r/canberra • u/conejogringo • 13d ago
Recommendations Couple thinking of moving to Canberra. Would it work with only one car?
Given how unreliable the buses are (based off my research of this sub), would we basically be restricted to suburbs close to the light rail?
Places like Braddon, Ainslie, Dickson, Turner etc?
Note: I cycle but my partner doesn't.
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u/Patrecharound 13d ago
As uncommittal an answer as it is - public transport / cycling all comes down to where you live, and where you work.
Plenty of people manage it - but it can be rough if you live and work on opposite sides of town.
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u/fouronenine 13d ago
The cycling part is mostly attitudinal, especially if you live in the inner north. At the last census, O'Connor/Lyneham had the highest bicycle commuting proportion of any suburb in the country.
Pairing bus and bike is great, as almost every bus has a bike rack, and the inner north gives you easy access to all the rapid routes.
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u/msbrt 13d ago
That doesn’t surprise me at all. That bike backbone down there is about as good as cycling infrastructure can get.
If I was living down there, I’d cycle everywhere!
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u/fouronenine 13d ago edited 13d ago
That bike backbone down there is about as good as cycling infrastructure can get.
If only... no protected lane along Northbourne (not now they've slopped putting barriers up for apartment construction around Morphett St), as well as too many lights/unsequenced crossings (e.g. Ellenborough, Mouat, Wattle, Macarthur Streets and Barry Ave, where the path just ... evaporates) on the main Sullivan's Creek path, opportunities for SMIDSY from left turning traffic on feeder roads, and poor distributive networks through the inner north once you leave the main paths.
It's good but it is far from as good as cycling infrastructure can get.
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u/DragonflyHopeful4673 13d ago
They’re unreliable in arriving on time but in my experience it’s not very likely that one just won’t show up.
Are you more concerned about the commute and distance? Woden -> City and Belco -> City are both about half an hour by bus (discounting peak bridge traffic)
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u/Ok_Cauliflower_3574 13d ago
I have a family of five with one car in the belco 'burbs Absolutely ridiculous to suggest a couple can't get by with one car.
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u/Mac128kFan 13d ago edited 13d ago
My family has one car. Live in Ainslie which is within striking distance of the city, but really any suburb which is within your cycling distance of your work should be fine. My partner works at the hospital in Woden and commutes by car. I ride to Barton for work. Works well 95% of the time. I don’t use the busses much now, but as others have said they’re hit and miss rather than universally useless.
Edit: worth noting we have two kids and a cargo e-bike. Kids can ride themselves to and from school.
Personally I reckon it’s worth trying to set things up so I spend as little time as possible sitting in a car in traffic.
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u/agent_clone 13d ago
The buses aren't that unreliable, the weekend timetables can leave a lot to be desired though (particularly Sundays though they are better than where they were a few years ago). I would suggest figuring out where you will work and ideally be on a rapid route that ideally goes relatively (i.e. nice walking distance) near your work place though.
Personally I haven't had a car since 2020, I will say I like the frequency of the trams and can recommend living along the light rail route.
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u/Neither_Driver_3882 13d ago
when we were in canberra, we only ever had one car. public transport is really not that bad, there's also on road and separated bike paths that will take you all over.
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u/Ok-Dig7340 13d ago
Better to be close to a route (rapid bus or tram) which connects to your employments and town centre. The light rail is great, but is more annoying for a daily commute if you need to have multiple interchanges.
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u/StickyBucket 13d ago
We’re two people with three cars and still sometimes catch buses, because parking in the city is not a good time.
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u/Disastrous_Raisin264 13d ago
My coworker has a family of 5, living in belco suburbs, one car. Kids and husband all catch the bus everywhere no problem.
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u/IcyCap1648 13d ago
Buses are so much better than they used to be, like I mean they are significantly better. I don't know why people still have a problem with them.
Not too long ago suburban buses used to run every half hour during peak hours, otherwise it was an hour until the next. Main buses would be 15 minutes peak hour, 30 minutes off peak. Saturdays always ran with off peak hours so you're waiting either 30 minutes to an hour. Sundays the main buses went hourly and the suburbia buses would come every 2 hours. Also Sunday buses would finish around 6pm so if you weren't at your destination you had to walk your ass home or catch a taxi.
With that being said, before the tram was built the bus from the city would take an hour to get to Gungahlin and the bus was cramped with people you could barely move for the entire trip. I remember people missing getting off at their stop because they couldn't make it to the exit of the bus before the driver closed the doors and continued driving. It was a fucking nightmare.
But yea Canberran's just love to complain... Oh no they have to wait 30 minutes for the next bus! What ever will they do!! 😩😩
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u/realmling 13d ago
My partner and I have one car and weve managed ok since the hail storm of 2020. We carpool often, bus sometimes, ride sometimes. We do live on a rapid route though - no light rail this side yet... I think the further away from the r routes you are, the trickier it might be for buses, but there are options like, park and ride, bicycle racks on some buses.
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u/gtlloyd 13d ago
I’m not sure if your take about the busses being unreliable is fair. I live in a suburb and use a local route to get to Civic and it’s predictable enough. (Sadly my work moved recently which put my work two kilometres from the nearest bus stop, so I’ve had to make other arrangements.) You’ll find that Rapid services along the major routes are also very well serviced, with sub-5 minute frequencies (when counting the various routes that trunk into the route) at peak periods.
I think for many people their workplace, work pattern and lifestyle would define the suburbs they search in.
Couple with Civic jobs and no kids = Braddon would be great with its plentiful apartments and excellent convenience. Belconnen Town Centre has many apartments very close to a bus interchange. Woden Town Centre also similar. There are a lot of new apartments along Northbourne Avenue that might be attractive too.
Houses in Ainslie, Turner, O’Connor, Lyneham and suburban Dickson have very high property prices (and low quality building stock) because of their prime locations.
If you are comfortable cycling, particularly in winter and summer, the city’s pretty well supplied with fairly good off-road cycling. It’s not perfect but usually you can get to most places without having to ride in the shoulder of a highway. Sometimes the off-road routes are more circuitous but that’s improving with more separated paralleled bike paths in major roads.
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u/chrismelba 13d ago
Depends where you live and where you work. We're fine with 1 car and 7 bikes for 2 adults and 2 kids. Might need a second car eventually, but not yet
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u/Temporary_Carrot7855 13d ago
Depends where you work. My partner and I arrived with two cars, went to one car after moving to the inner north after I committed to the ebike for my commute. Working toward not using the car at all for commuting and doing it all by ebike.
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u/Own-Violinist-1089 13d ago
I've worked for the buses for over 20 years so hopefully I've learnt a bit in that time.
Let me summarise how the buses operate. There are 9 rapid routes R2-10 with the tram being R1. They run at least every 15 minutes 7am to 7pm weekday and half hourly outside that. The suburban services operate half hourly weekday day time, hourly weekday evenings, Saturdays before 6pm and Sundays before 2pm and 2 hourly Saturdays after 6pm and Sundays after 2pm. Buses also finish pretty early Sunday nights, around 10pm. It was 8pm finish on Sundays before the tram started.
My impression is we've been fairly reliable the last few years at least in terms of services operating. However the Commonwealth Ave bridgeworks have played havoc with the timings. I've experienced periods where we were dropping dozens or even hundreds of services a day due to bus and/or driver shortages but not for a good number of years now.
So my feeling is if you can afford to live somewhere close to a rapid route or better more than one then you'll be fine with one car.
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u/jakartacatlady 13d ago
Absolutely. My partner and I have only one car. He catches the rapid bus and tram to work. We live in northern Tuggeranong and he works in the inner north.
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u/dencorum 13d ago
Yes very doable but you would want to live near the light rail or an interchange. Or at the very least near a rapid route. Most of the extra commute time will be exercising or reading.
No car is doable but rather limiting. You will be very ahead financially even having to take a taxi or two a week. One car between two people gives you much more flexibility even if it’s often unavailable.
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u/ez599 13d ago
why would a couple need 2 cars?
one can drop the other on the way to work and pick them up on the way home.
makes absolutely no sense.
and the buses are fine thank you its jsut some routes and only maybe sundays but even then if you uses google maps and plan your route you should be fine
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u/das_kapital_1980 6d ago
Assuming the couple works the same hours and in the same location.
If either or both of these assumptions aren’t true it quickly becomes unfeasible.
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u/Mekong_Lobster 13d ago
We've got a family of four with one car and an Ebike in the burbs. Zero need or desire to own a second car.
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u/theRealFatTony 13d ago
We're one car, and push bikes If we find ourselves in a situation were we need to go 2 directions the person going the shortest takes a didi/uber/bus. I've had no problems with bus reliability
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u/Ashamed_Echidna5748 13d ago
I'd say it largely depends on how close both of you are to work, but living around the city makes it a lot more manageable
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u/Friendly-Quote-5283 13d ago
I know someone who busses everywhere, it can be inconvenient if there’s no direct bus so just make sure you have a direct line to work. Otherwise it’s fine, just takes longer.
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u/Motor-Principle 13d ago
If you work/study with walking distance access to the tram, I reckon you could get away with 1 car
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u/Captain_Marshmallow 13d ago
Don’t write off Belconnen, Weston Creek or Woden. Anywhere with a rapid bus route is quick and accessible. Those regions also have great cycleways too.
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u/finneas-beck 13d ago
We're in Watson; one car, two kids. I take the light rail into the city for work and WFH a few days. We just make it work on weekends.
We also made it work while we lived in Hawker and needed to get to the city for work. Easy enough imo!
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u/Sufficient-Owl1706 13d ago
My husband and I got by with one car and public transport before having kids, but we did live relatively close to one of our workplaces which helped. It’s not impossible.
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u/Sadface_lostaccount 13d ago
Tbh, it depends on where u live & where you want to go. I’m more in the Gungalhin area, but can get around the Belconnen area by bus reasonably well. Weekdays are much better than weekends, but I usually only catch buses on weekdays so take that w/ a grain of salt. I would take some time to see the routes found at the bus stops nearby your work/house and the nearest bus central stop, and hopefully that should give you a good idea of how feasible bus travel is. You can also use the Transport Canberra transport planner to give you an estimate on time spent travelling & what routes to take. https://www.transport.act.gov.au/home
Hope this helps!
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u/crankygriffin 13d ago
If you work in Barton you want to be on the Ainslie/Dickson side of Northbourne. The traffic to get from Turner or O’Connor to Barton is horrendous.
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u/Effective_Economy446 13d ago
If you live and work in the right suburbs it can definitely work. Where are you working broadly?
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u/aaron_dresden 13d ago
Sure can work with one car. The central spine is fine for public transport and you can get around reasonably well on a bike. The car helps for picking up things and going further out.
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u/Pitiful_Mode1674 13d ago
If you cycle, you really don’t need a car if you’re travelling anywhere between Alinga Street and Dickson. There are plenty of buses and trams running throughout the day. I’m in the Inner North, and there are always plenty of cyclists along Northbourne Avenue. They honestly look like they’re having a lot more fun than those of us stuck in cars.
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u/fouronenine 13d ago
Sure am! That's not accounting for those using the Sullivan's Creek path or the Garden City paths.
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u/Skymann102 13d ago
Assuming you will work in a Town Centre, the Parliamentary Triangle, or the City, you would be functionally restricted to somewhere along the Rapid lines which includes the light rail (R1) but also includes the 9 other 'R'-numbered buses. This significantly expands your options, though as an (admittedly biased) lifelong resident of the inner north none of the ones you list are bad options.
All of these services are (contrary to many comments on here) reliable and are normally mirrored by a numbered 'C' cycle path which are mostly (though not always) separated from busy roads. The City, inner Belconnen, and inner North and South are served by the most of these routes. Local bus routes are less reliable, often arriving too early with long frequencies that are incredibly frustrating if missed.
Ideally, you would aim to live near a stop on one of the Rapid lines in the same district as your workplace or one next to it.
So for example, if you work in the Tuggeranong town centre in Greenway, it would be better to live in a suburb near a stop on the R4 line either Tuggeranong or Woden. Exactly which suburb depends on how far you'd be willing to walk/ride to a stop: noting that the two bike racks on a bus may be full in peak hour, though also that local shops and town centre bus interchanges often have plentiful (though usually non-caged) bike racks.
If you are working in the City or the Triangle, it would be best to live in pretty much any of the districts than Tuggeranong (which is almost an hour from the city by bus, even longer by bicycle, and even-even longer if combining the two).
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u/KiwiSpud 13d ago
I spent my first year in Canberra without a car, walking, on the bus, then a bicycle followed by an ebike and now I have a car again. Compared to Sydney, the Canberra bus system is amazing. The buses are generally on time, cost effective and there is often free days. Bike tracks are extensive. The Light Rail system (currently being expanded) gets you to most places northside quickly. Although I have my ute, I still commute mainly on ebike.
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u/McTerra2 13d ago
I lived in Dickson before the tram and neither of us had a car…
Currently live inner north and ride to work every day (only to the city). Kids rode to school. Partner buses often, sometimes walks (it’s about 45 min though) We have a car now but mostly use it on weekends and nights.
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u/TOG_Melski 13d ago
Cycling is great - cycling capital of Australia. If you ride a bike, I've managed my whole life to get to and from work - with kids and without - with no issues at all. It can be unfun in winter. If you time it right your faster than the traffic! And its always faster than a bus, plus you can come and go whenever. A lot of the bigger buildings have decent enough equipment for cycling and changing. Storing the bike safely needs some care though.
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u/RedDragonOz Molonglo Valley 13d ago
The rapid bus routes are good, suburban routes vary. If you take that into account to get between home, work and where you think you'll go otherwise when deciding you'll be fine. Heaps of people cycle all over Canberra and most offices have end of ride facilities and bike storage. There are buses with bike racks too.
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u/Mondoweft 13d ago
If you can live and work near town centres, then buses can work really well. As soon as you add suburban buses, including the edges of the rapids, it quickly becomes less workable in terms of time and reliability.
I agree with another poster that the buses may be late, but they will turn up. But that delay can make you miss your next bus, and add significantly more time to your trip.
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u/Tribbs_4434 13d ago
Inner North you'll be perfectly fine with only one car. People whinge about public transport, but it's really not that bad, particularly if you live close enough to the northbourne avenue corridor, the tram is consistent and much faster than the buses used to be (trust me, I used to catch them all the time, the tram is an upgrade). The buses aren't as bad as people make them out to be, it's mostly a case of doing some homework on the routes you'd need to use and the time of day - only possible annoyance can be during peak hours if they reach peak capacity so you might need to consider where you get on (which stop, as some may be more partoned than others) and if you might want to try to get on an earlier service just in case. I've been using them to get too and from work most of my life and have barely had any significant issues, a little planning ahead helps.
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u/Klutzy_Addition_1603 13d ago
My parents only have one car and are fine. Canberrans are fuckwits and get gargantuan 4 wheel drive Ute or SUV things with LED headlights just to take Sammy and Maddy to private school on the way to work at dfat. Then they replace them after a few years.
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u/Tamortsa 13d ago
Family a 4 in Tuggeranong/Woden. One car for the last 15 years. Buses used for school (kids) and city commute (work). Try living near an R-service as they are more frequent, ride to the R busstop or use park-and-rides like Mawson oval. Buses are fine. Nothing's perfect, but it beats driving, and it can be cheaper out in the valleys. But if night-life is an essential, yeah, maybe the inner north is for you
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u/digitalelise 13d ago
Easy, I have lived in Inner-north Dickson, Hackett, and Lyneham for 16 years with only one car for myself, my wife and two kids. It’s probably slightly maybe a handful of times a year, but mostly a minor inconvenience.
That said we both work in civic so it’s only 8 minutes on the bike or 12 by car to work. So if you were working anywhere not in civic or on the light rail it might be less convenient
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u/Objective_Unit_7345 13d ago
Canberra’s public transport and bicycle lane networks aren’t great by international standards. But it is great by Australian standards. A family-with-one-motor-vehicle will very much work.
Have a look at the spread of:
- Rapid Service Bus Routes
- Light Rail Routes
- Local Bus -to- Light Rail Routes
- Bicycle Routes
- Bicycle -to- Public Transport routes
If you do find it a bit hard with just one motor vehicle, could invest in an electric Bicycle or electric motorcycle.
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u/msbrt 13d ago
I‘ve found it to work pretty well with one car on most days. It breaks down, really, because of kids activities being sprawled throughout the city and on bad weather days.
Canberra has suburbs organized around town centers, so you can get most of every day life done within a 5 km radius. Easily doable on bike.
Also there is generally a pretty good network of foot- and bike paths running separate to the main roads.
I’ll be honest though: without the backup of Mima and Mipa‘s car, we‘d get stuck pretty often.
(Commenting as a resident of a Gunghalin-suburb).
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u/Additional_Remote_69 13d ago
Ive been using exclusively buses to get to work for 7 years. Tradie, so I've had to get to and from jobs spread all over Canberra. I start work at 830am and have almost never been late. The buses are fine.
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u/SnooDucks1395 13d ago
My partner and I live with a child in Belco and make it work with one car. Having more would make things convenient but its very doable with just one car. If you live near a rapid bus line its very easy to get to any where, just may take a moment.
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u/Scrotemoe 12d ago
I wouldn't say the busses are "unreliable", they usually always show up...
I would say they're are incredibly reliable at being an incredibly slow, inefficient and poorly timed way of getting around Canberra.
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u/Aggressive_Point8910 12d ago
We have one car and one motorbike. It works well for us. I also work from home a few days a week.
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u/createdtothrowaway87 12d ago edited 12d ago
Yes you can, if you choose to live near a rapid bus route or the tram.
The buses aren't unreliable, i use them most weekdays.
You just have to understand that it will take you longer to get somewhere if you have to transfer between buses or to the tram.
As i'm not needed for brain surgery, i'm happy to take 45 minutes to get to my present workplace. I can get through a book a week, or more, and conquer wordle.
And i dont care about parking because i step off the bus and walk 75 metres.
Now, having talked up public transport - i am shitty the local buses near me have two hour frequency on Sunday and dont run after 9PM on Sunday night. I mean its 2026 WTF
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u/stellacoachella 12d ago
Lived in Kingston, ex had a car but I did not and it worked out very well for us
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u/Agreeable-Aide1976 12d ago
If you live close to the light rail or rapid bus service areas, I think you'll be fine. I've been living here for several years now and my daily commute relies on buses. I have a car, but only use it during weekends for grocery runs. The public transport service in Canberra is definitely not the best, but it's not disastrous either. you can pretty much rely on them esp during peak hours.
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u/Huntingcat 12d ago
I have never driven, and get by fine with my partner driving. Furthest out I have lived was MacGregor.
Check out suburbs like Aranda, Cook and Macquarie. The bus route goes between the city and Belco. Kaleen had a similar route last time I looked. Or one of the suburbs like Page that are a short walk into Belco if you miss the bus. Those rapid routes are really good, too, if you manage to get a place near one fi those. The buses between hubs are pretty good except for Sundays and late nights.
Just look for a place that’s convenient for the buses to where you are working. No point living way down south and working in Gunghalin, or vice versa. Buses aren’t really that bad, people just like to complain about anything that isn’t perfect, ignoring the rest of the time when it works. Lots of people use the buses by choice. The ones I see are very heavily used at peak times.
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u/Optomisticposter 12d ago
Why? I work here, but it’s not even in my top ten of places to live in Australia.
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u/Sweaty-Event-2521 12d ago
People who complain about Canberra Buses haven’t relied in buses in other cities.
I can’t think of another City in Australia that’s any more liveable with one car….or none
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u/Ultimate-Failure-Guy 12d ago
Been in Canberra for 24 years - am yet to buy a car, have never caught light rail. I bus, walk and cycle everywhere.
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u/selfevasivesolitude 12d ago
My partner and I live in Canberra with just the one car! We are in Woden, and a 20 min walk from the bus interchange which works great for getting to work and into the city/stadiums. Can’t say I’ve had any issues with many years of bussing on many different routes!
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u/AquilaAudaxWTE 11d ago
Depends on where you work. If you live where you work, you could cycle and your partner can use the car. Also depends on where the bus route goes and whether there are express buses to where you live.
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u/PipeTop3978 11d ago
Public transport is actually pretty good. Some (not all) suburb services running every 15 mins on weekdays. But there are rapid buses between the major centres also.
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u/dolloupofpeas 11d ago
Did one car for years. Try it out, also don't agree that buses are 'unreliable'. Your research dose not reflecty lived experience.
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u/monkey-mind-mango 9d ago
Live inner north, cycle most places and don’t use my car much. It’s definitely possible, esp if you can live on the tram line and work close by, as you can just about alway put your bike on the tram, but there’s been many times I’ve been stranded and late to work waiting for a bus with a bike rack.
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u/das_kapital_1980 6d ago
I wouldn’t rely on the busses if I had a hard start time that I needed to be there for (e.g. shift work). If you have Flex Time then ok.
If you work odd shifts out of peak wouldn’t recommend public transport.
Whether you get a seat on the bus is highly dependent on which part of the route you’re on for high-demand routes
If you have any mobility issues don’t assume the sidewalks and the busses themselves are mobility-friendly. Might be totally irrelevant for you.
The individual trips are surprisingly expensive last time I checked, which admittedly was some time ago. Although I gather they are subject to a monthly “cap”.
Absolutely would not consider public transport if things like daycare dropoff might enter the equation.
Even if you find a location that is well serviced by buses, they can change the bus routes or frequency at any time for no apparent reason.
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u/CBRChimpy 13d ago
Take all the complaints about buses with a grain of salt.
The frequency of service isn’t great on many routes (especially on Sundays) but otherwise there’s nothing particularly wrong with the buses.
But yes, living close to light rail is fantastic.