Four new Melbourne roads have failed to cut traffic queues at all, despite promising spectacular time savings in order to justify their costs, new research finds.
Billions of dollars have been spent since 1995 on roads across Melbourne including CityLink, the Deer Park bypass, EastLink and the Eastern Freeway extension. Yet the average speed Melbournians travel on freeways today is 78km/h, no faster than in 1995.
Melbourne’s investment in road infrastructure over the past 24 years has not paid off, the new research by transport analyst John Odgers and published by GAMUT finds.
“Major road infrastructure initiatives and the consequent economic investments have not yet delivered a net economic benefit to either Melbourne’s motorists or the Victorian community,” Odgers said in his paper.
Melbourne’s major urban road investments are also “unlikely” to gain major travel time savings in their lifetimes, the report also finds.
The average speed on Melbourne roads has in fact dropped since 1995, from an average of 44km/h to 40km/h, with speeds in the city during morning and evening peaks being the lowest since 1994.
Average travel speeds in inner Melbourne fell during peak hours after CityLink opened, with average speeds across the whole day for both freeways and all types of arterial roads in inner Melbourne similarly dropping between 2001 and 2007.
