Vic government says roads are full

Did anyone else see the transport minister on the news? He said they wouldn't bother trying to fix the places that have traffic problems because the roads are full because the bad Victorians all try and drive their cars. They don't seem to understand people arnt driving their cars into the city just for fun, Australia isn't some small european country where you can catch public transport everywhere. They were saying they wanted to increase the population in melbourne the other week as well.

[Psycho Chicken]

Eh, since when did the Bracks government have a clue about anything to do with transport.

[Chucky]

Supply & demand guys..

If the sitting government won't do anything about transport then they'll get the **** at the next election. People demand better roads & the govt has to supply them. One issue they cannot ignore is transport.

[GTP 320]

The sooner the Bracks Government go, the better we will be for it.
Cheers John

[Keepleft]

Prob is he got back in last time...

Motoring and Transport including the topical Vic lunatic 3km/h tolerances crap, was not enough to sway some folk.

Other issues come into play. Blame women:-)

[RSgerry]

atleast you guys have a half-decent public transport system. come to perth and try cathcing a bus on sunday...impossible.

seriously, i am not sure which roads were being talked about, but the problem you have with melbourne (and other older cities) is that sometimes, there is nowhere to expand the road. however, the statement from the bracks government sounds like they arent going to consider any options and are happy to let people sit in their cars for hours while nothing changes.

[FordGirl]

Originally Posted by Keepleft

Other issues come into play. Blame women:-)

Hey! I resent that remark! (phwoar, nearly typed resemble then... :P)

The thing I don't understand is they rip up perfectly decent roads and resurface them, but leave the crap, busier roads that actually need to be fixed! Why waste the money on fixing a side street that barely gets used, that isn't even that bad anyway?

I swear they do everything backwards just to annoy us.
:jab:

[johnydep]

Originally Posted by lizardmech

Did anyone else see the transport minister on the news? He said they wouldn't bother trying to fix the places that have traffic problems because the roads are full because the bad Victorians all try and drive their cars. They don't seem to understand people arnt driving their cars into the city just for fun, Australia isn't some small european country where you can catch public transport everywhere. They were saying they wanted to increase the population in melbourne the other week as well.

It's alright for the guys that get chauffeured everywhere, while they read the paper, have phone interviews & get paid ridiculous amounts of money to tell us what we can't do & sometimes what we can.

[xr8 007]

I'm so sick of traffic, it seems wherever you go there are heaps of people and cars around!!! The government wants to put higher prices on parking in the city yet public transport is extremly expensive and NOT very realiable with tran delays everyday!!

[Smoked]

Originally Posted by Keepleft

Motoring and Transport including the topical Vic lunatic 3km/h tolerances crap, was not enough to sway some folk.

3km/h you say, the tolerance has been decreased to 2km/h now. My last speeding ticket said 2km/h tolerance. Adolf Bracks bites into more of my hard earned cash.

[LTDHO]

Fordgirl - I have also noticed this. A road near my folks' house was re surfaced yet it was fine. Surely the money could have been spent more wisely?

xr6007 - Public transport is my hate. I dread using the train or bus. They take longer and never reliable and don't get me started the condition of trains...

smoked - Bracksie is definately helping his hip pocket. Also he is doing absolutly nothing for our roads. Fact is speed doesn't kill but Mr Jo Pulbic thinks it does and like the rest of the sheep will follow.

Keeping on topic, you will find this is another reason why petrol prices are on the up. But if the roads we treated with the respect for the government the road users would also treat with respect and the roads would be less congested.

[johnydep]

Originally Posted by Smoked

3km/h you say, the tolerance has been decreased to 2km/h now. My last speeding ticket said 2km/h tolerance. Adolf Bracks bites into more of my hard earned cash.

Are you for real? Is that true?

[zetec]

How is that legal?

[Soundwarp]

Public transport is for those who don't own a FORD!

[T_Terror]

Yea i got told it was 2% as well when i was last pulled over.

FordGirl, LTDHO, we have a similar problem with our local council. They recently spent a good six weeks resealing one of the best roads in town, when one of the most used roads has potholes the size of my tyre's!

Is that right Smoked....there is now a 2km over limit tolerance?? crikey.

[RED_EL_XR8]

Vic Governmert takes bulk revenue from roads. Vic Goverment is responsible for Vic roads in the main. So they took the revenue, now they are saying they dont have big enough roads? Are they the people that should run roads in the future?

Now what other problems do you need solving?

[MickyB]

I guess the reason that all the 'easy' jobs get undertaken each year is a bit like that scene in 'Falling Down' where Michael Douglas accuses the council worker of fixing a road that has nothing wrong with it just so that they can meet budget and get the same money next year. There's no point coming in way under budget, because they will just have less to play with next year. I wish they would spend it on major arterials though.

[XWGT]

Its blatantly clear that the Bracks government will not spend a cent on roads, and will continue to push its ridiculous public transport regime.

One indication of just how bad things are going to become it is.

The WestGate bridge was designed with a capacity of 8000 vehciles per hour. It reached this limit over 2 years ago. The Bracks response was to do nothing for 2 years, then commission a report on how to expand capacity with a report back date of ...2 years. The options seem to be either another bridge or a tunnel under the Yarra, which you would imagine would take 3 years or so to construct.

So the bottom line is there will be no inceased capacity at all for at least 5 years, assuming the report is accepted and construction starts straight away.

Things are going to get damn ugly in Melbourne over the next few years......

[Mechan1k]

Victoria doesn't have traffic ... not compared to Sydney anyway.

[parawolf]

I'm so glad that I catch public transport to and from work these days.

I'm so happy with the situation is that i'm going to sell my car and we are going to become a 1 Ford family

We don't do shopping at a physical supermarket anymore, its all Colesonline.com.au. The $4.95 for delivery is next to nothing in the time it would take me to drive to a supermarket, park, shop, unpack at home vs it arriving in a 90 minute window on perhaps a Thursday evening afterwork.

Too easy.

[mcflux]

The main problems with Aussie public transport are:

1) Large area to cover
2) Small population.

We can't financially do what the Europeans, Americans and Asians (such as the Chinese) can do with their public transport systems.

So that leaves all the pressure on private transport. As others have said, with Bracks & co doing SFA about the looming situation, the next few years on the road are gonna suck!

Oh, I love the Fast Rail project too, in some places it is slower than what steam trains could manage in 1889! e

Original budget: $80m
Budget blowout: $1.3bn!!!

^^^ So maybe Bracksy can truthfully say that our fines ARE going back into transport! Too bad it's a massive waste of money. There will be less stops too (more "express" times, however not more times overall!) with the new Fast Rail project, what a joke!

-Dave-

[needfordspeed]

Originally Posted by FordGirl

The thing I don't understand is they rip up perfectly decent roads and resurface them, but leave the crap, busier roads that actually need to be fixed! Why waste the money on fixing a side street that barely gets used, that isn't even that bad anyway?

I swear they do everything backwards just to annoy us.
:jab:

Your right!! My street was perfect, nothing wrong with it at all, now they've bloody gone and fu*cked it up, we have to drive in the middle of the street very slowly so stones won't get flung up and chip the paint! All my mates hate coming down my street. out: out: out: : :jab: :SaiyanSmi

Atleast they don't put speed humps in but refuse to fix the pot holes like they do near me.

[One Drone]

Ghia5L said it;

1. Our population isn't big enough to justify a more efficient public transport system.
2. The distances in Australia are just too vast

If Victoria's roads are full, then what are the roads of Shanghai and Beijing? They have an excellent public transport system..

[EFPWR]

I for one HATE the victorian public transport (focusing on trains).. Of my last 5 trips ive made, i nearlly got into a brawl 3 times! Its so unsafe its beyond a joke..

[Daniel]

I used to catch 4 trains a day to get to school n back home EVERY day for 5 and a half FKN years in victoria, not to mention 4 busses also!
Yes it was alot of public transport and had no say in it; put it this way i now turn down numerous jobs in the city SOLELY on having to take public transport in there n back every day once again.
Holding a not great job 2km from my house is great, yes hours are long, yes pay is , but im happy going there, working there and coming home!

I have no caught any public transport since i got my P's, got them on my Bday so i dindt have to take another train trip un-needed to go school for that half a year and i can tell u now i pay alot of money on taxis when i need one, but at least they get me there when i need to be somewhere, unlike a train!

Honestly out of my 5 days of catching pub;ic transport a week when i was going to school, at least 3 if not more of those days id get home after 6:30 due to train cancelations = absolutely pathetic, id love to meet the people responsible n demand my wasted days of my life waiting around for canceled trains back.

It only gonna get worse, just the other day there was 26 cancelations coming from the CBD from 2:30 till 6:30 so the news said, was something about flooded station from burst main, but shows that they cant handle the heat when things get a bit racey, eg:
When coming home from school, would have tains packed for peak hour, was hard enough to get on a train not to mention be half humanly comfortable on one; they stop at a station n say cant go any further due to defective train in front, so we all get off, mass people around, they send 2 busses to carry us ALL 10km away, these busses licenced to carry 38passengers, crammed full ( busses too, old school bus rejects) and takes maybe 8 trips to get half the people to the next station!

Sorry bout the ramblings, but im all too farmiliar with the BS they call a transport system!

[Bearman]

So, Bracks wants to force us all onto a public transport system that is inefficient, unreliable and dead set f*cking dangerous outside of the peak hour.

I drive everywhere. All this means is that I avoid the CBD whenever possible. It's always best viewed from a distance anyway.

About 20 years ago a bloke I worked with got on a train at Flinders St just after 7pm. By the time the train got to Spencer St he was dead, knifed by a group of youths!!

Now you have unmanned stations everywhere and all kinds of nuffys hanging around day and night. Public transport safe??? My **** it is!!!

It would be cheaper to fix the roads.

[T_Terror]

And with all these problems Bracks and his idiot friends decided to "renovate" Spencer Station and build Federation Square instead of attending to what affects the most people every day.

[Psycho Chicken]

Originally Posted by Mechan1k

Victoria doesn't have traffic ... not compared to Sydney anyway.

Uh huh, ever driven anywhere near the Monash Freeway between 8am and 9am? Then there's 5pm tp 7pm. No traffic my ****.

BTW, when will we get our state motto changed? I want to submit "Victoria - We think, we'll pay someone to look into it".