Pacific Highway voted worst road for fifth year running

THESE are the roads motorists would rather forget, clogged by congestion, poor surfaces and downright danger. Here are the worst places to drive.

A long line of cars caught in a traffic jam along the Pacific Highway at Wahroonga waiting to get onto the F3 motoway.

PACIFIC Highway — take an embarrassed bow. For you are officially the worst, most frustrating, most monumentally annoying road in NSW and the ACT.

Stretching from Sydney to Brisbane, and one of the state’s busiest highways, the road was the least favourite with the around 8,000 drivers surveyed by the National Roads and Motorists’ Association (NRMA) in its annual Seeing Red on Roads campaign.

It’s the fifth year the M1/A1 has received the dubious honour but other routes including Pennant Hills Rd in Sydney’s north and Parramatta Rd have also come in for a drubbing.

Greater Sydney roads filled five of the top 10 places but the organisation said road widening on the M5 motorway in south western Sydney had led to reduced journey times with the road dropping from fifth most reviled last year to a slightly less-hated ninth in 2015.

NRMA President Kyle Loades said the improvements on the M5 were an example for other roads. New traffic information systems and improved signage were quick wins to help commuters.

“The current routes will bear the brunt of traffic into the next decade and we can make some practical improvements that will have an immediately positive effect and won’t cost billions of dollars.”

Mr Loades said an upgrade to Princes Highway north of Jervis Bay had led to a 90 per cent decrease in injury-causing crashes.

Other roads had gone in the wrong direction though.

“The NRMA’s travel times study showed that commuting on the M4 takes on average 10 minutes longer than in 2007,” he said.

According to NSW Roads and Maritime Service (RMS), $14 million is being invested in a program to provide traffic information to motorists via electronic signs. Travel time information has been available on the M5 and M2 motorways since last month.

“By June next year, it is hoped other motorways including the Eastern Distributor and Lane Cove Tunnel will also offer travel time information to help motorists plan ahead,” a spokeswoman said.

The 10 worst roads in NSW/ACT

1. Pacific Highway

2. Pennant Hills Road

3. Parramatta Road

4. Princes Highway

5. M4 motorway

6. Wattle Tree Road, Holgate

7. Great Western Highway (A32)

8. Barton Highway (A25)

9. M5 motorway

10. Narellan Road

Source: NRMA