Surge in traffic expected ahead of regional travel in Victoria

There are fears for driver safety as Victoria’s Covid-19 restrictions are set to ease on Friday.

Road chaos is expected on the weekend in Victoria after travel to the regions is allowed. Picture: Sarah Matray

Chaos on Victoria’s major highways looms, with the state’s peak motoring bodies predicting a spike in traffic as Melburnians flee for regional areas when statewide travel opens at 6pm on Friday.

RACV-owned traffic data analytics company Intelematics predicted volume could increase by more than 90 per cent on major arterial roads out of Melbourne based on observations from 2020.

The most dramatic increases in traffic on Friday November 13 last year when regional travel opened were on the Nepean Highway southeast-bound (95 per cent), West Gate Freeway westbound (94.6 per cent), Princes Freeway westbound (88.7 per cent) and Hume Freeway northeast-bound (78.5 per cent).

Road traffic was measured every Friday during last year’s lockdown from August 2 to Nov­ember 6. When compared with November 13, 2020, there was a 62.7 per cent jump across the board. This year, an overall ­increase of at least 60 per cent is expected.

Victoria’s top traffic cop, Glenn Weir, said police would be out in force just after midnight on Friday targeting speed, distraction and fatigue amid reports 190 people had already died on roads in 2021, well above the 177 lives lost in the same time last year.

“Victoria Police is preparing for an influx of travel to regional areas and tourism hotspots when travel restrictions between metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria ease on Friday,” he said.

“We’re urging drivers to slow down and take extra care as traffic volumes increase, with many ­people likely to spend hours behind the wheel after a significant period of very little to no driving.”

Opposition roads spokeswoman Louise Staley urged the state government to allow travel earlier in the day to avoid a rush after work. “Daniel Andrews’s regional travel deadline is a recipe for disaster,” she said.

“It’s simply dangerous to have tens of thousands of Melburnians fleeing to regional Victoria from 6pm on a Friday night. We need a better plan.

“Daniel Andrews must urgently review this deadline and consider bringing it forward to a more suitable and safer time.”

Health Minister Martin Foley said the government considered a midday changeover time in order to reduce pressure on the roads by allowing some people to leave ahead of others finishing work, but authorities decided to permit travel from 6pm on Friday because the 80 per cent double vaccination target would be met by then and it would allow Melburnians enough time to enjoy an “informal” long weekend in the regions.

“The operational meeting that we conduct every morning across all government agencies had input into it,”, Mr Foley said. “We think this is a sensible, safe and measured set of arrangements that give Victorians plenty of notice, allow us to make all the plans we need, whether it’s for a trip to the country … whether it’s the country to the city.”

Department of Transport data showed after the curfew and travel limits were lifted last week, traffic volumes jumped by 15 per cent from Thursday October 22 to Friday October 23.

A Department of Transport spokesman said authorities expected traffic to spike when restrictions eased.

Other key factors expected to lead to a traffic surge include the fact it will be a long weekend with the Melbourne Cup on November 2 and lockdown fatigue, Intelematics product manager Jerri Zhao said. “We will probably see pre-pandemic levels (of traffic) or even higher,” she said.

A bumper weekend of travel came amid news Victoria reported its lowest daily caseload in a fortnight on Monday, with 1461 locally acquired cases.