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| Standard traffic in the western suburbs |
This is how long the traffic queue stretches all the way from the Burnley Tunnel to the Malty Bypass in Werribee.
The Westgate Bridge and its vicinity are no longer the only trouble spots in the mornings, and haven't been for a long time now. The traffic problem has long since spread all the way down the Westgate Freeway down to the fringes of Werribee.
The traffic queue is the equivalent of bumper to bumper traffic from the city all the way to Mernda in the north and from the city all the way to Dandenong in the East which regularly sees trips from out west taking 1 hour (best case) and 2 hours (worst case).
To make matters even worse, it is not just the Westgate that is jammed, the infamous Western Ring Road continues its daily dose of frustration despite its reconstruction.
The blocking of the freeways has inevitably led to the complete halt of major local roads, particularly in the south west, compounding the problem.
Booming Point Cook's limited connectivity has seen all its major roads shutting down during peak hours. Point Cook Road, Palmers Road and Boardwalk Boulevard have all become car parks during the peaks. A little further north, Forsyth and Sayers Road have faced a similar fate which is only going to get worse as Tarneit, Truganina and the areas surrounding Laverton are set to undergo further development.
The redevelopment of Point Cook Road, the reconstruction of the Western Ring Road, the opening of the Palmers Road overpass and Williams Landing Station have seemed to not had as much impact on traffic as first hoped.
With the situation looking gloomy and with things set to get worse, is it time for a second river crossing to be built? Is the East-West Link and Melbourne Metro enough?
The East-West Link is set to go ahead and the first stage completed will be in the East, leaving the the western section to be completed some time in the distant future, if it is even finished at all.
Priority has been given to the east which has not been welcomed by the ever-growing number of residents in the west, fed up with being hard done by due to their position as a safe ALP seat.
Whatever decision is made in the future remains to be known, but what is known is that the State economy is losing a ton of money in lost productivity every single day and that the rapidly expanding West needs urgent attention before the situation become critical.
