Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

SYDNEY’S TRAFFIC PROBLEM

The road building programme, beset by a money shortage, has been unable to keep pace. Projects being delayed include a network of fast, modern expressways. The result has been congestion on the major roads during peak hours.

This means frustrating delays for motorists, higher operating costs for private and commercial vehicles, including public transport, and a parking problem. Australia ranks among the four most highly-motorised nations on a population basis, with one vehicle for every three people. The Minister of Transport in New South Wales, Mr Milton Morris, speaking of Sydney’s road problem, said: "With the number of vehicles growing by something like 5 per cent a year the Government is faced with the great problem of controlling and, if possible, reducing the level of traffic congestion. The answer must lie in developing public transport and the road system, but the ever-present problem of i money prevents us from doing all we would like. “We are effecting very definite improvements in public transport and roads are being widened and improved. Through these methods and also clearways and a more sophisticated system of traffic lights we are succeeding to some extent." In other words while the costly expressway project is delayed the congestion problem is being tackled in other cheaper ways. One of these is to encourage greater use of public transport. Another is to increase the capacity of existing roads which is done in a variety of ways: Widening of arterial roads. Creation of clearways on which parking and stopping are prohibited. Creation of one-way streets. Use of co-ordinated and television-controlled traffic lights. Flaring of intersections to ease the passage of vehicles turning into a cross-stream of traffic. Elimination of railway level crossings. Widening of bridges spanning Sydney Harbour and adjoining rivers. Here is a detailed picture of action either taken or planned. Public Transport One of the New South Wales Government’s aims is to encourage more motorists to leave their cars at home or at parking lots on the city perimeter and come into the city by public transport. With this in mind it has taken steps to improve services and passenger comfort. It has started taking delivery of 632 new single-deck and double-deck buses costing $12,000,000. Most of them will go into service in Sydney, but some will be in Newcastle, a city of 240,000 people about 100 miles north of Sydney. The new buses will replace 36 per cent of the total fleet of 1755 in the two cities. They will have bigger seating capacities and more power. Bus travel time has been cut by the introduction of express services between the city and outer suburbs. These run during peak hours and bypass many regular bus stops. In addition, legislation has been passed which enables the Government to reserve kerbside lanes exclusively for buses on key routes.

Integration of Government transport is being pushed ahead with the extension of bus-train interchange services. This involves using buses to provide feeder services from heavily populated areas to nearby railway stations. Rail Transport

In the Held of rail transport the Department of Railways expects to have in service soon eight-car doubledeck trains with a capacity

' of more than 2000 passengers. This is 800 more than can be carried in an eight-car singledeck train. Surplus land such as disused goods yards at suburban stations is being turned into parking lots. About 70 of these lots dotted around the suburbs provide parking for a total of 7000 cars. The Government is also co-operat-ing with private companies seeking to develop car-park-ing space above railway stations. Measures such as these help to reduce the number of cars entering the city. Faster ferries including hydrofoils have been introduced on the harbour services. Consideration is now being given to the use of hovercraft. Since 1945 each of the four major highways leading from Sydney has been widened from two lanes to six over 20 miles of its length. Many other main roads and secondary roads have been brought up to four-lane or six-lane standard.

Clearways

Two highways have been turned into clearways during morning and afternoon peak hours. The Great Western Highway is a clearway for 13 miles from the city and the Pacific Highway for 12. A number of feeder roads to the Pacific Highway are also clearways. The prohibition on parking on the highways during specified hours brings into use two extra traffic lanes which otherwise would be occupied by stationary vehicles. As an example of their effectiveness, motorists travelling from the city to Parramatta, a distance of 15 miles, can cover the route eight minutes faster under clearway conditions.

Mr Morris has described the clearways as a great success. He has approved the establishment of peak-hour clearways on seven other arterial roads. Kerbside parking bans are also enforced in some key streets in the business area. To compensate for this, multi-deck stations have been provided for offstreet parking. Many commercial concerns also have smaller off-street parking stations.

An extensive system of traffic lights, on which annual expenditure is about $1,500,000, assists in the clearing of traffic.

T.V.-controlled Lights A network of 111 innercity intersections has television controlled lights. Sixteen cameras at strategic spots around the city scan the streets for any sign of a traffic snarl. Specially trained policemen seated at a panel of push-buttons and switches in a central monitoring room can take control of the traffic lights as soon as trouble appears on any of the 16 screens in front of them. The system, combined with the creation of one-way streets in the inner-city, is credited with improving the traffic flow up to 60 per cent Out of 14 key streets the flow has improved on all but one. As an extension of television control, engineers have developed a computer-con-trolled system, the first of which has been installed on a one-mile stretch of the Great Western Highway at a cost of $140,000. Detectors buried in the roadway note the density 'of traffic on the highway and cross-streets. This information is relayed to the computer which automatically controls the lights to suit the conditions.

Expressways In its master plan for the County of Cumberland, which covers 1600 square miles, including Sydney and surrounding areas, the Department of Main Roads has made provision for five expressways radiating from the city and covering a total of 185 miles. So far only 10 miles have been completed because of money problems. These wide expressways are free of crosstraffic. They are designed to move large volumes of traffic at speed with safety and minimum delay. The latest stretch of expressway brought into use (shown in the photograph) is a one-and-a-half mile length on the northern

approach to the eight-lane Sydney Harbour Bridge. During the morning peak hours it channels many thousands of vehicles on to the bridge which disgorges them into the inner city. The cost was $25,000,000. Of this, 40 per cent went on the acquisition of properties along the route and the relocation of public utilities such as sewerage and water pipes.

But i'.s effect has been enormous. It takes peak-hour traffic off the northern roads earlier and allows local traffic to move more freely. Other measures are quicker and cheaper, but it is generally agreed that they give only limited relief and must be supplemented by expressway from a long term relief.— Australian News and Information Bureau.

This article text was automatically generated and may include errors. View the full page to see article in its original form.
Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19680821.2.165

Bibliographic details

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31763, 21 August 1968, Page 17

Word Count
1,227

SYDNEY’S TRAFFIC PROBLEM Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31763, 21 August 1968, Page 17

SYDNEY’S TRAFFIC PROBLEM Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31763, 21 August 1968, Page 17