Residents, Hume Council tackles Growing Pains on roads and public transport

MOTORISTS and commuters in Melbourne’s northwest are being urged to have their say on road congestion and overcrowded public transport.

Hume Council is urging people to head online to fill out an RACV survey on congestion. Mayor Helen Patsikatheodorou with traffic filling out the survey with new houses being built in background. Picture: Josie Hayden

MOTORISTS can have their say on clogged-up roads to help put the brakes on congestion and overcrowded public transport.

Hume Council is urging people to fill out the RACV’s Outer Metropolitan Growing Pains survey and share their frustration with congested roads in Hume — particularly Mickleham, Craigieburn, Somerton and Sunbury roads — and public transport services.

The survey is for people who live in or travel to Melbourne’s outer suburbs and will be used to propel the case for more improvements to the transport network.

It will build on the RACV’s 2012 Growing Pains report.

According to Hume mayor Helen Patsikatheodorou, vehicle numbers on Somerton Rd between Roxburgh Park Drive and Aitken Blvd have leapt by 47 per cent over the past 12 years to more than 27,000 cars each day.

More than 27,000 cars also use Craigieburn Rd daily, a 146 per cent rise on the western section over the past decade alone, while Mickleham Rd north of Somerton Rd has seen a 38 per cent rise in the past two years, with more than 20,000 cars using the road.

Meanwhile, a whopping 23,000 cars use Sunbury Rd daily north of Melbourne Airport.

“Craigieburn, Greenvale and Sunbury have seen huge increases in population and roads that were built for farmers just can’t cope with the recent and rapid rise in traffic,” Cr Patsikatheodorou said.

“Large sections of these thoroughfares are a single lane in each direction and the roads are at breaking point.

“We want our residents to enjoy the roads that people in other parts of Melbourne take for granted so they can spend less time behind the wheel and more time with their families.”

Roads minister Luke Donnellan and VicRoads did not respond to Leader before deadline.

Click HERE to fill out the survey by March 31.

WHAT THE DRIVERS SAY

Craigieburn Rd.

CRAIGIEBURN RD

Vicki McCall: I use it every day from 5.30-6am and it’s terrible at that time of morning as well. It’s an accident waiting to happen. There’s cars that just push their way out of Cimberwood Drive — getting out of that is an absolute nightmare. Roundabouts would make it so much easier.

Maureen Reed: The main problem I’m finding is getting out of Dorchester St and Cimberwood Drive — you can’t turn right from either. There is (also) no safe pedestrian access to cross (Craigieburn Rd) from Bridgewater Rd to Lygon Drive. Our community deserves better.

Sunbury Rd.

SUNBURY RD

Bernie O’Farrell: It’s a continual source of concern to people in Sunbury, in particular when you’re coming from the airport — that area between the airport and Bulla townships, it gets quite congested. It’s been a contention among the people of Sunbury for 10-15 years and it’s getting worse.

Sharyn Snook: There’s way too many accidents. Getting to the Tullamarine Freeway can be a nightmare; at certain times of the day it’s horrible. For people coming from Sunbury going into the city, they hit that bottleneck. Bulla hill is the worst of it.

Chris Lord: Both my wife and I travel that (road) daily to Tullamarine and in recent weeks we have noticed that at times, just after all the lanes merge into the single city-bound lane, the traffic comes to a standstill. I feel this is because of the new 80km/h speed limit.

Mickelham Rd.

MICKLEHAM RD

Benji Page: “It often becomes a car park in peak hour as soon as you reach Attwood (toward Tullamarine), sometimes much earlier than that. Paired with slower moving vehicles, this usually creates impatient drivers that perform illegal and dangerous manoeuvres just to get a car or two ahead.”

Deb Anscombe: “My main concern is how development has been allowed to progress without infrastructure. With the increase in traffic, people get more agitated; they take more risky behaviour on the road. There’s not enough forward thinking around development.

Somerton Rd.

SOMERTON RD

Claira Cannon: “Somerton Rd is horrendous. It gets banked the entire way up Somerton Rd from Roxburgh Park all the way to Mickleham. It’s a shocker. That really needs more lanes.”

Andrew Blair: “They haven’t taken into consideration at all the addition of Aitken Blvd, so there’s a lot more traffic going both directions to Mickleham and Pascoe Vale Rd. There’s been a number of nose-to-tail accidents. Duplication would assist but drivers need to be more mindful of the traffic.”