Steve Crispin first started cycling to work as a way of improving fitness levels.
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In the 12 years he has used his bike to get from his home in Watson to work in Hawker, he said he can't imagine any other way of commuting.
"I tend to ride on less-travelled roads than the average cyclist would, but it's more direct," Mr Crispin said.
"When I had an injury and had to take public transport there, it was taking me 90 minutes to get to work compared with 20 minutes or so when I'm cycling."
More people have taken up cycling in the wake of the pandemic, with bike counters registering 1891 cyclists in a day in 2021, compared to 1587 at the same time in 2019, however, it's still down on the 2020 high of 2052 bike riders in a 24-hour period.
However, Mr Crispin said there was still one form of commuting in the city that reigned supreme.
"Canberra is still extremely car centric and still not very public-transport centric," he said.
Car may still be king for Canberra commuters, and while there are more on the road in 2021 compared to the same time last year during the height of COVID-19, the pandemic has shifted the way Canberrans commute.
New data, pulling together figures from some of Canberra's busiest intersections, along with public transport use, has revealed that more commuters have returned to ACT roads since Covid but numbers are still well down on pre-pandemic levels.
It also showed bus passenger numbers are declining but light rail use is on the rise in spite of the events of the past 12 months.
Traffic signal monitoring carried out by Transport Canberra at key intersections across the city showed declines in traffic of nearly 10 per cent in some areas during am and pm peaks.
Data was taken between 7am and 9am and 4pm and 6pm at specific traffic signal sites on comparable Mondays during March.
Figures showed commuting numbers fell by 8.3 per cent between 2019 and 2021 during pm commutes at the Barry Drive and McCaughey Street interchange, while traffic going through the Gungahlin Drive intersection at Sandford Street dropped 8.9 per cent during the morning peak.
While major intersections along the Tuggeranong Parkway, Gungahlin Drive, Barry Drive and Limestone Avenue all recorded growth in traffic numbers in 2021 compared to 2020, numbers were still down on pre-pandemic levels.
However, some roads in Canberra's north bucked the trend, with data from Horse Park Drive at the intersection with Gungahlin Drive recording growth in the am peak each year from 2019 onwards, while also registering an uptick in pm commuting even during 2020.
Public transport use during both peak and off-peak times has fallen every year since 2019 with Canberrans still appearing hesitant to jump back on the bus post-pandemic.
While more than 176,000 journeys were made on buses during peak times in 2019, that number plummeted to 124,000 in 2020 and even further again in 2021 to 117,000.
Off-peak journey numbers this year have almost returned to 2020 levels, but 70,000 fewer journeys are made in off-peak times on buses compared to 2019.
However, it was a different story for light rail commuters, with journeys made in both peak and off-peak times up in 2021.
Data has shown a jump of more than 4000 journeys on comparable days in 2021 compared to last year.
Canberra commuter Cassie Lau uses both light rail and then a bus to get from her Gungahlin home to her job in Majura Park.
While her commute hasn't changed between 2020 and now, she said she has noticed differences in public transport use over time.
"More people are now back on the light rail," she said.
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"Back then in the pandemic, people were trying to keep their distance, but during morning peak times, there's so many people on the trams now and more often than not I have to stand."
Anya Has said while she normally used the bus for her commute, Covid had changed how she travelled.
"I'm using it a bit less than before, and there are less people on the bus now compared to before."
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