Weekend traffic between Albury and Wodonga along the Lincoln Causeway halved during coronavirus restrictions while general traffic in Wodonga dropped by more than a third, data reveals.
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Thurgoona-based Spotto Consulting, which works in traffic engineering, transport planning and road safety, analysed ten weeks to data to reveal how people's driving habits had changed during the pandemic.
Owner Steve Swan said traffic levels reduced by an average of 34 per cent on weekdays and 38 per cent on weekends.
He said the heart of Wodonga saw roughly 25 per cent less traffic in May compared to February.
"It clearly demonstrates that people in Wodonga were respecting the restrictions imposed during these difficult times," he said.
"It's a huge drop off in traffic at some sites, the biggest drop we saw was on the [Lincoln] Causeway on the weekends where there was almost 50 per cent less traffic.
"So there was a lot less traffic running around Wodonga itself, but on the weekend there was a lot less traffic moving between Albury and Wodonga as well. People really were staying in town and not venturing further afield."
Mr Swan said he'd never seen such a dramatic, sudden and prolonged drop off in traffic levels.
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"Normally there's a bit of a drop off at the school holidays of around 5 to 10 per cent, and on public holidays there's a bit of variation," he said.
"But I certainly have never seen a drop off in traffic this big and for this long a period of time in the 20 years I've been in business."
Mr Swan analysed the data from 11 traffic signals throughout town recorded during the last weekend to February to the start of May.
He said there were 15 traffic signals - wire loops in the ground designed to detect cars driving overhead - in Wodonga but only 11 had the data he needed.
Mr Swan said the data was uploaded to a Victorian government website.
"The [signals] are not tracking every car, everywhere in Wodonga, but they're on a lot of main roads around town so it's a pretty good indicator of the levels of traffic around town," he said.
"At Melrose Drive the peak in the morning was down by almost half, that's a huge drop in morning peak traffic."
Mr Swan said NSW did not make signal data freely available but he was keen to conduct a similar analysis in Albury and to continue his Wodonga study.
He said it would be interesting to see whether coronavirus permanently changed the traffic levels in town, given businesses have embraced flexible work.
"[Traffic] might snap back quickly or it might gradually ramp up as people steadily go back to school and work," he said. "Another thing I'm interested in is because people have been out walking and cycling more since lockdown, it will be interesting to see if that continues and traffic volumes stay permanently low as more people walk or cycle to work."
Mr Swan said it was important to remember that the statistics reflected people and how lives had changed.