Article: Quick fixes to ease traffic squeeze

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From News.com.au click here!

Quick fixes to ease traffic squeeze

Quick fixes to ease traffic squeeze
June 3, 2012 12:00AM

A HOST of low-cost quick fixes may help solve Melbourne's chronic traffic congestion as Victoria awaits funding for huge road projects.

Frustrated drivers face at least another 10 years before the $9 billion East-West Link is built, opening a tunnel link from the Eastern Freeway to the Tullamarine Freeway and Western Ring Road.

And the "missing link" on the northeastern section of the Ring Road and further widening of the Monash Freeway may be even further off.

But one despairing Melbourne commuter claimed many congestion problems could be eased with solutions that have price tags the Government could afford right now -- and the RACV agreed.

After reading a Sunday Herald Sun report detailing the State Government's push to start the East-West Link project, medical business manager Gail Pascoe wrote to us to voice her frustrations about the daily nightmare of driving just 18km to work from Melbourne's east in steadily deteriorating peak-hour driving conditions - and she had one simple appeal.

"Why concentrate on pie-in-the-sky projects when there are so many little solutions that could make a big difference straight away?" she asked.

Ms Pascoe provided her own wish list of projects that wouldn't need huge funding and asked: "Maybe if we surveyed readers we could build a list of all the smaller issues across Melbourne that could be addressed without too much major expenditure, we could all rate them.

"If VicRoads actually tackled some, a lot of big problems may not be so bad after all."

Ms Pascoe has been driving from her Templestowe home to her South Yarra office for 10 years, leaving home at 7am, and says the journey that used to take 25 minutes is now rarely less than an hour.

She added: "The driving is now unbelievably dangerous, with drivers so impatient and rude to each other, basically brought about by sheer frustration and traffic volume."

Ms Pascoe said the design of the Eastern Freeway was basically unchanged in 35 years, despite traffic levels more than doubling.

"It doesn't cope very well at times of the day, because things such as its exit and access ramps were never designed for the volume of traffic."

She said a VicRoads electronic roadside sign indicating freeway traffic levels often gave wrong information, indicating traffic was light when it was heavy.

On one morning last week the queue to exit at the Chandler Highway was 1.5km long, prompting many drivers to speed past the queue and try to cut in. When she instead queued to exit at Hoddle St, it took 20 minutes to leave the freeway.

Ms Pascoe said many of the problems were caused by the two-lane Chandler Highway bridge over the Yarra River and the single-lane freeway off-ramp, and parked cars along Princess St, Kew.

RACV public policy general manager Brian Negus said there were many smaller-scale but important initiatives the Government could implement to reduce delays.

He said arterial road upgrades, improved traffic signal operations and a boost to public transport services would all help to ease the squeeze. He said Punt Rd and Hoddle St should have permanent clearways and clearways should also be extended on other major roads.

He said the Government should also focus on eliminating railway level crossings, particularly on the Dandenong rail corridor.

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Better still raise the driving age to 21. Less drivers less cars = less congestion and more responsible driving after 21 + increased public transport use.