Melbourne’s weekend traffic is rivalling weekday congestion, VicRoads data shows.

Figures released by VicRoads show road congestion between 11:00am and 2:00pm on Saturdays and Sundays in the city is worse than at the same time during the week.

On Saturdays about the number of cars on the road is about 86 per cent of traffic levels on a weekday. That figure drops to 75 per cent on Sundays.

Director of road operations at VicRoads Dean Zabrieszach said the weekend traffic on Melbourne’s key roads is getting worse.

“On weekends, the growing trend in travel activity is attributable to additional population, and hence traffic volumes, additional recreational activity, and to an extent additional business and commercial activity compared to a decade ago,” he said.

The figures have prompted the Victorian Government to urge more people to embrace public transport.

“A lot of these people are just coming in to shop, others are just meeting friends for coffee or going to the theatre,” Victoria’s Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder said.

“There’s plenty of capacity on the public transport network and I would suggest it’s a lot quicker to get on board a bus, a train or a tram then it is to try to travel on a number of these roads.”

Mr Mulder says a Ministerial Advisory Council is already investigating solutions.