Why driving in Victoria makes my blood boil

I love living in Victoria – unless it’s time to drive anywhere.

Construction projects cause chaos, the focus is stronger than ever on low-speed speeding enforcement to pay off the ballooning COVID debt, and national highways in need of repair after inclement weather is already annoying enough to be isolated, but that combination is enough to make your blood boil.

It may seem short-sighted to lament road projects designed to make getting around Melbourne easier when they are completed, but abrupt changes to major arterial roads are being worked on as well. enough to make you cry.

Random lane closures, prolonged arbitrary speed limits without any work going on, and thoughtless detours force large volumes of vehicle traffic on roads not designed for Handling is commonplace these days, making every commute to work a nasty stroke of luck.

Some days it takes me 25 minutes to drive home. For others, it took almost an hour on the same road because another lifeline was paralyzed or closed by road work. The worst days were when the three projects all decided they needed to close the lanes all at once, bringing the city to a complete standstill.

It doesn’t help that some of the city’s busiest train lines are also shut down and trams are just as congested as cars… and buses.

The good news is that the biggest projects are falling behind schedule and over budget.

If you can get out of the stalemate, it’s best to prepare for war.

Victorian country roads look like they’ve been peeled by now, with potholes big enough to swallow what a small car passes in 2023 and random changes to the surface because cheap, nasty patchwork forces you to drive on high alert at all times.

I recently drove from Melbourne to Falls Creek, and the standards of non-Hume roads are horrible. There’s a pothole (on the way into Tawonga, if you go that way) big enough to swallow a whole wheel and spit it out in pieces.

It’s an issue around the state; Our video team reports that the highway to Lang Lang is a minefield that is getting worse by the week and our own William Stopford himself recently reported that road quality dropped immediately after when traveling from New South Wales into Victoria.

Not quite right? Possibly, but there are no official reports documenting the number of potholes on Victorian roads, and I’m in journalism because math isn’t my forte, so anyone who thinks I should get out out and counting them is the wrong tree.

This year’s state budget shows that spending on road maintenance has dropped significantly since 2020.

Also according to the official report is the road toll, so far in Victoria is 153. That is a 28.6% increase over the same period in 2022 and the highest level since 2019.

Of course, the solution from our government is to throw more speed cameras at this problem.

That doesn’t make the roads any safer, since you can’t retroactively slow down when fines reach your mailbox.

It worries motorists, encourages them to stare at the speedometer instead of the road ahead, and it fills government coffers that are becoming ever scarcer after a costly response. disastrously less for COVID. But reducing road tolls? The numbers prove that the speedometer simply doesn’t work anymore.

Of course, the solution to the toll problem is driver training, but that costs money – and we’re only allowed to use the cash to pay tunnel workers better, install speed cameras. upgrade or develop branded cladding to inform congested motorists that slow and expensive road projects are being worked on them up today.

If you ask a particularly lackluster Victorian MP, the real solution for everyone is just turn on their headlight. If only we all lived in such a simple world.

In short, we hardly move in the city thanks to a series of construction projects that are behind schedule and over budget. If you can get out of the city, you’ll be faced with crumbling country roads that threaten your comfort at best and the wheels at worst.

Our government’s solution to these problems is to double down on low-speed enforcement.

Now, does anyone have a room to rent in New South Wales?