Toll roads to ease congestion
 

What a load if sh1t.

"Senior Advisor suggests putting in toll roads"... to help ease traffic congestion.

In the last 3 to 4 years, the City of Perth has done the following:
* Approved more inner city living apartments.
* Forced the developers of the above apartments to build lots of carparks in the basements.
* Been happy to tax said bays to help raise revenue.

The net effect is that there are more car parking bays in the CBD area than ever before,
so as a natural progression they have started to choke the roads:
* St Georges tce used to be a clearway 2 lay affair in both directions. Now in parts it is choked to one lane each way.
* Going out of the city, Beaufort street near Curtin House used to be a 4 lane clearway... now 1 lane each direction.
* Coming into the city, William street used to be a 4 lane clearway... now 1 lane in each direction.
* Many other roads that used to be dual lane clearways both ways (4 lanes total) are now 1 lane each way. Aberdeen, Newcastle.
* Many "Turn left only" or "Turn right only" slip lanes have been removed. Perfect examples on Row Street and Bottom of horseshoe bridge.
* Reduced the useable lanes on the horseshoe bridge
* Reduced the number of lanes and clearway status of Wellington street.

The list goes on, where they create more bays, tax them, then choke the streets, and cry "we need toll ways".

ah... Welcome to Perth.

Thoughts ?

Add to that.......

No decent public transport, taxi fares @ 3 x rest of world rates - Not that you can get a Taxi when you need one......

No trains to domestic or international airport.

60kph zones on mitchell fwy around joondalup that aren't necessary, the fiasco that is Mitchell northbound just out of the city.

I'm surprised more people don't lose their minds sitting in peak hour.

I can't wait to get the hell out of Aus again - This place is FUCKED!

Personally I don't think it will help enough to justify the cost of rolling this out, that said I think we might see a bit more congestion in the surrounding areas of the city if people aren't willing to pay to use a road.

Having a work car and being based in the city, I've experienced just how frustrating the roads now are.
CHOGM was bad enough by itself but having the major roads through the city being reduced or restricted due to road works has made the place a nightmare to get through some times.

Surely there has to be a better way to remove the congestion in the city, perhaps building some multistory parking complexes North, East and West of the city would be a start.
Extend the Cat Buses to include these parking complexes and it might make a bit of a difference, then again give Perth another 10 or 20 years of growth and we will just be back at square one again.

I am not a fan of the public sector getting involved with critical infrastructure.

[QUOTE=mARC;777756]I am not a fan of the public sector getting involved with critical infrastructure.[/QUOTE]

Really? Isn't that what government is about? Providing infrastructure that isn't directly profitable?

[I]I'm so glad they privatised electricity. Public transport is brilliant as a pseudo privatised company.
[/I]
FFS what government needs to do is make long term plans not be a sound bite decision making body. Sadly it's the exact opposite.

don't work in the city :)

Having lived in a few other cities in Australia, and no longer currently living in Perth, I don't know what the fuck you guys are on about. The six years I spent driving the streets of Perth were a dream. Sure, you get congestion like anywhere else, and the Wild West has some interesting driving techniques I've never seen elsewhere, but it's really not that bad.

Cunts need to get out more.

[QUOTE=GTB Liberty;777758]Really? Isn't that what government is about? Providing infrastructure that isn't directly profitable?[/QUOTE]

Apologies that should have stated private sector and agree with you 100%.

I've always wondered why the City of Perth decided to change so many one-way roads recently to two-way roads. The best example I can think of is William St in Northbridge.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought one way to alleviate traffic on a given road is to make it one-way. Why the hell would they make a congested road even more congested by switching it to two-way?! It's almost as if they want the roads to be so congested that people would just give up going into Northbridge.