Article: Melbourne commuter hell: We're on a road to nowhere

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From the Herald Sun click here!

Melbourne commuter hell: We're on a road to nowhere

Melbourne commuter hell: We're on a road to nowhere

    * Ashley Gardiner, Anne Wright
    * From: Herald Sun
    * February 17, 2011 12:00AM

UPDATE 9am: MELBOURNE'S congested roads will not be fixed until a commitment to improve public transport in the suburbs is made, the PTUA says.

Public Transport Users Association president Daniel Bowen said Melbourne's traffic would continue to stay clogged until more frequent services were offered in the outer suburbs.

His comments come after Melbourne's drive to work was rated as worse than Los Angeles and New York, and only marginally better than London.

An international study has made the unfavorable comparison.

"You can't just build more roads to solve the traffic problem," Mr Bowen said.

"You need to get people out of the traffic by providing frequent transport across the city.

"In some areas local transport is a bus that runs every 30 to 50 minutes.

"You can't necessarily build railways but more frequent bus services would help."

Eight out of 10 Melburnians say they are stressed out by the roads and frustrated by stop-start and slow-moving traffic.

About one in five say it is having a bad effect on their health.

The average Melbourne worker spends 32 minutes travelling to their job by car or public transport, which is better than the international average.

The IBM Commuter Pain survey found that Melburnians were the least reliant on cars in Australia as the main way of going to and from work or school.

Frustrated motorists believe better trains, trams and buses are the answer, with 50 per cent naming this as the solution.

More information about road conditions was identified by 30 per cent of those surveyed as a way to improve the drive to work.

About a third of those surveyed wanted the option of working from home.

IBM Australia smarter transportation industry expert John Hawkins said more roads would not fix the problem.

"You can't build yourself out of this. There is no single answer," Mr Hawkins said.

"It reflects the reality that our transport infrastructure is not keeping pace with continuing economic growth in this country."

Melbourne's peak hour is worsened by the fact only 18 per cent of commuters work after 6pm.

But the city's geography works to our advantage when compared with cities such as Sydney.

"It doesn't have some of the other restraints that Sydney has, such as the harbour," Mr Hawkins said.

Commuters would be more relaxed if they had advance warning of disruptions, rather than getting stuck in them.

"If you'd known about that half an hour earlier, your stress would be a lot less," Mr Hawkins said.

"Stress is a major issue. A significant number of people commuting on our roads or on the public transport system are suffering stress."

The study compared 27 international cities. The worst three for commuters were Beijing, Mexico City and Johannesburg. The best were Stockholm, Wellington and Houston.

Within Australia, Perth was the best, followed by Melbourne, Brisbane and then Sydney as the worst.

The Australian survey of 1500 commuters conducted by Galaxy Research found that Melbourne had the least aggressive motorists in the nation, with Brisbane the most aggressive

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Within Australia, Perth was the best, followed by Melbourne, Brisbane and then Sydney as the worst.

Surprise!!