Australia’s capitals will “seem like different cities” in the coming weeks, as transportation experts predict a traffic eruption on our roads.

The nation’s traffic bodies said the combination of school drop-off motorists and workers being back in the office or on site meant that travel times would be at their worst levels for the year.

They also revealed that once university students returned to class by late February and early March, driving on our roads would remain extremely slow.

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However, in some smaller cities, school, work and university returning didn’t necessarily mean traffic increases.

Instead, tourism and even the weather played more of a role.

The New Daily compiled a list of the busiest and most congested roads in capital cities based on each state’s relevant transport authority’s data. 

“This time of year is an extremely busy time of year,” Transport Management Centre Sydney spokesman Marco Spadaccini told The New Daily.

“There is a step up in traffic at this time and that’s all it takes to make Sydney seem like a different city.

“From now until the return of uni it will stay like this. Then once uni is back, in March, it will be the busiest time of the year.”

He said the same thing happened in September when children and university students went back to class.

VicRoads acting manager of network operation Anthony Fitta wouldn’t reveal if the same phenomenon regarding school traffic happened in Melbourne.

However, he did say: “The quietest time on our roads is during school holidays. We believe many motorists take time off work over these periods, meaning our freeways and arterial roads don’t carry as much traffic.

“Unless an incident occurs on our freeways or arterial roads, traffic remains fairly consistent throughout the year.”

In a smaller city like Canberra the habits of residents seemed not to affect traffic that significantly, except for places that were popular with holidaymakers, according to a spokesperson from the Territory and Municipal Services office.

“Metro Canberra traffic won’t fluctuate much throughout the year,” the spokesperson said.

“But, roads like the Monaro Highway experience an increase in traffic volumes during the ski season.

“At the moment it is just fairly normal traffic, albeit busier than during the Christmas holidays.”

Tourists also created a bit of a burden for road users in Darwin, particularly in the “dry” season.

“From May until October, where there may be peaks of tourists and locals travelling on our roads and into the city, as well as during other special events, as they occur throughout the year, that’s the busiest,” a spokesperson from the NT Department of Transport said.

“Roads can experience changed traffic conditions (usage increase) when parents and their children return to work/school from extended NT school holiday periods.”

Interestingly, in Hobart the busiest times for its most congested roads were in November and December, before a more settled period in January.