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Driving in Melbourne - WTF?

sleepa

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Used to travel a lot across town or into melbourne for work. used to just leave early and get there early, sit down and have a coffee and read the paper.
much better then trying to get there with 2 minutes to spare.
no stress that way.
or just used to start early to finish early.

This is exactly what I noticed when I lived in Melbourne.
Pre-Eastlink (12 years ago) it would take me nearly 2 hours to get from Dandenong to Thomastown, but if I left 1 hour earlier i'd get there in about 40 minutes.
The problem with this is I don't really like hanging out at work for an extra hour + before starting, especially when there is stuff all to do. The other option is to be late.

I'm not sure if it got better or worse since then.

Also remember that Melbourne is lucky enough to have a carpark for a freeway during peak traffic.
 

Smitty

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And this is one of the main reasons I moved from Melbourne to Brisbane.
Bad traffic up here is a nothing compared to what Melbourne is like.
.................

you are kidding of course...

I travel to Brisvegas several times a month for work.... and the drivers up there scare the shitter out of me.

It starts when you come out of the airport.. the tailgating is horrendous, all you can see of the bloke behind is his dentures
the trucks are the WORST ... sand truck ½ a metre from your rear when doing 90kmh along the freeway (speed limit is 90)

Indicators obviously don't work north of the Tweed river... or the crazy drivers up there break off their indicator arms when they get the car
no-one uses them.

Drinking AND driving blows me away... the number of drivers especially tradies driving with a beer in hand even at 0700 in the morning

Red lights at intersections are optional.... When up there I travel from the hotel in the city out to work at Eagle Farm and
I get sick and tired of the abuse from others for stopping at red lights along Kingsford Smith! Qlders don't if they can get away with it

Shall I continue..??? :)
 
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Tree cutter

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The main reason for not going ahead with Melbourne's new toll road was what was written into the fine print of the contract. If the toll road was built,no state government, federal government or local council would be allowed to build a new alternative route or improve on an existing route that could possibly reduce the need for people to use the new toll road. This means that if the traffic increases to a level that the toll road cannot handle, no-one is allowed to do anything to fix the problem for however many years was written into the contract. This is written into the contract so that motorists are forced to use the toll roads so that the private company ( Maquarie Bank) can make a profit.
There should never be any toll roads built anywhere by private companies. Motorists pay for road use every day with fuel taxes, rego fees,GST and income tax which should be used to build and fix roads.
 

Noeleter

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you are kidding of course...

I travel to Brisvegas several times a month for work.... and the drivers up there scare the shitter out of me.

It starts when you come out of the airport.. the tailgating is horrendous, all you can see of the bloke behind is his dentures
the trucks are the WORST ... sand truck ½ a metre from your rear when doing 90kmh along the freeway (speed limit is 90)

Indicators obviously don't work north of the Tweed river... or the crazy drivers up there break off their indicator arms when they get the car
no-one uses them.

Drinking AND driving blows me away... the number of drivers especially tradies driving with a beer in hand even at 0700 in the morning

Red lights at intersections are optional.... When up there I travel from the hotel in the city out to work at Eagle Farm and
I get sick and tired of the abuse from others for stopping at red lights along Kingsford Smith! Qlders don't if they can get away with it

Shall I continue..??? :)

Have to agree. There's also the fact that no one in Brisbane knows how to merge or use a roundabout and most drive while texting. They also don't wait for a gap before changing lanes. They just move over and force everyone else to take evasive action. There is really only one highway through the city which is heavily congested. When there is a crash everyone just parks for about 3 hours.
 

Wats_in_a_name

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The main reason for not going ahead with Melbourne's new toll road was what was written into the fine print of the contract. If the toll road was built,no state government, federal government or local council would be allowed to build a new alternative route or improve on an existing route that could possibly reduce the need for people to use the new toll road. This means that if the traffic increases to a level that the toll road cannot handle, no-one is allowed to do anything to fix the problem for however many years was written into the contract. This is written into the contract so that motorists are forced to use the toll roads so that the private company ( Maquarie Bank) can make a profit.
There should never be any toll roads built anywhere by private companies. Motorists pay for road use every day with fuel taxes, rego fees,GST and income tax which should be used to build and fix roads.

Also, with CityLink, the first toll road in Melbourne when it was built, it could have been paid for by a 3 or 4 cents a litre fuel levy at a time when petrol was less than a dollar a litre. To make matters worse Footscray Road which ran parallel to City Link was reconstructed around the Docklands as Wurundjeri way and reduced from three or four lanes in each direction to two.
 

strgas

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if only our fuel taxes was spent on roads we would have four lane highways everywhere and no train crossing to deal with and no buckled rims from potholes
:banstick:
 

gossie

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you are kidding of course...

I travel to Brisvegas several times a month for work.... and the drivers up there scare the shitter out of me.

It starts when you come out of the airport.. the tailgating is horrendous, all you can see of the bloke behind is his dentures
the trucks are the WORST ... sand truck ½ a metre from your rear when doing 90kmh along the freeway (speed limit is 90)

Indicators obviously don't work north of the Tweed river... or the crazy drivers up there break off their indicator arms when they get the car
no-one uses them.

Drinking AND driving blows me away... the number of drivers especially tradies driving with a beer in hand even at 0700 in the morning

Red lights at intersections are optional.... When up there I travel from the hotel in the city out to work at Eagle Farm and
I get sick and tired of the abuse from others for stopping at red lights along Kingsford Smith! Qlders don't if they can get away with it

Shall I continue..??? :)

Have to agree with this re. Qld/Brisbane drivers. They really and truly don't have a clue.
You need to be VERY careful near any roundabout as you just can't tell what they may or may not do including taking "racing lines" of course.
And as for using a freeway. Drive on a Qld. freeway at your own peril. No idea how to enter a freeway and no idea how to drive on one.

I am ex Melbourne, and I'm not making excuses for bad driving habits anywhere, but when I do go back now and then it's a pleasure to drive there, and the same overseas as we often are.
 

Grennan

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Whilst Brisbane may have shithouse drivers (so do we, hello Internationals, have a license) the traffic isnt as bad.

It really doesnt help that some ####ing absolute genius (VicRoads and Vic Labor) have scheduled work on the Tullamarine, West Gate and Bolte Bridge all at the exact ####ing time - for the next 18 months.

To top it off, Vline from the West has been replaced by buses which you guessed it, take the same roads.

To make things worse, everyday last week theres been an accident on the West Gate/Tunnel becuase people have been so frustrated they make dumb decisions.

Then in 18 Months when its finally done, theyve only added 2 lanes and its fixed nothing because the same ####ing bottle necks exist.

I hope every single moron who voted Labor and lives in the Western Suburbs remembers this.
 

sleepa

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you are kidding of course...

I travel to Brisvegas several times a month for work.... and the drivers up there scare the shitter out of me.

It starts when you come out of the airport.. the tailgating is horrendous, all you can see of the bloke behind is his dentures
the trucks are the WORST ... sand truck ½ a metre from your rear when doing 90kmh along the freeway (speed limit is 90)

Indicators obviously don't work north of the Tweed river... or the crazy drivers up there break off their indicator arms when they get the car
no-one uses them.

Drinking AND driving blows me away... the number of drivers especially tradies driving with a beer in hand even at 0700 in the morning

Red lights at intersections are optional.... When up there I travel from the hotel in the city out to work at Eagle Farm and
I get sick and tired of the abuse from others for stopping at red lights along Kingsford Smith! Qlders don't if they can get away with it

Shall I continue..??? :)

I never said that Qlders were good drivers. In fact I do think they are overall some of the worst I have seen, yes everyone seems to tailgate, no one uses indicators, no-one can navigate a roundabout, everyone either seems to speed 10+kms over, or do 20kms under, I don't think I have ever seen anyone merge onto a freeway correctly....

But the point was the traffic is better. Except on certain roads, but at least it doesn't take hours to get somewhere.

And that is also pretty much drivers in Melbourne too, except in Melbourne you get abused by tons of drivers there.

Have to agree with this re. Qld/Brisbane drivers. They really and truly don't have a clue.
You need to be VERY careful near any roundabout as you just can't tell what they may or may not do including taking "racing lines" of course.
And as for using a freeway. Drive on a Qld. freeway at your own peril. No idea how to enter a freeway and no idea how to drive on one.

I am ex Melbourne, and I'm not making excuses for bad driving habits anywhere, but when I do go back now and then it's a pleasure to drive there, and the same overseas as we often are.

All good, except for that last bit,
I still go back to Melbourne once a year and I would never call Melbourne a "pleasure to drive". I mean Melbourne drivers scare the crap out of me, everytime I drive down there I nearly get sideswiped by at least 3 morons.
 
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ya mum!
Whilst Brisbane may have shithouse drivers (so do we, hello Internationals, have a license) the traffic isnt as bad.

It really doesnt help that some ####ing absolute genius (VicRoads and Vic Labor) have scheduled work on the Tullamarine, West Gate and Bolte Bridge all at the exact ####ing time - for the next 18 months.

To top it off, Vline from the West has been replaced by buses which you guessed it, take the same roads.

To make things worse, everyday last week theres been an accident on the West Gate/Tunnel becuase people have been so frustrated they make dumb decisions.

Then in 18 Months when its finally done, theyve only added 2 lanes and its fixed nothing because the same ####ing bottle necks exist.

I hope every single moron who voted Labor and lives in the Western Suburbs remembers this.

It was like reading what I wrote in another thread. Couldn't agree more!
 
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