Letter to Council: Impact of Melbourne 2030 on Road Congestion

(Name provided but withheld at author’s request.)

21 November 2004

Monash City Council Civic Centre 293 Springvale Road GLEN WAVERLEY, 3150

Attn: Mr Nick Andrianis

Manager Corporate Governance

Dear Mr Andrianis,

Question for Council

Melbourne 2030, high density developments in Monash and surrounding suburbs, will result in much more traffic in Monash.

The Mitcham-Frankston freeway will provide minimal alleviation of traffic congestion in Monash. Especially given the “freeway” will be a tollway, leading to Monash’s roads being used as “rat-runs.”

Monash is close to the demographic and geographic centre of metropolitan Melbourne. This and higher density living will lead to far greater traffic congestion in Monash because of extra traffic transiting through as well as from/to sites within its boundary.

Has council:

	Assessed the impact of this high density living on traffic congestion in Monash?
	Developed/begun development of traffic amelioration or calming measures? If in progress, when will the proposals be complete?
	Worked in conjunction with, made submissions to Vic Roads, DOI or others re. same?
	Will Council make available for public scrutiny any existing or future data?

Council Response

The City of Monash is fully supportive of the construction of the Mitcham-Frankston road as a matter of urgency to reduce traffic congestion on arterial roads such as Springvale Road, Ferntree Gully Road and Wellington Road. Council acknowledges that the Mitcham –Frankston road will measurably reduce freight movements on these roads.

Council, in assessing applications for residential development, considers the impacts of these developments on traffic, especially on local roads. The majority of local roads in the City of Monash are regarded as having sufficient capacity to cope with future residential development.

The City of Monash, has over the last 15 years, installed Local Area Traffic Management (LATM) devices across the Municipality on local roads which are Council’s responsibility and the implementation of these LATMs has closely involved the local community via public meetings, mail outs or a combination of these.

The arterial roads throughout Monash are the responsibility of VicRoads and are regarded by Council to be generally at, or near, capacity during peak traffic periods. All development applications are referred to VicRoads, as the Responsible Authority, for their assessment of the traffic effects on main roads.

Council continually lobbies VicRoads and the Department of Infrastructure for improvements to the arterial road network to increase capacity and improve accessibility for local residents.

Council is always prepared to make available to the public any traffic assessments of data collected.

Editorial Comment

The MRA is also fully supportive of the construction of the Mitcham-Frankston freeway. (As a freeway, not a tollway.)

However:

	It will not be operational until 2008. In the mean time traffic volumes and congestion on Monash’s major roads will grow substantially.
	At full implementation, Melbourne 2030 could add over 500,000 additional cars to the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Many of these will move along a north-south axis. The Mitcham-Frankston freeway will have a capacity of around 150,000 cars/day (perhaps 180,000 cars/day at best) and will not in the long run alleviate additional traffic congestion on Major Monash roads such as Springvale Road, or Stephenson’s road which is one of (if not) the most congested undivided arterial roads in Melbourne.
	The completion of the Mitcham-Frankston freeway will include on-off ramps to all east-west major raods passing through Monash including Wellington road, Ferntree gully Road and the Burwood Highway. Because of this and the possibility these ramps and roads could provide “rat runs” for drivers avoiding some tolling points, east-weat traffic in Monash could increase (not decrease.)
	Melbourne’s public transport initiative “Melbourne 2020” aims to have 20% of Melbourne’s commuter population using public transport by the year 2020. Melbourne’s public transport initiatives contained in the recently released Melbourne 2020 are largely bus centric. There is a high expectation that “smart bus technology” will provide the solution. However, the recently announced initiatives of Melbourne 2020 do not propose the application of the full extent of smart bus technology available and its effectiveness will therefore be limited. In addition, the capacity and frequency of public transport is unlikely to be sufficient to substantially alleviate congestion in Monash
	Council’s focus on local roads in its response does not address the main issue. That is, the major roads. Dissecting the municipality.

In light of these points, we consider that the council response is incomplete, and that it should fully inform the people of Monash of the complete future scenario.

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