heavy vehicle volumes on the Sydney—Melbourne corridor averaged approximately 4210 heavy vehicles per day in 2013—14, and on the Pacific Highway/Motorway 2823 heavy vehicles per day. The least trafficked intercapital corridor, in average traffic volume terms, is the Perth—Darwin corridor, with average traffic volumes of 772 vehicles per day in 2013—14. The busiest intrastate corridor is the Princes Highway between Sydney and Wollongong, which had average traffic volumes of over 45 000 vehicles per day in 2013—14. Other notable features include: - Average traffic volumes are highest on the outskirts of metropolitan areas, often several multiples higher than traffic in rural/regional areas. - In rural areas, traffic volumes on the NLTN are also higher in and around regional population centres. Average traffic volumes on rural sections between proximate regional population centres (e.g. between, Tailem Bend and Murray Bridge and Cloncurry and Mt Isa) can be higher than on the adjacent rural sections. - Traffic volumes on bypasses are typically lower than on adjacent sections, reflecting use of the corridor for access to regional population centres. The traffic volumes imply vehicle use across the non-urban NLTN corridors totalled approximately 42.8 billion vehicle kilometres in 2013—14–light vehicles comprising 35.2 billion vehicle kilometres and heavy vehicles 7.6 billion vehicle kilometres. This is equivalent to 17.5 per cent of total vehicle kilometres travelled (by all registered motor vehicles) across Australia in 2013—14, with light vehicle use equivalent to 15.7 per cent of total light vehicle travel across Australia and heavy vehicles approximately 38.3 per cent of total heavy vehicle use in Australia. (Author/publisher)
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