Australia’s Most Learner-Friendly Cities

Some people get their driver’s licence without a second thought. For others, getting behind the wheel can feel like navigating a minefield. Where you live can make all the difference; some cities make learning to drive easier, while others can be a real challenge.

To find out which Australian cities give learner drivers the best shot at success, we combined real‑world driving environment data with practical factors that directly impact the cost, accessibility, and likelihood of passing, analysing over 100 of the most populous regions in Australia.

Australia’s most learner-friendly cities

 

Victoria dominates the top spots for learner-friendly cities, with Greater Bendigo and Greater Geelong taking first and second place. Bendigo leads the way with easy-to-navigate roads and strong access to driving lessons, while Geelong combines straightforward streets with a supportive local driving environment.

The ACT LGA comes in third, showing that smaller regions can also offer excellent conditions for learners. Western Australia is well represented, too, with Cockburn, Armadale, Wanneroo, and Canning all ranking in the top 10, thanks to good lesson availability and success rates as well as clear and manageable roads.

Shellharbour in New South Wales, along with Hume and Hobsons Bay in Victoria, round out the list. Across all top-ranked cities, learners benefit from a similar mix of accessible lessons, higher pass rates, and driving environments that make it easier to build confidence behind the wheel.

Australia’s least learner-friendly cities

 

Not all cities make learning to drive easy. At the bottom of the rankings, Adelaide sits as the least learner-friendly city, scoring low across access and success, driving conditions, and road complexity. Limited lesson availability combined with busier and trickier roads can make the path to getting a licence far more challenging.

The City of Sydney and the City of Melbourne also feature near the bottom, showing that being in a major city doesn’t always make learning easier. While both offer plenty of instructors, dense traffic, complex road networks, and higher-pressure driving conditions can create a tough environment for new drivers.

Smaller inner-city areas such as Burwood, the Inner West, and Waverley in New South Wales also rank poorly, where congestion and complicated roads can test even confident learners. Other regions, including Willoughby, Port Phillip, the Gold Coast, and Randwick, face similar challenges, with traffic intensity or tight instructor capacity adding extra hurdles.

Australia’s top cities for learner driver access and success

 

When it comes to learner driver success, some areas clearly stand out. Campbelltown in New South Wales tops the list, offering a strong balance of affordable lessons ($73.67 per hour) and solid monthly instructor availability (around 5 hours per 10,000 young residents, making lessons easier to book), with a test pass rate of 56.4% that, despite its top overall ranking, is slightly lower than averages recorded elsewhere.

Victoria dominates the rest of the top 10, with regions like Hobsons Bay and Brimbank, where lessons cost $76–$77 per hour, instructors offer 4–4.5 monthly hours per 10,000 residents, and pass rates reach 75–77%. These areas give learners an advantage by combining accessible lessons with supportive practice opportunities.

Overall, success as a learner driver often comes down to lesson affordability, instructor availability, and a safe space to practise. In these top-ranked areas, learners are better placed to gain experience more quickly and pass their test with less stress.

Australia’s top cities with the easiest driving conditions

 

Learners benefit most in areas where roads are predictable, speeds are moderate, and crash rates are low. Shellharbour in New South Wales leads the way, with weekday speeds around 45 km/h, weekend speeds just under 50 km/h, and a fatal crash rate of 10.6 per 10,000 young residents, providing a calmer, lower-pressure environment for new drivers.

The ACT follows closely, where slightly higher weekend speeds (48 km/h) and a lower fatal crash rate (7 per 10,000) show that smaller regions with lighter traffic can offer ideal learning conditions. In Western Australia, several Perth-metro LGAs, including Joondalup, Mandurah, and Melville, also rank highly, combining moderate speeds with low crash rates.

What ties these top-ranked regions together is a focus on safety and consistency, giving learners the chance to build confidence and essential skills before tackling busier and more dangerous roads.

Australia’s top cities with the least complex roads

 

A clear pattern emerges across Australia’s least complex road networks, with all top-ranking locations located outside major capital cities. Regional and outer-metropolitan areas dominate the list, where lower school zone density, fewer enforcement cameras and less congested road layouts tend to create calmer, more predictable driving conditions for learners. 

Wollondilly in New South Wales tops the list, with fewer than one school zone for every 100 km² and no enforcement cameras per square kilometre, creating a calmer environment with fewer distractions for new drivers.

Fraser Coast in Queensland and Shoalhaven in New South Wales follow closely, offering similarly straightforward conditions with low school zone density and minimal traffic enforcement, making it easier for learners to focus on the road. Other NSW regions, including Cessnock, Hawkesbury, and the Blue Mountains, also rank highly thanks to simpler layouts and fewer congestion points.

Top learner-friendly cities in Victoria

 

Victoria is home to many of the country’s most learner-friendly regions, with some areas clearly outperforming others within the state rankings. Greater Bendigo and Greater Geelong sit at the top, offering strong access to instructors, manageable driving conditions, and relatively simple road networks.

Several outer-metro LGAs, including Hume, Hobsons Bay, Casey, Melton, Cardinia, Brimbank, Wyndham, and Whittlesea, rank slightly lower within the state. While still learner-friendly, these areas tend to have more complex roads than the highest-ranked regions, making practice slightly more challenging for new drivers. Across Victoria, learners benefit from a mix of accessible lessons and predictable road conditions, allowing them to build experience safely.

Top learner-friendly cities in New South Wales

 

Learner-friendly cities in New South Wales cover both coastal and outer-metropolitan areas, with variation across the state rankings. Shellharbour ranks highest, followed closely by Campbelltown and Wollongong, where road conditions are generally easier to navigate, and lesson access is strong.

Mid-ranked areas such as Coffs Harbour and the Tweed region still provide reasonable learning environments, though traffic may be slightly heavier and roads somewhat more complex. Lower-ranked regions, including Liverpool, Shoalhaven, Camden, the Central Coast, and Blacktown, present additional challenges, such as higher congestion and more complicated road layouts, requiring learners to adapt their practice more carefully.

Top learner-friendly cities in Western Australia

 

In Western Australia, the most learner-friendly regions are largely concentrated around the Perth metropolitan area. Cockburn ranks highest in the state, followed by Armadale and Wanneroo, where learners benefit from accessible instructors, manageable traffic, and relatively simple road networks.

Other areas, including Canning, Swan, Gosnells, Melville, Joondalup, Stirling, and Bayswater, rank further down in the state. While still offering opportunities to learn, these regions may have slightly more complex roads or busier traffic patterns. Across WA, the strongest regions allow learners to practise regularly and gain confidence without feeling overwhelmed, while lower-ranked areas may require a more strategic approach to learning.

Top learner-friendly cities in Queensland

 

Queensland’s learner-friendly cities span metropolitan and regional areas, with clear differences in performance from the top of the state rankings to the bottom. Redland ranks highest overall, followed closely by Ipswich and Logan, where learners benefit from better access to lessons, moderate traffic, and road layouts that are easier to navigate.

Mid-ranked areas such as Cairns and the Sunshine Coast still perform well, offering less congested environments that give learners space to practise and build confidence. However, regions ranking closer to the bottom of the state list, including the City of Brisbane and the Gold Coast, present more challenges. Higher traffic volumes, more complex road networks, and busier driving conditions can make learning slower and more demanding for new drivers.

Top learner-friendly cities in South Australia

 

In South Australia, learner-friendly regions are mostly found outside the inner city, though performance varies across the state rankings. Port Adelaide Enfield leads the state, followed by Mitcham and Tea Tree Gully, where road networks are generally easier to navigate, and traffic conditions are more manageable for learners.

Areas sitting in the middle of the rankings, such as Marion, Salisbury, and Playford, still offer reasonable conditions for learning, though with more complexity than the highest-performing regions. By contrast, regions closer to the bottom of the list, including the City of Adelaide itself, score lower due to heavier traffic, more complex roads, and reduced access to lessons, making the learning process more challenging overall.

 

Ross Rivalland, Sales Manager at EzLicence, comments:

“Learning to drive can feel very different depending on where you live. Some cities give learners a real advantage with easier roads, less complex traffic, and good access to instructors, making it much more straightforward to build skills and confidence. In these areas, learners can practise more regularly without feeling overwhelmed, which often leads to faster progress and higher test pass rates.”

“For those in more challenging regions, it’s important to be strategic. Working with a professional driving instructor rather than relying only on a parent or supervisor can help ensure the right skills are developed early, while practising in quieter nearby suburbs can make complex traffic easier to tackle over time. Even in tougher cities, consistent lessons and lower-pressure practice can make a real difference.”

 

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About the Data

This index was developed to identify Australia’s most learner-driver-friendly locations by combining real-world driving environment data with practical factors that directly impact the cost, accessibility, and success of learning to drive.

To ensure meaningful and comparable results, the analysis focuses on the 110 most populous Local Government Areas (LGAs) nationally where sufficient real-world training market data was available. This approach ensures the index reflects areas where the majority of Australians live and learn to drive, while maintaining strong data quality and consistency across all metrics.

We compared regions by standardising each metric into a common scoring scale and then combined using a weighted scoring model. Metrics where higher values indicate better learner outcomes (such as instructor availability, test pass rates and traffic speeds) were scored positively, while metrics where lower values indicate better outcomes (such as lesson costs, fatal crash risk, school zone density and enforcement camera density) were inverted so lower raw values produced higher index scores.

Once standardised, each metric was weighted based on its relative importance to the learner driver experience:

• Access and Success (40%): Measures how easy and affordable it is for learner drivers to access professional instruction, using lesson costs, instructor availability and local driving test pass rates.
• Driving Conditions (35%): Assesses how challenging everyday driving conditions are for learners, based on traffic congestion during typical practice hours and youth road fatality rates.
• Road Complexity (25%): Captures how complex the local driving environment is, using school zone density and enforcement camera coverage as indicators of rule intensity and hazard awareness requirements.

The weighted metric scores were then combined to produce a final overall index score for each LGA. This approach ensures the index reflects a variety of factors while allowing meaningful comparison across regions of different size and population.

LGAs

The research has filtered for LGAs with a minimum 10,000 total population as of 2023/24 financial year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Regional Population by LGA. Some LGAs were excluded from the analysis where there was insufficient internal data (lesson prices, instructor availability or pass-rates) to produce reliable comparisons, ensuring results reflect real learner driver conditions rather than gaps in coverage.

Where internal data was used (Lesson costs, instructor availability and pass-rates), suburb-level values were converted to LGA level using Australian Bureau of Statistics population data. Suburbs and Localities (SALs) were first mapped to LGAs using Australian Bureau of Statistics boundary files, recognising that some suburbs span multiple LGAs. In these cases, values were proportionally distributed based on the share of the suburb’s population located within each LGA, using ABS population grid data. 

The entire Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is classified by the ABS as “Unincorporated ACT” because it does not have separate municipal councils. For the purposes of this report, it is listed just as “ACT”.

Average Speed

Traffic conditions were obtained from TomTom’s Traffic Index of 11 Australian cities in their inner city and metro regions. The average speed was assessed during typical learner-driver practice hours, with emphasis on after-school, evening, and weekend periods when supervised driving most commonly occurs. 

For LGAs outside TomTom’s City and Metro coverage, we applied a regional traffic benchmark based on the average off-peak speeds of smaller Australian cities (Wollongong, Canberra, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Darwin and Hobart) to avoid overstating congestion in regional areas.

Fatal Accidents

Fatal crashes per 10,000 residents aged 15–24 measures how dangerous the local road environment is for young people who are most likely to be learner and provisional drivers. It reflects how safe or forgiving an LGA is for learning to drive, based on overall fatal crash risk in areas where young drivers live.

Fatal crash rates were calculated using five full years of national road fatality records (2021–2025) from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts Australian Road Deaths Database. Rates were normalised using the most recent available ABS population estimates (2023–24), which align closely with the midpoint of the analysis period.

Enforcement Cameras

State government and official transport authority datasets were used to identify fixed enforcement camera locations, including:

• Fixed speed cameras
• Combined red light and speed cameras
• Point-to-point (average speed) cameras
• Mobile phone and seatbelt detection and other permanent enforcement camera infrastructure
• Mobile and temporary enforcement units were excluded due to inconsistent location.

All camera locations were converted to geographic coordinates and spatially assigned to Local Government Areas using ABS LGA boundary shapefiles. Camera counts were then aggregated to the LGA level. Where enforcement infrastructure was located on bridges, tunnels or boundary-spanning roads, cameras were assigned to the LGA corresponding to the primary land-based road approach or infrastructure jurisdiction.

Instructor Access

Instructor access was measured using the average advertised lesson hours available per month in each location on the EzLicence platform in 2025. Where instructors list availability across multiple nearby locations, this reflects the practical lesson booking supply visible to learners in each local market. This measure was normalised by the typical learner age population within the LGA.

Lesson Costs

The dataset comprises first-party data on the price paid per lesson hour from the EzLicence platform from suburbs across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory from April 2024 - March 2025. Note that data from the Northern Territory was not included as EzLicence does not operate in that region. 

To ensure reliability and consistency in reporting, there have been minimum thresholds applied to LGA data. All prices are expressed in Australian Dollars (AUD), inclusive of GST. 

Pass Rate

Driving test pass rates were calculated using EzLicence test centre data at the LGA level where sufficient sample sizes were available. Where LGA-level internal data was unavailable or insufficient, state-level averages obtained via Freedom of Information (FOI) requests were used as the primary fallback to maintain national comparability using official government-reported outcomes. In states where FOI data was not available, state-level averages were calculated using aggregated internal test centre data to ensure consistent national coverage using the most locally representative data available.

To align with the primary internal dataset period (2022–2023) while ensuring statistical stability, multi-year state averages centred around this period were applied where possible, rather than relying on single-year results.

Where multiple testing pathways exist, the most comparable assessment type was selected to ensure consistency across jurisdictions. For example, in South Australia, Vehicle On Road Test (VORT) results were used rather than Competency Based Training and Assessment (CBTA) outcomes, as VORT most closely reflects the traditional practical driving test structure used across most other Australian states and territories.

This tiered approach ensures the index reflects real-world local test outcomes where available, while using stable and nationally comparable benchmarks where local-level data coverage was limited.