Article: Melbourne's peak hour myth: it's more like three

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Melbourne's peak hour myth: it's more like three

Melbourne's peak hour myth: it's more like three
Nicole Brady
April 30, 2012 - 6:14AM

As anyone who gets up before sunrise to beat the weekday morning rush knows, their efforts are increasingly in vain.

If you're having a great run in to work this morning, that is because Monday is your lucky day.

Melbourne experiences its lightest traffic flows early on Sunday and Monday mornings.

But that is the good news. The bad news for drivers is that weekend traffic is now as heavy as it is weekdays, just at different times during the day.

Weekend traffic builds to peak at the middle of the day, lasting long into the afternoon. Weekday traffic has morning and afternoon peaks, which are starting earlier and lasting longer.

As anyone who gets up before sunrise to beat the weekday morning rush knows, their efforts are increasingly in vain.

VicRoads' data shows the busiest time on Melbourne's freeways during the morning peak is 7.30am. In the afternoon it is 5.30pm.

Dean Zabrieszach, Vicroads' director of road user services said Melbourne's morning peak runs from 6.30am to 9.30am.

''If you'd asked me this question 20 years ago I'd have said the peak period is between 7.30 and 9am,'' Mr Zabrieszach.

''It's a progressive increase in the congestion over a period of time because we're a growing city, we're a big city, traffic volume increases with increasing population, activity increases and so forth.''

To keep the traffic moving VicRoads has added signalling along the M1 freeway corridor — the Monash, Citylink and West Gate freeways) to control the flow of cars from 62 on ramps to the freeways.

Wet weather and break downs (and more occur on rainy days) work against the system, slowing the traffic often to a crawl.

''Traffic can be slower in wet conditions as people generally drive to the conditions, driving slower and leaving more space between their vehicle and the one in front,'' Robert Freemantle, executive director of network and asset planning at VicRoads.

VicRoads advises road users to check its website for updates on traffic conditions.

[Jonno]

Dean Zabrieszach, Vicroads' director of road user services clearly does no research into his industry otherwise he would have found that population growth has little to nothing to do with congestion.