M1 Gold Coast traffic: Not worth tearing your hair out

Have you found yourself chucking a sook over the state of rush hour traffic on the M1? Well toughen up buttercup – drivers cop it worse elsewhere, new report states.

GRUMPY Gold Coast drivers fed up with rush-hour traffic on the M1 may need to harden up, according to a new study.

Data from Chasing Cars revealed the Gold Coast came 24th on a list detailing the most horrendous rush-hour traffic jams across Australian cities.

While Gold Coast traffic may seem frustrating, it’s much worse elsewhere. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Scott Powick

The glitter strip even paled in comparison to laid-back regional cities in Victoria, with Ballarat placing first and Bendigo and Mildura in the top 10.

But Queenslanders have some cause to complain, as cities in the Sunshine State were declared the hardest to drive out of during peak times.

The Gold Coast, Logan City, Ipswich and Cairns all take 30 minutes of driving to traverse a meagre 20 kilometres.
The report states “currently, traffic levels are worse than ever as commuters resist a return to public transport” after the Covid-19 pandemic.

The real reason why Coast traffic jams are so bad

WHEN it comes to the Gold Coast’s traffic infrastructure, everything old is new again.

One of Australia’s fastest-growing cities has never lacked vision, but it tries to build infrastructure for the future, things always get in the way.

Former British prime minister Harold MacMillan was once asked what caused his government to be blown off course. He responded with a famous “Events, dear boy”.

The same with the city’s attempts to build roads for the future.

An artist impression of the Coomera Connector

Gold Coasters were this week shocked to discover that the first stage of the Coomera Connector will largely be built as a four-lane road, rather than the six-lane highway pitched last year.

The government is unable to say how much of this 16km first stage will be four or six lanes.

It comes 25 years after the same debate was had over the proposed upgrade of the Pacific Highway to become what is today known as the M1.

The Bulletin started reporting major complaints about traffic in 1996, five years before the M1 was completed.

The Gold Coast Highway in 1994.

The Pacific Highway had long been the source of traffic congestion, with the trip to Brisbane routinely taking more than 90 minutes.

Five years earlier a Transport Department report proposed a “Los Angeles-style” eight-lane freeway between the Gold Coast and Brisbane to replace the four-lane Pacific Highway.

In April 1996, a report unveiled to the Gold Coast City Council revealed the true state of the roads. Commuters were found to be taking up to three times longer to travel to and from work than three years earlier.

The M1 was desperately needed in the late 1990s.

The report went before the council’s co-ordination committee and revealed that most trips taken during peak periods in the mid-1990s took up to 37 per cent longer than they had in November 1993.

In a massive understatement, the council’s planning development and transport director, Warren Rowe, said it was fair to say the increased traffic on the Gold Coast roads was making trips slower.

“The results show that the majority of the city’s major traffic routes have had an increase in congestion over the past two years,” he said.

The report compared travel times from November 1993 to November 1996. The worst affected areas were between Southport and Burleigh Heads and Ashmore Rd, extending to Southport-Nerang Rd.

The old Pacific Highway being built in the late 1990s.

Congestion at Carrara’s Ross St had also made that area slower to navigate. Between Southport and Burleigh Heads in both morning and afternoon peak traffic periods, the trip was 40 per cent slower than it was in 1993.

Traffic in Surfers Paradise, in particular, was slow, with most cars travelling between 4.30pm and 5.30pm slowing from 46km/h to 16km/h. In its editorial to mark the tabling of the “significant” report, the Bulletin declared the city needed to guard against traffic congestion.

“Although alternative road links have either been developed or improved in recent years, it is obvious increasing traffic, linked to the region’s remarkable growth, will be an ongoing challenge for council and government planners,” it said.

“Development of a more efficient internal road network for this city will require hefty funding – and the report provides plenty of ammunition to convince the Department of Transport that increased allocations for roadworks are essential.”

It took years to build the M1.

But just days later the state opposition took aim at plans from then-Premier Rob Borbidge to build an eight-lane Pacific Highway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Deputy Labor leader Jim Elder said a six-lane highway would be a more practical aim within the government’s three-year, self-imposed time limit for the project.

“I hope Premier Rob Borbidge will recognise that the only sensible solution to the Pacific Highway impasse is to provide six lanes and upgrade the service roads,” he said.

The choice of a six-lane road was a decision future governments would come to regret.

The M1 can get banked up. Picture Glenn Hampson

The cost of the M1 upgrade ballooned to $750m during the final year of the Borbidge government.

Mr Borbidge announced a “`broadening’’ of the project between Logan and the Gold Coast to include faster traffic interchanges, as well as better local access and environmental features.

The M1 was completed in early 2001 and ultimately cost significantly more than originally anticipated.

While it was a welcome step up from the old highway, calls immediately began for a further upgrade

A Transport Department report in the early 2000s revealed the M1 would begin to choke by 2011, kicking off a long-running funding dispute between governments.

A push by then-Mudgeeraba MP Di Reilly in 2008 to have the M1 expanded to eight lanes failed to gain traction.

Several billion dollars has been spent in the past five years to expand the M1 to the eight-lane proposal first made in 1996.

Follow @GCS_Pottsy

Originally published as M1 Gold Coast traffic: Not worth tearing your hair out