Maps show commuters shunning new tolls on Sydney’s M4 motorway for side streets

TOLL a road and watch the money come in, right? Maybe not, with a new map proving whacking a charge on commuters hasn’t worked.

IT’S been a bad week for toll roads and it’s only Tuesday.

Moves by the NSW government to toll a motorway that was previously un-tolled appear to have come unstuck with a map clearly showing commuters are shunning the paid road for suburban side streets instead.

Sydney’s toll motorway misery comes a day after the Victorian government was forced to deny it had relied on flawed modelling to underpin the construction of a new $5.5 billion toll road.

On Tuesday, Sydney motorists faced tolls on the M4 motorway — which connects the city to the western suburbs including Parramatta — for the first time in seven years after charges to use the road were scrapped in 2010.

M4 tolls can reach as $4.56 for cars and $13.67 for trucks each way.

The tolls have been reintroduced to pay for the $16 billion WestConnex road building project which will expand and extend the freeway closer to Sydney’s CBD.

A Google Maps Live Traffic map on Tuesday evening. The widened and now tolled M4 (top) is congestion free. The un-tolled and much smaller Parramatta Road (centre) is full of traffic. Picture: Google Maps.

But a quick look at Google Maps reveals a huge problem. If you turn on the Live Traffic feature, the M4 is a bright green showing cars are speeding along.

However, the far smaller Parramatta Road — which runs parallel to the newly widened M4 — is coloured red or brown to denote slow backed up traffic.

Many motorists appear to be avoiding the tolls, trading jams for a cheaper commute.

Transport for NSW (TfNSW) has confirmed traffic on Parramatta Road’s western portion was 20 per cent more congested than usual on Tuesday. During the morning peak, eastbound queues stretched up to 4km.

In Tuesday’s evening rush hour, a 9km trip from Homebush, close to where the M4 begins, to Parramatta was estimated to take 18 minutes by motorway but at least 35 minutes via the side streets.

Commuters have taken to social media platforms to express their frustration.

“I’m currently writing this from the centre of that map,” one Reddit user said on Tuesday morning stuck in a similar jam.

“Traffic along Parramatta Road was definitely much higher than normal today. I’d say more motorists have opted to avoid paying the toll now that the M4 Toll has come into place.”

Day 1 of the latest toll on Western Sydney there's a 2km queue at the Parramatta M4 exit & bumper-to-bumper along Parramatta Rd in off-peak.

— Melissa Matheson (@Mel_Matheson) August 15, 2017

M4 Toll Road: "The M4 tollway itself seemed to have the same numbers as did yesterday...but, of course we'll verify that" - @GladysB pic.twitter.com/oUy2j60QcY

— 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) August 15, 2017

NSW Opposition leader Luke Foley said the new tolls were, “nothing less than a tax” on Western Sydney motorists.

“Sydneysiders have already paid for this road — that’s why Labor lifted the tolls seven years ago.”

However, Minister for WestConnex, Stuart Ayres, said tolls on Sydney’s other motorways were largely Labor’s doing.

“Drivers are expected to test other roads — the same thing happened when Labor introduced their tolls on the M7, Lane Cove Tunnel, Eastern Distributor and Cross City Tunnel,” Mr Ayres said.

An artists impression of the WestConnex St Peters Interchange in inner west Sydney.

“The M4 needs to be widened and extended and WestConnex is doing this.

“Labor has ignored this challenge for 20 years. The Government is simply doing what Labor couldn’t do.”

He said when the new highway network fully opened the quickest route from Penrith, in the west, to the CBD would cost less than today in total tolls.

TfNSW’s Sydney Coordination Office said several breakdowns and crashes may have exacerbated congestion on streets close to the M4.

However, they admitted the tolls were having an effect but said this was, “a normal step in the life of a motorway,” and many motorists were expected to return to the M4 when the novelty of being bumper to bumper wore off.

“We are pulling out all the stops to help traffic run smoothly as motorists adjust to the changes,” a spokeswoman said.

“As motorists weigh up the travel benefits offered by the motorway with the cost of the toll we expect to see traffic flows normalise.”

Melbourne’s West Gate Tunnel project is under extra scrutiny this week.

The toll road terrors are also affecting the Victorian government which has been forced to back its multi-billion West Gate Tunnel against accusations expected traffic volumes were too optimistic.

Consultant William McDougall, who has now left the project, told a senate committee on Monday there was substantial “optimism bias” in the government’s review of toll road company Transurban’s proposal.

But Roads Minster Luke Donnellan has restated his confidence in the modelling, which indicates about 67,000 vehicles will use the tunnel each day.

“More than a dozen independent experts with decades of experience worked on the modelling that underpins this project — their work is world class and unequivocally supports building the West Gate Tunnel,” the minister told reporters on Monday.

Mr Donnellan further denied he had misrepresented the traffic forecasts and said the tunnel project will slash congestion and reduce travel times.

Labor took power in 2014 and immediately axed the previous government’s proposed $1 billion East West Link because the business case “didn’t stack up”.

Opposition roads spokesman Ryan Smith labelled the tunnel as a “dud” and said the government “hypocrisy was on show”.

“The economic benefits don’t stand up according to their own hand-picked expert and the public wants to know why.”

Transurban will collect tolls for an extra 10 years on the West Gate Freeway as part of the tunnel project.

Construction is expected to start early 2018 and be completed by 2022.

— with AAP.