Traffic on the Eastern Freeway slows to an average speed of just 9km/h in the morning peak as it approaches Hoddle Street and Alexandra Parade.
New data taken from bluetooth tracking of vehicles by VicRoads in 2015, reveals the inbound lanes of the Eastern Freeway in Clifton Hill is the slowest section of Melbourne's freeway network and the only part that consistently moves at less than 20km/h during peak times.
Off-peak, freeway traffic there averages 25km/h, and in the evening peak 18km/h, still well below all other parts of the network that VicRoads monitors.
The other notorious pinch point in Melbourne's freeway network, the Bolte Bridge, is getting extra lanes in response to congestion that regularly slows peak-hour traffic to less than 20km/h.
The Andrews government has not put forward a plan for congestion on the Eastern Freeway since it cancelled the East West Link after taking office in 2014, but it did confirm in 2015 that it would overhaul four major Hoddle Street intersections.
- This includes "streamlining" the way vehicles get on and off the Eastern Freeway, by adding a third outbound lane and a permanent inbound bus-only lane.
- Hoddle Street and Johnston Street, an east-west thoroughfare just south of the Eastern Freeway interchange, are set to become permanent 24-hour clearways as part of the overhaul.
- Construction of the $60 million project is due to begin late this year or early next year, VicRoads says.
- On-street parking spaces on both streets will be converted to full-time bus lanes, under a proposal the state's roads authority recently put to the community.
- On Hoddle Street, parking would be removed along an 800-metre stretch of the choked 10-lane road between the Eastern Freeway and just south of Vere Street in Collingwood.
- On Johnston Street, spaces would be removed on a 500-metre stretch of the road between Park Street in Abbotsford and Palmer Lane in Collingwood.
Right-hand turns from Hoddle Street into Johnston Street would also be banned and replaced by a lengthy "P-turn" manoeuvre.
Source: The Age
The design is based on "continuous flow intersections" that exist in several US cities, but which has never been trialled in Australia.
Brendan Pauwels, VicRoads' acting executive director major projects, said the authority has two aims: it wants to make traffic flow better along Hoddle Street, and make Johnston Street "a more enjoyable place to visit and spend time".
VicRoads has even offered $100 supermarket vouchers to people who complete a survey about what they think of Johnston Street.
