Leaving the car at home may cost Bardon commuters less time than they think. A new Brisbane commute study puts the suburb’s morning bus trip to the CBD at 32 minutes — just three minutes slower than driving in peak-hour traffic.
GoThere Brisbane calculated a 32-minute door-to-door public transport trip from Bardon’s population-weighted centre to Brisbane Central, compared with 29 minutes by car in peak traffic.
This leaves public transport just three minutes behind driving for the measured journey, despite the fastest trip relying entirely on buses. The result places Bardon well below Brisbane’s median public transport commute of 46 minutes.
Bardon records above-typical bus access
The study breaks Bardon’s 32-minute morning commute into nine minutes of walking, four minutes of waiting and 19 minutes riding. The fastest journey identified is a bus-to-bus trip, rather than a rail-based service.
GoThere also records 11 routes and 132 peak departures an hour within 800 metres of Bardon’s measured population centre. It’s above the study’s typical suburb, which reaches six routes and 58 peak departures an hour, while Bardon’s measured public transport trip remains within three minutes of driving.
The evening result is similarly steady, with the return journey also measured at 32 minutes. In contrast, some Brisbane suburbs’ transport times vary more sharply between the morning and evening peaks.
Nearby suburbs show a mixed picture
Bardon’s result becomes more meaningful when compared with neighbouring suburbs measured under the same methodology. Ashgrove records a 28-minute public transport commute, matching its 28-minute car journey, while The Gap has a considerably longer 44-minute trip.
Those differences reinforce one of the broader findings from the GoThere analysis in that distance from the CBD alone does not determine how quickly commuters can reach the city. The study found train-served suburbs generally recorded shorter commute times than bus-served suburbs at similar distances from the CBD.
For Bardon’s measured journey, the three-minute gap shows buses can remain competitive with driving during the morning peak.
What the 32-minute figure actually measures
The result should not be read as the average commute for every Bardon resident. GoThere measured 205 gazetted suburbs whose population-weighted centres fall within 20 kilometres of Brisbane Central, using one representative point in each suburb rather than individual household addresses.
For the morning test, Google Directions was used to identify the fastest public transport journey arriving at Brisbane Central by 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, 18 August 2026, using the public TransLink timetable. The driving comparison used typical peak-hour traffic and included an eight-minute allowance for finding a park and walking to the destination.
The study’s connectivity measure also uses a straight-line 800-metre radius around each suburb’s population-weighted centre. Actual walking distances can therefore differ where rivers, railway lines or other barriers intervene, while residents living closer to the services they use may record shorter journeys.
Bardon sits well below the citywide median
Across Brisbane, public transport beat the car in 72 suburbs and came within 10 minutes of driving in 152 of the 199 suburbs where a practical public transport journey was available. The median public transport commute was 46 minutes, including about 11 minutes of walking.
Bardon’s 32-minute result is 14 minutes below the citywide median and is achieved on a bus-only measured journey. From Bardon’s population centre, the study records 132 peak departures an hour and a public transport journey only three minutes slower than driving.
Bardon does not rank among Brisbane’s fastest public transport suburbs, but its measured 32-minute bus journey sits just three minutes behind the car and well below the 46-minute public transport median.
Published 11-Aug-2026
