Traffic jams and potholes: See how local election candidates plan to fix roads in your area

Fixing unpaved roads, potholes and single lanes with two-way traffic to reduce road trauma is high on the to-do lists of council election candidates, as population growth leads to traffic jams in many outer Melbourne suburbs.

The Age surveyed 667 of the 1478 candidates seeking election this month in Greater Melbourne and 30.28 per cent of respondents (205) indicated roads were a key issue, trailing only integrity, and level with the environment. For council hopefuls further out from the city centre, potholes and traffic were the largest concerns.

Use the interactive to see what candidates in your area said.

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Transport Accident Commission figures for this year show that more people have been killed on roads in Melbourne’s outer suburbs than in inner-city suburbs.

In Melton, 90 per cent of survey respondents (20) said roads were one of their top three concerns. Aspiring councillors in Cardinia, Knox, Whittlesea and Yarra Ranges rounded out the top five for the percentage of candidates who consider roads a key issue, while Wyndham and Casey had some of the highest number of total candidates concerned.

Melton candidate Ranjit Singh said unpaved roads and single lanes with two-way traffic were common and made travelling in his area unsafe.

Ranjit Singh, like most candidates for Melton Council, is concerned by the condition of his local roads.Credit: Chris Hopkins

“They’re not really in a good condition,” said Singh, a Labor Party member running as an independent.

“[It can be] very dangerous, especially with the night times … when you’re driving in the dark with just with the headlights.”

Singh said some roads had gravel sections, which could surprise unsuspecting drivers.

“And sometimes those small rocks there, they damage the other cars,” he said.

“And also, now there’s a lot of construction going on around this area, [there’s] a lot of trucks travelling on these roads, and there’s another safety concern.”

If elected, Singh plans to have narrow streets widened and gravel roads paved. For major roads outside his jurisdiction, he plans to lobby the state government to improve them.

About three-quarters of Victoria’s roads are managed by councils, which oversee lower-traffic local roads. The Department of Transport is responsible for major thoroughfares.

Melba Waugh is one of the 18 Wyndham candidates who highlighted roads as a core issue she would advocate for on council. She said fast growth in the area – which includes Werribee, Truganina and Hoppers Crossing – meant roads couldn’t cope with the increased traffic.

Melba Waugh, a candidate for Wyndham Council, wants to address the area’s traffic troubles. Credit: Chris Hopkins

“We have so many people from here commuting to the city or to anywhere, and it just creates a lot of congestion on the road,” Waugh said.

“It’s such a big problem here, and going to work in the morning, coming back in the evening … people spend a lot of time on the roads because it’s just like bumper to bumper in peak hours.”

Waugh commutes from Wyndham to Bacchus Marsh for work, but said the situation was particularly bad for residents travelling to and from Melbourne. During peak hour, trains are so busy she can’t get a seat, she said.

If elected, Waugh plans to seek more state funding for roads in Wyndham.

“I just don’t think that people … really realise how bad it is out here,” she said. “It needs to be fixed.”

Many candidates who have highlighted roads as a key issue also live in areas where the road toll is higher compared to other local government areas in Greater Melbourne.

Since January, eight people have died on Yarra Valley roads, seven in Casey, six in Melton and five each in Wyndham, Whittlesea and Cardinia.

The average road toll for all local government areas in Greater Melbourne is just over three, according to Transport Accident Commission data.

Independent Casey candidate Anthony Walter said potholes plague the Dillwynia ward he’s seeking to represent, and that councillors need to be proactive.

The past approach had been to patch up potholes, he said, but that didn’t address the root cause.

“A lot of cars got damaged because of that,” he said.

Without much access public transport in Casey, people are dependent on cars.

“We know the areas are going to keep getting more and more residents, more traffic,” Walter said.

“They [council] need to think about that. Not how many people live here now ... but who would live here in the future.”

A spokesperson for the state government said: “Since 2021, we’ve delivered more than 4900 kilometres of vital road maintenance across Melbourne’s outer suburbs.

“This builds on the $3.1 billion suburban roads upgrade we’re rolling out across 12 key roads in Melbourne’s north and south-east – cutting congestion, improving safety and reducing travel times for hundreds of thousands of residents.”

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