Get 4 months extra on a 2 year plan here: nordvpn.com/builtbeauty. It’s risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee! Hey! Sorry if you noticed this video was a bit more rushed than usual. I’m actually in Melbourne (!) right now with Amy, and I made this really quickly before I got here. I just really wanted to get something out about the WestConnex before I headed off travelling for all of December. It's the fastest I've ever made a video lol. The WestConnex has been in the news a lot lately, after all! There’s not gonna be any more videos for the rest of 2023; this is my last video. I'm travelling for all of December ✈. It’s been a great year for my channel, we’ve gone from 10,000 subscribers to over 34,000 and I’m really really happy about that. Thank you all for your support, it means a lot to me 😊😊 I can assure you that I’m not going anywhere, I’m very keen to return in 2024, I have a lot of video ideas cooking away. So to anyone reading this right now, Merry Christmas, happy New Year, have a great holidays, and I’ll see you next year!
I don't know anyone who loves Parramatta Road and its existence gives Parramatta a bad name as it's a relic from the days of the West being the center of poverty
Parra Road is beautiful. It’s the persistence of legacy Grand Narrative in post-post-modernist deconstructionist tunnel machine fail. Destroying ‘Urban decay’ is the Gentrifica-toll-nation. Parra Rd is reminder there used to actually be productive use of inner Sydders. Take that old Greek Milkvar from 1950s - better then any Connex
Here in Victoria we use blue instead of green for guidance signs on toll roads. Makes confusion impossible. If your destination is on a green sign it's free and if it's on a blue sign it's tolled.
@@thefitnessinstructor8937I think Vic also uses blue background (with white text) for shopping centres etc. The toll signs use blue background with orange text
Terrible idea, I much prefer the NSW way. The colours are supposed to be for a purpose - green for suburbs, blue for points of interest (e.g. hospitals), brown for tourist spots, etc. Making toll roads a different colour is pointless and confusing. The bright yellow 'TOLL' nsw uses is more than enough.
WestConnex is the perfect metaphor for all the governments involved with it; in terms of the planning and design, the "procurement" process, and the resultant traffic clusterf***, even the signage. Peak NSW
Also the philosophy of engineering departments who see a design guideline and will use it uncritically in order to avoid any need to defend their work.
NSW Government is Australia's top government in planning and development are always patch fixes and scoped for for 4 years at a time. Where different dipartments and bodies fail to get their goals aligned, always NSW's left hand doesn't talk to right hand and vice-versa. And long needed developments things only get brought up and seriously debated on lead up to elections. Perfect example Sydney's trains and the never ending election promise of high-speed rail linking major towns like Newcastle to Sydney for commuting. Don't get be started on budgeting and over charging the public on things that should be free. Cost blow of projects like the new tunes are prime example and things like charging the public again for paid things like the M4 motorway.
@@tuut1241 You are almost right. The NSW Government (the previous one, not the current one that is just cutting the previous government's ribbons at official openings) actually did build big things. What Labor did in the 16 prior years was a joke. All tunnels built were undersized, clearly not fit for purpose and two of them went broke, one went broke twice. Yes, the pinchpoint near the Anzac bridge was a clear under-estimation of traffic flows, however that is somewhat temporary. When the Western Harbour Tunnel opens it will carry route M8, continuing on from the M8 tunnels and 20-30% of the traffic being pushed on to the Anzac Bridge will be diverted to the Western Harbour Tunnel, taking traffic off the Anzac Bridge, Western Distributor and Sydney Harbour Bridge. Additionally, when Sydney Metro West opens in a few years, cars will simply not be used by many people who will take the train to work for the first time. Ahhh, almost forgot, the toll on the M4 is not to cover a road that has been paid off but to cover the cost of widening it from three to four lanes each way, two to five lanes each way at the approaches to the tunnels and the Concord Interchange, and build the extra flyover at Granville.
I think part of the issue is not recognising that the westconnex (and surrounding locations on the signs) are NOT the destinations of the vehicles transiting through it. Don’t tell me “drummoyne” or “city” on the signs, instead: TELL ME *where* I’m going through the maze - “Gladesville Bridge”, or “Westbound M4”.
I honestly think they should go with Melbourne and Brisbane’s approach with colored blue signs for tolls for example with the “To M8 Toll” section being colored blue with the non toll routes being green.
As it turns out, the current light green signs were only used on Freeways until the late 1980’s. Before that, other roads were on a very dark green background. The change over to all light green occurred in the early 1990’s.
People unhappily stuck in traffic should always remember “you are traffic”. People always think the traffic is everyone else. I think the Rozelle interchange should be renamed the Gladys in honour of her contribution to badly designed roads. I would like to see a light rail super-loop along the full length of Parramatta Road and Victoria Road with crossovers along Silverwater Road, Olympic Park and Homebush Bay Drive/ Concord Road. This would support higher densities, connect Sydney University, RPAH, WSU, Top Ryde City etc and convert these roads into something closer to boulevards with urban renewal. This could interconnect with train stations such as West Ryde and Strathfield and new metro stations such as Burwood North, Olympic Park etc
While your light rail plan sounds a bit too ambitious, I agree with the general idea that we need more light rails. Would absolutely support ones on Parra and Victoria Roads.
lol to be fair, I watched some of the emergency meeting and many of the people were just residents who want to get in and out of their street. One poor bloke was told his street will be fully good to go by 2028. He seemed a bit upset.
Before Sydney becomes like Los Angeles or Texan cities with crappy public transport and overuse on cars...we need to ramp up PT frequency everywhere and force drivers to pay additional fees per KM they drive, with exceptions for the following: -People in postcodes more than 1km away from a train station/major bus routes -Families with kids under 12 -Families caring for elderly/disability -People with a disability -People who drive for (NOT TO) work Sydney needs to become a public transport city like tokyo...and NIMBYS and anti TOD people can move to rural Australia
I’m so happy moving back to Sydney after twenty years And couldn’t find a house at Balmain. Instead bought at south coogee 😂😂😂😂 I’m soooooo happy. Thank you. I walk everywhere and even to the Westfield which is a big hike.
Hi Sharath, tonight I went to an event organised by Inner West Council where members of the community spoke to Transport for NSW including Howard Collins. It was a very interesting meeting and the council is going to set up an independent advisory board made out of experts in the local community to work on fixing Victoria Road. It was a very interesting meeting and it would’ve been great if you came!
The whole west connex & that interchange at Leichardt are expletive ing nightmares!!!! "Turn left" & there are 2 lefts what are you meant to do with that? Sydney's roads have become an expletive ing nightmare. I wish I had never come back to Sydney
Part of the issue is that in the original design much of the city bound traffic exited at Camperdown. To save money this exist was cancelled and no alternative arrangments were made. Very short sighted. The Rozelle interchange was never going to work and the City of Sydney tried to tell the LNP Government 6 years ago. In addition there is going to be more traffic coming into the system when the extension to Kogarah is completed.
I suppose I have a bit of a different perspective on toll roads as where I'm from (Vancouver, Canada) toll roads are extremely rare, and I've also been to Japan where there really aren't any expressways that don't have tolls. I think they can be a valuable tool for fighting traffic congestion and automobile use, while also being pretty inconsequential to pay for freight or intercity buses. The key is to really make sure that people dislike driving so much on the alternatives that they're willing to either pay the toll, or do something other than drive. IMO this means that you should toll motorways & high traffic roads, and then make sure that everything that's not in that category does not primarily prioritize traffic flow. Bus lanes, bike lanes, fewer general purpose travel lanes in general all great, traffic signals that change frequently to prioritize pedestrians, etc. Taking back the road space to create alternatives that might be better than driving at all. Of course, it's not good when those tolls aren't going to fund public projects, and instead are just going to private shareholders. So I totally get what you're saying. If it were up to me, TransLink (our local unified transit agency, covers both public transit & major road network) would collect tolls from basically all of our bridges and use them to fund transportation projects in general.
Agreed, toll roads can have their benefits. Trouble is I don’t think Sydney does enough to try force people onto tolls or onto public transport. I hope they do some traffic calming, bike lanes, light rail etc to Parra Road to try encourage cars onto the WestConnex or onto public transposta.
@@ytlurker220 That is the case generally in major cities in Japan - if you want to drive and get somewhere quickly, especially when it's busy, there's going to be a toll involved. There are a lot of other options other than driving and this helps encourage that, which itself reduces traffic for anyone who after all that still needs to be on the road
Sharath. Your channel has grown and grown so much and your interest in and perception and knowledge of the subtleties of complex infrastructure projects is incredible. You have a huge future in urban and infrastructure planning. I hope that this is recognised and utilised by the appropriate authorities. I have always had a huge fascination with infrastructure and planning. And only wish that i had access to the level of technology and interface that you have today. Make the most of it. You wont regret it. And keep the project analysis and recommendation going. We need you. Best. Hamish.
We're doing the same thing here in Victoria, building massive new freeways for freight purpose. The problem is, the freeways are massively overbuilt. Both the West Gate Tunnel and North East Link consist of 2 new 6-lane freeways PLUS doubling the number of lanes on the freeways they connect to. That is absolutely unnecessary for freight alone.
it's not massively overbuilt, it's built for the future, so that they don't end up with a debacle like Sydney's M5 east tunnel - where it was built with just 2 lanes each direction and 10 years later they realise it's maxed out in capacity and traffic gridlock everyday during peak hour.
freight and 'moving trucks off local street' is just an excuse to build more car dependent infrastructure which gets clogged by commuters. If it was for freight, then cars would be banned and it would only be trucks, but they started running out of excuses to build more roads because it turns out more roads doesnt reduce traffic.
@@nightowldickson Both that and the Eastern Distributor were carparks from day one. We need the Bradfield mentality, he built things in the 1920s that still work today.
It's worth mentioning the Western Harbour Tunnel when open in 2027 will eliminate the need for traffic going to North Shore from using Anzac Bridge and the Harbour Bridge, thus reducing traffic there. Also, once the St Peters interchange is complete, it will be possible to travel from Parramatta to Sydney Airport just under 30 minutes, which is less time than driving from Parramatta to Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek.
The first exit from Western Harbour Tunnel Expressway will be Cammeray Miller St. OK for upper North Shore but lower North Shore incl North Sydney will still have better exit from Harbour Bridge to North Sydney Pacific Hwy or Kirribilli. Mosman and Northern Beaches might also be better via Bridge. They have already removed Expressway exit to Falcon Street turning west, (Taxi driver told me passenger going from eastern suburbs to Mosman had to go north to Cammeray then south on Miller to Falcon St to Military Rd.)
When the Sydney harbour tunnel opened traffic across the harbour increased by 40%. Population growth was only 4%. This new tunnel won’t do anything to ease congestion.
As someone who lives in the Blue mountains and needs to drive in for work it's been a fantastic addition. The drive has shortened by 30+ minutes! It's brilliant! City West link and Parramatta Rd sucked Now they need to build more pt!!!
The way I found out this was open was by driving across the ANZAC bridge towards Annandale while coming home from visiting some friends on the North Shore, and very suddenly finding myself transported to a completely different part of Sydney 🙃 The signs on the ANZAC Bridge were _not_ clear that the lanes to get to Annandale were different, despite it being a common turn off point!
The same thing with Forest Road and Stoney Creek Road. Since opening the M8 and now tolling the M5 East the traffic on these roads have never been worse.
the government might have sold the roads to transurban so they didnt end up with 'debt', but transurban is expected to bring in 70 bill in revenue by the time that contract is up and theyre getting that much because theyre charging a fortune to use the roads, which people are complaining about, and how is the government easing those complaints? by paying transurban a portion of the toll cost themselves so that users have a capped price
Uh Huh.... And Transurban also has to maintain all the tunnels in a safe condition for the whole period the toll concession lasts for. Here's a hint - that ain't free and if tollways weren't user-pays, you'd be paying anyway through higher taxes.
@@vintageradio3404 youre right maintenance expenses do have to come out of that 70 bill revenue, however that maintenance cost is about 15million dollars over the entire projects lifetime also we're already paying anyway through higher tax, because transurban has increased toll prices so much, the government is using tax money to subsidize the cost for people if the government entirely owned it still the tolls would either be much lower, or that 70 billion would be going back into government spending instead of some company
@@vincentgrinn2665 $15m over the life of the toll concession? You are dreaming. Transurban probably wishes you were right but you are nowhere near the truth. $15m per annum wouldn't cover the cost of wages alone. If the Government owned WestConnex the toll would probably be higher. They once did own it and the toll wasn't raised or lowered when the Transurban-led consortium bought in. The toll on the Government-owned Sydney Harbour Bridge is around $4.00 and the Bridge was paid off in 1989.
Hi Sharath. Enjoy the holiday season! Can’t wait for what next year will bring in terms of content. Thanks for bringing these amazing videos to us this year and covering my favourite topic; transport.
Dense housing on Parra Rd will just add more traffic to a place with too much traffic and do little to bring vibrance to immediate businesses. Saw it around Marrickville station and Norton Street in Leichhardt. The area around Canterbury Station is still awful even with a bunch of massive apartments built on to it. I understand the people around Parra Rd not wanting huge developments, for a start, it stops the area being what attracted people there in the first place. Look around Mascot Station, it's a complete fkn nightmare. Green Square was overdeveloped and chokes the hell out of the already problematic Botany Rd. We need to build out, not up. These old surburbs are being destroyed by overdevelopment. When everything is wall-to-wall apartments, there is no identity.
@buildingbeautifully the road has changed who is getting the worse traffic it has basically removed the traffic on the city west link (Parramatta Road to Rozelle) and is a nonstop run since it opened. It used to be a stop and crawl, it was faster to walk on the bay.
The road signage around these major toll roads is appalling, moreso when there have been no toll-free grace periods for drivers to recover from costly mistakes. I've been caught trying to avoid the entrances to M4 (at each end) at night when they opened. Poor lighting and blockage of crucial signs by heavy trucks made these very difficult to negotiate. As Prof Ann Williamson from UNSW has suggested - they need to be testing these roads with drivers unfamiliar with the area. There's still no sign from Gardners Rd / Bourke St to direct westbound traffic around the St Peters interchange.
Independent Truck Drivers often steer clear of using motorways because they're quite costly, some smaller companies prohibit drivers going on them unless they have to. For instance, traveling from Eastern Creek to Botany (M7,M5,M5 East) can cost a truck about $50 each way, just on tolls. It would be more practical if trucks were charged a flat weekly rate to access motorways
Forest Road and Stoney Creek Road has been completely packed since the introduction of the M5 Tunnel Toll (which in my opinion is to make the M8 competitive). When I drive into uni (I cannot commute 4 hours a day sometimes, so driving which takes about 2 hours return is an alternate and quicker option)
@@jamesrichardson645just made a similar comment. I’d love to understand why trucks are fined for NOT using the NorthConnex but no fines exist for trucks evading the M8, M5 and (soon to be) M6 tolls.
@@pholliez Politics, getting trucks off of pennant hills road was an election promise it was done to help win an election and nothing more. Unless the people affected by trucks avoiding the M5, M8 and soon to be M6 get pissed off enough that internal polling data shows people would be willing to switch parties in order to get it addressed, it simply wont happen.
@mike-williams any private owner just removes the speed limiters. They make driving more difficult than it needs to be. It prevents them from safely overtake other trucks, or speeding slightly at the bottom of a hill to keep momentum.
Im so glad I stumbled onto this page. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading all the comments/ replies. I don’t drive,never have,never will. One thing that occurred to me is that we seem to be heading for “ super cities”,and the whole 15 minute cities thing,where u live and work and play in close proximity. I feel over time we will be manipulated into that. It’ll simply become too expensive to drive or commute via public transport. Travel time is always factored into our day.We’ve always considered both options when looking where to live. ( as one drives,although is now captain commute,and one relies on public transport) personally ,it’s always about the money and return to “ shareholders”. The powers that be will merrily do what they please, we just need to work around them. I agree there should be more stops re the parramatta light rail ,but that would mean all the developers can’t advertise a short trip to city and therefore “ lose” value on all these dwellings being thrown up. Honestly if I drove to work, it’d be a matter of principle to avoid paying yet another corporate conglomerate far too much money.the average family budget just cannot handle the cost. I’d also like to say to the tradies, I agree, lugging tools around on public transport? And since moving west and using public transport to city, I’ve seen many tradies working on high rise areas travelling in groups to enable a pile of tool boxes ,hard hats,high vis,boots,lunches etc to be taken to sites. My other half is impressed with a capped weekly public transport cost( especially with fuel prices) and has commented on enjoying his time to just relax. We love where we now live,with a lot of building still to happen,so realise population will rise a lot. Trying to resist the whole nimby thing but that’s just a human trait. I think drivers should be more concerned about being forced onto electric vehicles ( which are worse for the environment and much more costly) with banks soon to refuse loans for “ old cars” and insurers also getting their pound of flesh- forcing many to attempt to get work in their locality. We’ve also had a couple friends change from cars to scooters or motorcycles, although it makes me cringe for their safety. This one person per four seater upwards car thing is a worry. Also a few neighbours only have to go into their office twice a week,so there is a few numbers there that aren’t using roads every day. I’ve caught public transport for 40 odd years now in Sydney in three very different areas and overall it’s a good system. The parramatta road thing is a great idea …..in a perfect world. I’d love to see it come to fruition. ATM we are really looking forward to the metro and exploring how to change over and link up. Just a few rambling thoughts.
My theory on the Introduction of the M5 Tunnel's new toll, is to ensure that commuters would actually use, and therefore pay the M8 Tunnel Toll, instead of taking the M5 Tunnel and General Holmes Drive for free. Most city destinations takes just as long taking the M5 as it does the M8. The M8 barely gets any traffic as it is now. It is always nearly empty, even when General Holmes Drive is completely blocked up. And for urban renewal, if they really wanted to encourage it, the tolls would be a lot less, which would move traffic onto the toll way, rather than just provide a quick route for people that are willing to sell their kidneys to afford the tolls.
The Taverners Hill light rail was a real find for me when I found it walking up Parramatta Rd towards Old Canterbury Rd. I like the quaintness of the stop. A light rail interchange at Taverners Hill along Parramatta Rd would make sense as there is a stairway up from Parramatta Rd to the current L1 light rail stop.
Great video. I only wish they would build a tunnel for a3 king georges or a6 north south direction to finish the loop around sydney. M7 and m1 is the only north south highway with 30km width of no highways in between. Most of the congestion is now for north south direction in this zone. Whereas east west direction already have m4 m5 and m2 placed around 10km from each other
Remember Sharath, not every motorist can use public transport. Thousands of goods and services providers can't be expected to lug tools and machinery around on public transport to, from work and inbetween jobs for the day As someone who largely uses the M4 as a service provider, this network is a game changer. No more sitting in the city west link in standstill traffic When the proposed/visionary rail and roads links are finished (2050) Sydney will be a much better city to commute around Great video as always!
If you're driving a work van you can just expense the tolls though, right? One of the bonuses of public transport & other traffic reduction measures is that it relieves pressure from the road transport infrastructure you already have, so the people who actually do need to use the road will be able to do it more easily and you can get more without having to build a whole bunch of very expensive (especially for the capacity) road infrastructure I don't think anyone's saying this is a bad project necessarily, but there are definitely better alternatives to building bigger motorways all the time.
@@DevynCairns Yes an no. Toll still has to be paid. Ultimately it comes out of the customers pocket I'm hoping all the other proposed roadways come to fruition Western Sydney is terrible to use public transport from. A simple 30-40 drive, can take hours in some cases
@@JohnFromAccounting the minority of Sydneysiders live within reasonable commutable distance of public transport. Should the rest suffer in standstill traffic when a long overdue road network should have been completed at least a decade ago
The most confusing thing about the signage, to me, is that the A40 still follows the surface street. It's an A-road! If you want people to use the tunnel, route the A-road through the tunnel! (Last I checked, NorthConnex had the same problem… and not just because it's got a similar dumb name.)
I am so glad I don't have to drive in Sydney traffic during pick times anymore. (Retired). It's always been a nightmare and the more roads they build the worse it gets.
Weirdly, the city bound tunnel entrance at Haberfield - start of City West link - doesn't mention the tunnel goes to Anzac Bridge/City. Sign only says Airport/Port Botany. How many cars are getting on the City West link instead of using the tunnel?
if they want to develop Parramatta Rd, the NSW govt need to crack down and introduce legislation to eradicate NIMBY. Its been going on for FAR too long in the innerwest
I have my Google set to avoid toll roads. As someone who travels through Sydney to get somewhere else the $30 in told just isn't worth the 30 minutes I save.
That will not work because people with families still need a larger car that fits everyone in even if that is the minority of their usage. Maybe there is some way to have owning separate commuting and family cars but I can’t see it. A stick never works, you will never get people to abandon cars when even with the ridiculous traffic public transport takes twice as long or more for many people
Costs me over $150 a week in tolls to visit my ageing parents out west. If I don’t use tolls it’s up to a 1.5-2 hr journey depending on clusterfrack traffic and merging botttlenecks. And we pay 30% tax. Thanks Sydney.
I travel from Beverly Hills to Botany and back for work. Catching public transport (a train then a bus) takes at least an hour each way and was costing $50 a week 7 years ago when I stopped using it. Traveling by car takes 30 minutes each way and costs me $50 a fortnight even with the current high fuel prices. I used to take the M5 East but now refuse since they started charging a toll for a road that was once free. Going via Stoney Creek Rd may take 10 or 15 minutes longer tham using the tunnel but saving $11 in tolls each day makes it worth it.
The MAJOR issue with our motorways and trains network is that there are NO NORTH-SOUTH MOTORWAYS OR TRAINS. Parramatta Rd, Victoria Rd, the M5/M8, and the M4 are all East-West roads. The issue with Parra and Vic is that there are too many other small roads that intersect with them. So wherever you go in Sydney, you're sort of FORCED to interact with these roads at some point, even when you're trying to get to the new motorways in the first place. If they really want to make Parramatta Rd inner west into some pedestrian-friendly boulevard with lots of trams, they're gonna have to solve the north-west access FIRST. Otherwise, Parramatta Rd ends up being a literal barrier to people travelling north-south - sort of like what George St is now with the trams. Currently, the ONLY north-south motorways are the M7 from Blacktown to Liverpool, and the Gore Hill Freeway/Harbour Bridge/Eastern Distributor-to-M5 roads. BUT NOTHING BETWEEN THEM! There needs to be a motorway that runs north-south from the M1 at Pymble, through Ryde, past the M4 at Olympic Park (AND BYPASSING THAT TERRIBLE ROUNDABOUT AT DFO) and along the King Georges Rd down to the future M6 and/or Sutherland. There needs to be a TRAIN LINE that runs north-south from North Strathfield that intersects with the Bankstown line and the Beverly Hills line down to Hurstville or Sutherland. Why can't they widen the existing freight train lines that already run north-south through Lidcombe/Greenacre/Belmore? Fix north-south access!
For people who legitimately use local roads in very beneficial ways (like you say couriers), there would sensibly be exceptions under such regimes. This concept of "filtered permeability" can be seen in it's mastered form in e.g. the Netherlands, where (admittedly already laid out to be less cad-dependent) places to work and live have physical barriers to prevent thru-traffic, with exceptions for delivery and service vehicles. In the Sydney context - for instance the NorthConnex gantries fining trucks exempts the use of Pennant Hills Rd for non-thru-traffic (i.e. if they're accessing destinations there).
Hell no, the answer to parramatta road isn't to get rid of lanes to ease congestion. Light rails are just as much as corporate sham as anything from transurban. None of the flexibility of busses with none of the mass movement of trains and traffic light skipping of trains.
The North Connex tunnel to join the M1 (at Hornsby) to the M2 (at Pennant Hills) to ease traffic on Pennant Hills Road has been successful. It has taken all the trucks off Pennant Hills Road and eliminated the 20kph crawl. Not every new motorway is a disaster.. Equally, the light rail in the CBD has not been a success. (How many years late, and how many businesses made bankrupt because of closed-off streets?)
Hey 👋 Brisbane fan here. Wondering your thoughts on the North Tunnel “a congestion-busting road tunnel between Kedron and Carseldine in Brisbane’s north”…?
As someone living near the M6 construction, this is so worrying. I’d love you to cover why the NorthConnex area has heavy fines for trucks NOT using it but there aren’t similar fines in the areas around the M8 and there are no proposals for truck fines for the M6 when it opens.
@@ibanezlaney Except that no-one builds station wagons now which are suitable for trade work. All the cars you mention will fit quite well into a standard sized traffic lane. Why the hatred?
Parramatta Road is not a destination, it is a conduit. Bus lanes haven't relieved any congestion along Parramatta road and clogging it up with rail lines and stations would be counter-productive, it would simply impede traffic flow even more. There are just too many intersections with traffic lights along Parramatta road, that is the greatest impediment to traffic flow. The cure for congestion is to address the problems of intersections, traffic lights don't solve any of the problems of traffic flow, they are just a crude traffic management device.
Having been forced to go from South to North up Parramatta road before the tunnels existed, i couldn't understand how it was so bad vs Melbourne. And then the random tunnels i took that were flooded and copied the roads next to it. Just the whole city needs to be ripped up and started again. And remove tolls. The rot started with Jeff Kennett, the CityLink that was only meant to be a 25 year contract iirc. Conveniently was extended when they widened it. Just like the rest of the freeways attached were. It's so frustrating.
The only problem is people try to avoid tolls. No problem for me at all as I paid the toll, 20 mins from Parra to City is a dream run. Just pay for it, if you don't, just stuck in traffic
Public transport now along Victoria now is so bad now. I now get off the Bus just after Gladesville Bridge and walk to the ferry to the city as it is now way quicker, than traversing Rozelle
Having lived in Sydney for the past 10 years (and loving most of it), I think it has the absolute worst road signs of any place I’ve ever been to. They’re completely vague / don’t tell you where the road spits you out and if you make a mistake you’ll lose over an hour of time. It’s also common that there’s no street signs anywhere. Makes driving without a gps almost impossible unless you’ve driven the route before
I've never had an issue with Sydney's arterial road signage. It's quite clear and understable in 99.9% of cases and I rarely go off course because of signage. My one gripe is that they are no longer putting the white border around the highway numbers. This doesn't make signs confusing, just harder to read.
As someone who lives very close to Parra Rd Annandale, I just wish they would stop all the construction. I'll survive with the traffic for a bit of peace from construction noise
In my view its great to have these infrastructures build when interest rates were super low. Look at other states struggling to build infrastructure when interest rates are high.
My understanding was that the NSW government signed some document (a non-compete clause of sorts) that doesnt allow for competing public transport along parramatta road (e.g. somrthing that provides an alternative to travelling via tolled roads)
Genuine question, is this what's happening: Traffic from out West is having a dream run all the way to town, but at the expense of traffic from Victoria Rd? I mean why are there suddenly more people wanting to get on Anzac Bridge (ooh new tunnel, let's go for a jolly drive into town - seems unlikely)? It's too soon for induced traffic, in fact all the bad press should be suppressing traffic. If that's what's happening, surely the pragmatic response is, take a lane off the incoming traffic from the West, make them merge in the tunnel, and give that lane to the Victoria Rd traffic to more fairly allow access to ANZAC bridge? (If that's not the scenario, forget I spoke)
@BuildingBeautifully, can. you do a post about the WestConnex Airport exit? Spills out to suburban Mascot and Gardeners Rd. Seems like the newly constructed overpasses between the Domestic and International terminals were a wasted opportunity to link with WestConnex traffic?
I don’t know why they do snap openings. There should be a clear date and on-road signage in the weeks ahead preparing drivers. eg. “Iron Cove to Anzac bridge opens 26 Nov. Toll free.” It’s good to have online available animations but you can’t beat the reach of signage to the actual road users. Often lost in the discussion but happy to see included here is one of the “why-was-it-built?” reasons and that is freight. Every productivity report for decades on Sydney has called for better movement around the city and out of the city for freight out of the airport and port botany. Costing the economy x to y billions. Will be interesting to also see the impact the new western Sydney airport has here, although the city continues to grow and it may just absorb the benefits for the growth.
The warning signage you mentioned was in place, both on overhead electronic signs and on portable roadside signs. The problem is, people do not read them.
5:00 Attacking Engineers over the M5 is not warranted at all!!! When Bob Carr was elected in 1995 he promised to remove the tolls from the M4 and M5 and build the M5 East toll free. Possibly two of the worst public policy decisions ever made. Before the election, companies had already put forward high quality 2 x 3 lane tunnel proposals as tollways. When they were asked for proposals to build the same tunnels toll free, the government claimed they couldn’t afford it. Civil Engineering companies, including my former employer, spent tens of millions of dollars repricing the project five times before they ended up with the affordable cheap and nasty M5 East we have now. The blame lies squarely at the feet of politicians, specifically Bob Carr who won the 1995 election on a lie about tollways.
This was an absolutely rubbish cash grab. Not an answer to the problem: too many cars on road. Here’s some thing that would have helped: traffic lights that use smart technology which was designed in the early 90’s. Some parts of Sydney don’t even have this technology. It’s a joke.
Hi. Really enjoy your videos and have been a subscriber for a while. At 17:27 you state that Transurban is a private company. It is in fact a publicly listed company on the ASX, owned by the shareholders. Nb. Disclaimer. I own shares in Transurban
Simple fluid dynamics will predict that running 10 lanes into 4 will cause a log jamb. Who'd have thought! Generally, way-finding signage and lane markings have dived in quality in recent years. I tried to find my way from Crows Nest to Parramatta road recently and found that the 'bridge' lane became the 'tunnel' lane around a bend, necessitating an almost dangerous move to the lane I wanted. Then I was after a road to connect to Parramatta Rd so I could get to a function at a Sydney Uni college. No tips from the signs at all. All the signs were about distant destinations, or so general as to be useless. Confused signs confuse drivers, confused drivers are dangerous drivers. Dangerous drivers have accidents. Some of our freeway/motorway signage is just as confusing. The practice I'm used to in the States has some great ideas: numbered exists rather than unhelpful and sometimes ambiguous place names which mean nothing to newbies. Maybe both. so I can tell someone to get off the M4 westward at exit 10 instead of, say, the turn just past May's Hill, but before you get to Prospect (apologies to Laurie Anderson's song). Why not use both. Also the signs in the US, East coast anyway, that warn you for coming turn-offs. They have ''1st exit, Smithfield, 2nd exit Weatherill Park...(sorry just local names I've grabbed), which allow better planning of lane position than suddenly at 110 to come up to 'turn off in 2km to..." although one needs that as well.
The Hume Motorway has numbered exits and I am not sure why. It means nothing and the signage you mentioned will just get forgotten by many. What people need to understand is that it is not possible to include all place names on a sign. Only a handful of destinations can be covered and this is generally what happens. For everything else, there is the humble street directory.
Just to be fair about rail freight vs trucking, the freight line from Port Botany is already supplying three intermodal freight depots - my understanding is that the freight line is pretty much maxed out, and getting trucks in and out of Port Botany (some of Australia’s most expensive and critical infrastructure) was a big part of the motivation for WestConnex.
This project seems like a royal stuffup, how can you spend so much time and money and have it flop on opening day, I'm glad I don't go near Rozelle very often, and will definitely be steering clear of it until they can rectify the issues.
The money from sale of Westconnex $13billion went to the NSW Generations fund. Basically a hedge fund to gamble on stock market. They sold public assets to gamble and NSW now $130 billion in debt....
Hi there, what do you think of Toll roads discriminating against private vehicles? For example registered heavy vehicles get free travel meanwhile light vehicles will need to pay 10x more to cover both costs. At what point toll road prices and congestion force people to change their commuting habits? I believe the best compromise to improve congestion without major infrastructure changes is to get people on motorcycles/ scooters. It worked in Vietnam, road design there was bad but everyone still got around. When they started to buy cars that's when congestion got bad and then they decided to build a metro.
Thanks a good wrap of some of the issues. Silly to label people nimbies tho. Don’t forget everyone else is a nimby until YOUR quality of life gets affected.
westconnex provides value. Every day I save 30-60 mins of my time travelling to sites all over Sydney, and when Gateway opens it gives me another 20 mins. Its questionable why it costs so much, where money goes, who gets cosy multimillion pension from it and so on, but at least it works and saves. And what gives me all these boulevards, pushbike paths and hypotetical trams on Parramatta rd? What to do there at all? How I get one cent or one minute from them? No way. Refuse.
It’s super important to consider the future of Parramatta Road and Victoria Road before answering the question. Creating a pedestrian boulevard and dismantling a stroad requires the tunnels that have been built so far.
converting it to a pedestrian boulevard requires people to use those tunnels which they wont do if its tolled. Tolls have consistently resulted in lower then expected capacity on express ways. If we remove the stroad traffic will just redirect on to surrounding streets. It's long passed time we stopped allowing tolls, they make everything worse.
Having the Paramatta LightRail through-run to CQ will add complexity to the network and result in a bottle neck. It would be best to add the connecting lines but terminate services at Railway SQ or Haymarket. If it does through-run then the L2 or L3 should terminate at Central for the slot to be given to the L4.
I don't agree with a lot of what you have to say, but starting to actually like you as a person / presenter. Puzzling confliction, hope you have a good holiday!
You could slways use the Rozelle interchange as a light rail interchange as a part of sydney wide light rail network, just make it more difficult for private cars to use the roads.
If they reduced Parramatta rd to single lane, traffic would be chaos. They built westconnex to cater for the increasing amount of traffic and to profit from that. A tram along Parramatta rd without more tunnels would instantly gridlock the entire city.
With the comment “ideally there should be almost no traffic coming from Victoria Rd onto the ANZAC Bridge” - you’ve made exactly the same mistake the planners clearly did - ignoring the traffic coming from Balmain / Rozelle / Birchgrove. They have no choice but to use Victoria Road.
The proposed medium density precinct near us in Leichhardt is 100m behind yet is part of the "Parramatta Rd Revitalisation"?! Yes, it's walking distance to the light rail... the over capacity light rail... but why not include the commercial properties ON Parramatta Rd. Plus look at Camperdown - there are sad, soot covered established apartments along Parramatta Rd - will we get more of the same? Where's the traffic going if its not being reduced enough for bus lanes to be added (the Govt said they can't fit them in as the traffic post-Westconnex won't go down enough). This all makes it very easy to be a NIMBY. There's no faith in the process or the outcomes. Would love to know what percentage of NIMBYs are anti-development versus anti poor planning?
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Hey! Sorry if you noticed this video was a bit more rushed than usual. I’m actually in Melbourne (!) right now with Amy, and I made this really quickly before I got here. I just really wanted to get something out about the WestConnex before I headed off travelling for all of December. It's the fastest I've ever made a video lol. The WestConnex has been in the news a lot lately, after all!
There’s not gonna be any more videos for the rest of 2023; this is my last video. I'm travelling for all of December ✈. It’s been a great year for my channel, we’ve gone from 10,000 subscribers to over 34,000 and I’m really really happy about that. Thank you all for your support, it means a lot to me 😊😊
I can assure you that I’m not going anywhere, I’m very keen to return in 2024, I have a lot of video ideas cooking away. So to anyone reading this right now, Merry Christmas, happy New Year, have a great holidays, and I’ll see you next year!
Thanks for the shoutout! As a professional Parramatta Road hater I got literal chills when you said "there remains one problem: Parramatta Road"
Ay you're that eggy bloke that was kicked out of a train station, right?
Parramatta Road is great for offroading when you don't want to leave the city.
@@notaplic8158I want an update on his response so commenting
I don't know anyone who loves Parramatta Road and its existence gives Parramatta a bad name as it's a relic from the days of the West being the center of poverty
Parra Road is beautiful. It’s the persistence of legacy Grand Narrative in post-post-modernist deconstructionist tunnel machine fail. Destroying ‘Urban decay’ is the Gentrifica-toll-nation. Parra Rd is reminder there used to actually be productive use of inner Sydders. Take that old Greek Milkvar from 1950s - better then any Connex
Here in Victoria we use blue instead of green for guidance signs on toll roads. Makes confusion impossible. If your destination is on a green sign it's free and if it's on a blue sign it's tolled.
Same in Brisbane
@@samsam21amb and Toowoomba.
in nsw blue signs denote commerical areas, centres of towns etc
@@thefitnessinstructor8937I think Vic also uses blue background (with white text) for shopping centres etc. The toll signs use blue background with orange text
Terrible idea, I much prefer the NSW way. The colours are supposed to be for a purpose - green for suburbs, blue for points of interest (e.g. hospitals), brown for tourist spots, etc. Making toll roads a different colour is pointless and confusing. The bright yellow 'TOLL' nsw uses is more than enough.
WestConnex is the perfect metaphor for all the governments involved with it; in terms of the planning and design, the "procurement" process, and the resultant traffic clusterf***, even the signage. Peak NSW
Also the philosophy of engineering departments who see a design guideline and will use it uncritically in order to avoid any need to defend their work.
Peak Liberal party govenment.
NSW Government is Australia's top government in planning and development are always patch fixes and scoped for for 4 years at a time. Where different dipartments and bodies fail to get their goals aligned, always NSW's left hand doesn't talk to right hand and vice-versa. And long needed developments things only get brought up and seriously debated on lead up to elections. Perfect example Sydney's trains and the never ending election promise of high-speed rail linking major towns like Newcastle to Sydney for commuting. Don't get be started on budgeting and over charging the public on things that should be free. Cost blow of projects like the new tunes are prime example and things like charging the public again for paid things like the M4 motorway.
@@tuut1241 You are almost right. The NSW Government (the previous one, not the current one that is just cutting the previous government's ribbons at official openings) actually did build big things. What Labor did in the 16 prior years was a joke. All tunnels built were undersized, clearly not fit for purpose and two of them went broke, one went broke twice.
Yes, the pinchpoint near the Anzac bridge was a clear under-estimation of traffic flows, however that is somewhat temporary. When the Western Harbour Tunnel opens it will carry route M8, continuing on from the M8 tunnels and 20-30% of the traffic being pushed on to the Anzac Bridge will be diverted to the Western Harbour Tunnel, taking traffic off the Anzac Bridge, Western Distributor and Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Additionally, when Sydney Metro West opens in a few years, cars will simply not be used by many people who will take the train to work for the first time.
Ahhh, almost forgot, the toll on the M4 is not to cover a road that has been paid off but to cover the cost of widening it from three to four lanes each way, two to five lanes each way at the approaches to the tunnels and the Concord Interchange, and build the extra flyover at Granville.
I think part of the issue is not recognising that the westconnex (and surrounding locations on the signs) are NOT the destinations of the vehicles transiting through it. Don’t tell me “drummoyne” or “city” on the signs, instead: TELL ME *where* I’m going through the maze - “Gladesville Bridge”, or “Westbound M4”.
But wah, how will the investors make their money if we weren’t confusing drivers into taking longer tolled routes instead of the most logical ones?
I honestly think they should go with Melbourne and Brisbane’s approach with colored blue signs for tolls for example with the “To M8 Toll” section being colored blue with the non toll routes being green.
As it turns out, the current light green signs were only used on Freeways until the late 1980’s. Before that, other roads were on a very dark green background. The change over to all light green occurred in the early 1990’s.
i dunno, already seems pretty clear that the toll is only for the M8. you cant fix stupid.
@@gregessex1851which is great but most people on here including me were either young or not born in the early 90s.
@@Low760 hence the reason to mention that piece of history
Now now, can’t do anything that might affect private road profits
People unhappily stuck in traffic should always remember “you are traffic”. People always think the traffic is everyone else.
I think the Rozelle interchange should be renamed the Gladys in honour of her contribution to badly designed roads.
I would like to see a light rail super-loop along the full length of Parramatta Road and Victoria Road with crossovers along Silverwater Road, Olympic Park and Homebush Bay Drive/ Concord Road. This would support higher densities, connect Sydney University, RPAH, WSU, Top Ryde City etc and convert these roads into something closer to boulevards with urban renewal. This could interconnect with train stations such as West Ryde and Strathfield and new metro stations such as Burwood North, Olympic Park etc
While your light rail plan sounds a bit too ambitious, I agree with the general idea that we need more light rails. Would absolutely support ones on Parra and Victoria Roads.
Get out of your car. I'm far from a fan of either Shitney Trains / Buses but they're better than sitting in a car in traffic.
lol to be fair, I watched some of the emergency meeting and many of the people were just residents who want to get in and out of their street. One poor bloke was told his street will be fully good to go by 2028. He seemed a bit upset.
Before Sydney becomes like Los Angeles or Texan cities with crappy public transport and overuse on cars...we need to ramp up PT frequency everywhere and force drivers to pay additional fees per KM they drive, with exceptions for the following:
-People in postcodes more than 1km away from a train station/major bus routes
-Families with kids under 12
-Families caring for elderly/disability
-People with a disability
-People who drive for (NOT TO) work
Sydney needs to become a public transport city like tokyo...and NIMBYS and anti TOD people can move to rural Australia
I’m so happy moving back to Sydney after twenty years
And couldn’t find a house at Balmain. Instead bought at south coogee 😂😂😂😂 I’m soooooo happy. Thank you.
I walk everywhere and even to the Westfield which is a big hike.
Hi Sharath, tonight I went to an event organised by Inner West Council where members of the community spoke to Transport for NSW including Howard Collins. It was a very interesting meeting and the council is going to set up an independent advisory board made out of experts in the local community to work on fixing Victoria Road. It was a very interesting meeting and it would’ve been great if you came!
Howard is a great person but the best puppet for any transport privatisation project, thanks Gladys.
The whole west connex & that interchange at Leichardt are expletive ing nightmares!!!! "Turn left" & there are 2 lefts what are you meant to do with that? Sydney's roads have become an expletive ing nightmare. I wish I had never come back to Sydney
@@isaiah513623 two lefts -don’t make a right.
Oof couldn’t be there as I’m travelling right now. Keep me posted though as I’d love to be involved in the future!
As always very independently biased panel I am sure
Part of the issue is that in the original design much of the city bound traffic exited at Camperdown. To save money this exist was cancelled and no alternative arrangments were made. Very short sighted. The Rozelle interchange was never going to work and the City of Sydney tried to tell the LNP Government 6 years ago.
In addition there is going to be more traffic coming into the system when the extension to Kogarah is completed.
Having 10 lanes go down to just 4 on the Anzac Bridge never made sense and we all knew this years ago. And so here we are now 🙄
I suppose I have a bit of a different perspective on toll roads as where I'm from (Vancouver, Canada) toll roads are extremely rare, and I've also been to Japan where there really aren't any expressways that don't have tolls. I think they can be a valuable tool for fighting traffic congestion and automobile use, while also being pretty inconsequential to pay for freight or intercity buses. The key is to really make sure that people dislike driving so much on the alternatives that they're willing to either pay the toll, or do something other than drive.
IMO this means that you should toll motorways & high traffic roads, and then make sure that everything that's not in that category does not primarily prioritize traffic flow. Bus lanes, bike lanes, fewer general purpose travel lanes in general all great, traffic signals that change frequently to prioritize pedestrians, etc. Taking back the road space to create alternatives that might be better than driving at all.
Of course, it's not good when those tolls aren't going to fund public projects, and instead are just going to private shareholders. So I totally get what you're saying. If it were up to me, TransLink (our local unified transit agency, covers both public transit & major road network) would collect tolls from basically all of our bridges and use them to fund transportation projects in general.
Problem is when toll roads are the only fast and reliable option. Sydney's entire orbital expressway network is tolled.
Agreed, toll roads can have their benefits. Trouble is I don’t think Sydney does enough to try force people onto tolls or onto public transport. I hope they do some traffic calming, bike lanes, light rail etc to Parra Road to try encourage cars onto the WestConnex or onto public transposta.
@@ytlurker220 That is the case generally in major cities in Japan - if you want to drive and get somewhere quickly, especially when it's busy, there's going to be a toll involved. There are a lot of other options other than driving and this helps encourage that, which itself reduces traffic for anyone who after all that still needs to be on the road
Sharath. Your channel has grown and grown so much and your interest in and perception and knowledge of the subtleties of complex infrastructure projects is incredible. You have a huge future in urban and infrastructure planning. I hope that this is recognised and utilised by the appropriate authorities. I have always had a huge fascination with infrastructure and planning. And only wish that i had access to the level of technology and interface that you have today. Make the most of it. You wont regret it. And keep the project analysis and recommendation going. We need you. Best. Hamish.
We're doing the same thing here in Victoria, building massive new freeways for freight purpose. The problem is, the freeways are massively overbuilt. Both the West Gate Tunnel and North East Link consist of 2 new 6-lane freeways PLUS doubling the number of lanes on the freeways they connect to. That is absolutely unnecessary for freight alone.
it's not massively overbuilt, it's built for the future, so that they don't end up with a debacle like Sydney's M5 east tunnel - where it was built with just 2 lanes each direction and 10 years later they realise it's maxed out in capacity and traffic gridlock everyday during peak hour.
freight and 'moving trucks off local street' is just an excuse to build more car dependent infrastructure which gets clogged by commuters. If it was for freight, then cars would be banned and it would only be trucks, but they started running out of excuses to build more roads because it turns out more roads doesnt reduce traffic.
@@nightowldickson research induced traffic demand
@@nightowldickson Both that and the Eastern Distributor were carparks from day one. We need the Bradfield mentality, he built things in the 1920s that still work today.
It's worth mentioning the Western Harbour Tunnel when open in 2027 will eliminate the need for traffic going to North Shore from using Anzac Bridge and the Harbour Bridge, thus reducing traffic there.
Also, once the St Peters interchange is complete, it will be possible to travel from Parramatta to Sydney Airport just under 30 minutes, which is less time than driving from Parramatta to Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek.
Just one more road bro, then we fix traffic, just one more road.
thus reducing traffic there.???
fun fact 'traffic' will ALWAYS fill the new void...always
The first exit from Western Harbour Tunnel Expressway will be Cammeray Miller St. OK for upper North Shore but lower North Shore incl North Sydney will still have better exit from Harbour Bridge to North Sydney Pacific Hwy or Kirribilli. Mosman and Northern Beaches might also be better via Bridge.
They have already removed Expressway exit to Falcon Street turning west,
(Taxi driver told me passenger going from eastern suburbs to Mosman had to go north to Cammeray then south on Miller to Falcon St to Military Rd.)
When the Sydney harbour tunnel opened traffic across the harbour increased by 40%. Population growth was only 4%.
This new tunnel won’t do anything to ease congestion.
more roads literally attract more cars, leading to more traffic, i can already see all the flashing 40 signs on that road in the future
As someone who lives in the Blue mountains and needs to drive in for work it's been a fantastic addition. The drive has shortened by 30+ minutes! It's brilliant!
City West link and Parramatta Rd sucked
Now they need to build more pt!!!
The way I found out this was open was by driving across the ANZAC bridge towards Annandale while coming home from visiting some friends on the North Shore, and very suddenly finding myself transported to a completely different part of Sydney 🙃 The signs on the ANZAC Bridge were _not_ clear that the lanes to get to Annandale were different, despite it being a common turn off point!
Best is to get off at the fishmarket glebe exit just before anzac bridge for annandale
The same thing with Forest Road and Stoney Creek Road. Since opening the M8 and now tolling the M5 East the traffic on these roads have never been worse.
the government might have sold the roads to transurban so they didnt end up with 'debt', but transurban is expected to bring in 70 bill in revenue by the time that contract is up
and theyre getting that much because theyre charging a fortune to use the roads, which people are complaining about, and how is the government easing those complaints? by paying transurban a portion of the toll cost themselves so that users have a capped price
Uh Huh.... And Transurban also has to maintain all the tunnels in a safe condition for the whole period the toll concession lasts for. Here's a hint - that ain't free and if tollways weren't user-pays, you'd be paying anyway through higher taxes.
@@vintageradio3404 youre right maintenance expenses do have to come out of that 70 bill revenue, however that maintenance cost is about 15million dollars over the entire projects lifetime
also we're already paying anyway through higher tax, because transurban has increased toll prices so much, the government is using tax money to subsidize the cost for people
if the government entirely owned it still the tolls would either be much lower, or that 70 billion would be going back into government spending instead of some company
@@vincentgrinn2665 $15m over the life of the toll concession? You are dreaming. Transurban probably wishes you were right but you are nowhere near the truth. $15m per annum wouldn't cover the cost of wages alone.
If the Government owned WestConnex the toll would probably be higher. They once did own it and the toll wasn't raised or lowered when the Transurban-led consortium bought in. The toll on the Government-owned Sydney Harbour Bridge is around $4.00 and the Bridge was paid off in 1989.
You should do a video about the new plans for Rosehill Racecourse, apparently they're closing it down & building housing, which is great I think!
Hi Sharath. Enjoy the holiday season! Can’t wait for what next year will bring in terms of content. Thanks for bringing these amazing videos to us this year and covering my favourite topic; transport.
Thanks mate, and keep watching!
Dense housing on Parra Rd will just add more traffic to a place with too much traffic and do little to bring vibrance to immediate businesses. Saw it around Marrickville station and Norton Street in Leichhardt. The area around Canterbury Station is still awful even with a bunch of massive apartments built on to it.
I understand the people around Parra Rd not wanting huge developments, for a start, it stops the area being what attracted people there in the first place. Look around Mascot Station, it's a complete fkn nightmare. Green Square was overdeveloped and chokes the hell out of the already problematic Botany Rd.
We need to build out, not up. These old surburbs are being destroyed by overdevelopment. When everything is wall-to-wall apartments, there is no identity.
@buildingbeautifully the road has changed who is getting the worse traffic it has basically removed the traffic on the city west link (Parramatta Road to Rozelle) and is a nonstop run since it opened. It used to be a stop and crawl, it was faster to walk on the bay.
The road signage around these major toll roads is appalling, moreso when there have been no toll-free grace periods for drivers to recover from costly mistakes.
I've been caught trying to avoid the entrances to M4 (at each end) at night when they opened. Poor lighting and blockage of crucial signs by heavy trucks made these very difficult to negotiate. As Prof Ann Williamson from UNSW has suggested - they need to be testing these roads with drivers unfamiliar with the area.
There's still no sign from Gardners Rd / Bourke St to direct westbound traffic around the St Peters interchange.
Yes to Light Rail on Parramatta Road. The bus frequency is so high that light rail is the only option to increase capacity on Parramatta Road.
Independent Truck Drivers often steer clear of using motorways because they're quite costly, some smaller companies prohibit drivers going on them unless they have to. For instance, traveling from Eastern Creek to Botany (M7,M5,M5 East) can cost a truck about $50 each way, just on tolls. It would be more practical if trucks were charged a flat weekly rate to access motorways
Forest Road and Stoney Creek Road has been completely packed since the introduction of the M5 Tunnel Toll (which in my opinion is to make the M8 competitive). When I drive into uni (I cannot commute 4 hours a day sometimes, so driving which takes about 2 hours return is an alternate and quicker option)
@@jamesrichardson645just made a similar comment. I’d love to understand why trucks are fined for NOT using the NorthConnex but no fines exist for trucks evading the M8, M5 and (soon to be) M6 tolls.
@@pholliez I don't understand how large supposedly speed-limited trucks get away with travelling above posted limits on so many roads around Sydney.
@@pholliez Politics, getting trucks off of pennant hills road was an election promise it was done to help win an election and nothing more. Unless the people affected by trucks avoiding the M5, M8 and soon to be M6 get pissed off enough that internal polling data shows people would be willing to switch parties in order to get it addressed, it simply wont happen.
@mike-williams any private owner just removes the speed limiters. They make driving more difficult than it needs to be. It prevents them from safely overtake other trucks, or speeding slightly at the bottom of a hill to keep momentum.
Im so glad I stumbled onto this page. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading all the comments/ replies. I don’t drive,never have,never will. One thing that occurred to me is that we seem to be heading for “ super cities”,and the whole 15 minute cities thing,where u live and work and play in close proximity. I feel over time we will be manipulated into that. It’ll simply become too expensive to drive or commute via public transport. Travel time is always factored into our day.We’ve always considered both options when looking where to live. ( as one drives,although is now captain commute,and one relies on public transport) personally ,it’s always about the money and return to “ shareholders”. The powers that be will merrily do what they please, we just need to work around them. I agree there should be more stops re the parramatta light rail ,but that would mean all the developers can’t advertise a short trip to city and therefore “ lose” value on all these dwellings being thrown up. Honestly if I drove to work, it’d be a matter of principle to avoid paying yet another corporate conglomerate far too much money.the average family budget just cannot handle the cost. I’d also like to say to the tradies, I agree, lugging tools around on public transport? And since moving west and using public transport to city, I’ve seen many tradies working on high rise areas travelling in groups to enable a pile of tool boxes ,hard hats,high vis,boots,lunches etc to be taken to sites. My other half is impressed with a capped weekly public transport cost( especially with fuel prices) and has commented on enjoying his time to just relax. We love where we now live,with a lot of building still to happen,so realise population will rise a lot. Trying to resist the whole nimby thing but that’s just a human trait. I think drivers should be more concerned about being forced onto electric vehicles ( which are worse for the environment and much more costly) with banks soon to refuse loans for “ old cars” and insurers also getting their pound of flesh- forcing many to attempt to get work in their locality. We’ve also had a couple friends change from cars to scooters or motorcycles, although it makes me cringe for their safety. This one person per four seater upwards car thing is a worry. Also a few neighbours only have to go into their office twice a week,so there is a few numbers there that aren’t using roads every day. I’ve caught public transport for 40 odd years now in Sydney in three very different areas and overall it’s a good system. The parramatta road thing is a great idea …..in a perfect world. I’d love to see it come to fruition. ATM we are really looking forward to the metro and exploring how to change over and link up. Just a few rambling thoughts.
My theory on the Introduction of the M5 Tunnel's new toll, is to ensure that commuters would actually use, and therefore pay the M8 Tunnel Toll, instead of taking the M5 Tunnel and General Holmes Drive for free. Most city destinations takes just as long taking the M5 as it does the M8. The M8 barely gets any traffic as it is now. It is always nearly empty, even when General Holmes Drive is completely blocked up.
And for urban renewal, if they really wanted to encourage it, the tolls would be a lot less, which would move traffic onto the toll way, rather than just provide a quick route for people that are willing to sell their kidneys to afford the tolls.
Wait till an over-height truck tries his luck in the new interchange 😂
WestConnex tunnels are higher than the older ones.
The Taverners Hill light rail was a real find for me when I found it walking up Parramatta Rd towards Old Canterbury Rd. I like the quaintness of the stop. A light rail interchange at Taverners Hill along Parramatta Rd would make sense as there is a stairway up from Parramatta Rd to the current L1 light rail stop.
Great video. I only wish they would build a tunnel for a3 king georges or a6 north south direction to finish the loop around sydney. M7 and m1 is the only north south highway with 30km width of no highways in between. Most of the congestion is now for north south direction in this zone. Whereas east west direction already have m4 m5 and m2 placed around 10km from each other
if something has "connex" in its name then it's pretty much destined for failure
Should have a hyphen in it's name, as they are great big CON!
Remember Sharath, not every motorist can use public transport. Thousands of goods and services providers can't be expected to lug tools and machinery around on public transport to, from work and inbetween jobs for the day
As someone who largely uses the M4 as a service provider, this network is a game changer. No more sitting in the city west link in standstill traffic
When the proposed/visionary rail and roads links are finished (2050) Sydney will be a much better city to commute around
Great video as always!
If you're driving a work van you can just expense the tolls though, right?
One of the bonuses of public transport & other traffic reduction measures is that it relieves pressure from the road transport infrastructure you already have, so the people who actually do need to use the road will be able to do it more easily and you can get more without having to build a whole bunch of very expensive (especially for the capacity) road infrastructure
I don't think anyone's saying this is a bad project necessarily, but there are definitely better alternatives to building bigger motorways all the time.
The minority of motorists who are genuinely doing it for work doesn't justify ruining the city for everyone else.
@@DevynCairns Yes an no. Toll still has to be paid. Ultimately it comes out of the customers pocket
I'm hoping all the other proposed roadways come to fruition
Western Sydney is terrible to use public transport from. A simple 30-40 drive, can take hours in some cases
@@JohnFromAccounting the minority of Sydneysiders live within reasonable commutable distance of public transport. Should the rest suffer in standstill traffic when a long overdue road network should have been completed at least a decade ago
As long as tolls exist, people are going to go out of their way to avoid them. I, myself, absolutely refuse to pay a toll.
Here in South Australia we don't have traffic jams or tolls...but don't come here we're fine without you.
The most confusing thing about the signage, to me, is that the A40 still follows the surface street. It's an A-road! If you want people to use the tunnel, route the A-road through the tunnel! (Last I checked, NorthConnex had the same problem… and not just because it's got a similar dumb name.)
NorthConnex should have been designated M7, as most of the trucks that use it are travelling from Brisbane to Melbourne and vice versa.
I am so glad I don't have to drive in Sydney traffic during pick times anymore. (Retired). It's always been a nightmare and the more roads they build the worse it gets.
Hope you have a good holiday Sharath you’ve worked hard in the past year.
a light rail on paramatta road would be incredible
Incredibly stupid.
4:09 I accept your apology for making me pause the video lol
Maaaate, absolutely lost my mind when you said, "I think the engineers picked up a book called 'how to build a motorway - NOT'." Great content chief.
Excellent, thank you for the information 👍
Weirdly, the city bound tunnel entrance at Haberfield - start of City West link - doesn't mention the tunnel goes to Anzac Bridge/City. Sign only says Airport/Port Botany. How many cars are getting on the City West link instead of using the tunnel?
unfortunately Nord VPN wont work in china :( also dont travel to china without wechat
For traffic congested roads, why don’t we get rid of more intersections to reduce the number of lights?
if they want to develop Parramatta Rd, the NSW govt need to crack down and introduce legislation to eradicate NIMBY. Its been going on for FAR too long in the innerwest
I have my Google set to avoid toll roads. As someone who travels through Sydney to get somewhere else the $30 in told just isn't worth the 30 minutes I save.
I take the train.
Thank you for taking the time to explain what paid journalists appear to be unable to do so :-)
We needed to tax cars heavily with one person driving in a 5 seater. Car manufactures should have been pressured to build small commuter cars.
We have no auto industry anymore. We shouldn't let the car lobby have any influence whatsoever.
That will not work because people with families still need a larger car that fits everyone in even if that is the minority of their usage. Maybe there is some way to have owning separate commuting and family cars but I can’t see it. A stick never works, you will never get people to abandon cars when even with the ridiculous traffic public transport takes twice as long or more for many people
Costs me over $150 a week in tolls to visit my ageing parents out west. If I don’t use tolls it’s up to a 1.5-2 hr journey depending on clusterfrack traffic and merging botttlenecks. And we pay 30% tax. Thanks Sydney.
I travel from Beverly Hills to Botany and back for work. Catching public transport (a train then a bus) takes at least an hour each way and was costing $50 a week 7 years ago when I stopped using it. Traveling by car takes 30 minutes each way and costs me $50 a fortnight even with the current high fuel prices. I used to take the M5 East but now refuse since they started charging a toll for a road that was once free. Going via Stoney Creek Rd may take 10 or 15 minutes longer tham using the tunnel but saving $11 in tolls each day makes it worth it.
In Victoria, all toll road signage is blue. This way its extremely easy to tell which routes are free and tolled.
The MAJOR issue with our motorways and trains network is that there are NO NORTH-SOUTH MOTORWAYS OR TRAINS.
Parramatta Rd, Victoria Rd, the M5/M8, and the M4 are all East-West roads.
The issue with Parra and Vic is that there are too many other small roads that intersect with them. So wherever you go in Sydney, you're sort of FORCED to interact with these roads at some point, even when you're trying to get to the new motorways in the first place.
If they really want to make Parramatta Rd inner west into some pedestrian-friendly boulevard with lots of trams, they're gonna have to solve the north-west access FIRST. Otherwise, Parramatta Rd ends up being a literal barrier to people travelling north-south - sort of like what George St is now with the trams.
Currently, the ONLY north-south motorways are the M7 from Blacktown to Liverpool, and the Gore Hill Freeway/Harbour Bridge/Eastern Distributor-to-M5 roads.
BUT NOTHING BETWEEN THEM!
There needs to be a motorway that runs north-south from the M1 at Pymble, through Ryde, past the M4 at Olympic Park (AND BYPASSING THAT TERRIBLE ROUNDABOUT AT DFO) and along the King Georges Rd down to the future M6 and/or Sutherland.
There needs to be a TRAIN LINE that runs north-south from North Strathfield that intersects with the Bankstown line and the Beverly Hills line down to Hurstville or Sutherland.
Why can't they widen the existing freight train lines that already run north-south through Lidcombe/Greenacre/Belmore?
Fix north-south access!
When will the part 2 for quietest stations come out?
Can you please do a video about the Town Hall Plaza
How would tolling local roads work? How do you expect couriers who have to use them to make money paying tolls over and over again?
For people who legitimately use local roads in very beneficial ways (like you say couriers), there would sensibly be exceptions under such regimes. This concept of "filtered permeability" can be seen in it's mastered form in e.g. the Netherlands, where (admittedly already laid out to be less cad-dependent) places to work and live have physical barriers to prevent thru-traffic, with exceptions for delivery and service vehicles.
In the Sydney context - for instance the NorthConnex gantries fining trucks exempts the use of Pennant Hills Rd for non-thru-traffic (i.e. if they're accessing destinations there).
Congestion charging works fine in London.
Hell no, the answer to parramatta road isn't to get rid of lanes to ease congestion. Light rails are just as much as corporate sham as anything from transurban. None of the flexibility of busses with none of the mass movement of trains and traffic light skipping of trains.
The North Connex tunnel to join the M1 (at Hornsby) to the M2 (at Pennant Hills) to ease traffic on Pennant Hills Road has been successful.
It has taken all the trucks off Pennant Hills Road and eliminated the 20kph crawl.
Not every new motorway is a disaster..
Equally, the light rail in the CBD has not been a success. (How many years late, and how many businesses made bankrupt because of closed-off streets?)
I was eagerly awaiting waiting for this video! Was the free iron cove link worth it?
I don’t understand it! I’ve never been inconvenienced by traffic in that stretch of road!
Hey 👋 Brisbane fan here. Wondering your thoughts on the North Tunnel “a congestion-busting road tunnel between Kedron and Carseldine in Brisbane’s north”…?
As someone living near the M6 construction, this is so worrying. I’d love you to cover why the NorthConnex area has heavy fines for trucks NOT using it but there aren’t similar fines in the areas around the M8 and there are no proposals for truck fines for the M6 when it opens.
Probably size and weight limits given the 5.1m and also chemical trucks etc can't go in tunnels.
@@ibanezlaney Except that no-one builds station wagons now which are suitable for trade work. All the cars you mention will fit quite well into a standard sized traffic lane. Why the hatred?
I love how on Parra road they put in bus lanes not by making the road wider but by making the lanes smaller 😂
Parramatta Road is not a destination, it is a conduit. Bus lanes haven't relieved any congestion along Parramatta road and clogging it up with rail lines and stations would be counter-productive, it would simply impede traffic flow even more. There are just too many intersections with traffic lights along Parramatta road, that is the greatest impediment to traffic flow. The cure for congestion is to address the problems of intersections, traffic lights don't solve any of the problems of traffic flow, they are just a crude traffic management device.
The road signs in Sydney have always been hard to understand.
Having been forced to go from South to North up Parramatta road before the tunnels existed, i couldn't understand how it was so bad vs Melbourne. And then the random tunnels i took that were flooded and copied the roads next to it. Just the whole city needs to be ripped up and started again. And remove tolls. The rot started with Jeff Kennett, the CityLink that was only meant to be a 25 year contract iirc. Conveniently was extended when they widened it. Just like the rest of the freeways attached were. It's so frustrating.
The only problem is people try to avoid tolls. No problem for me at all as I paid the toll, 20 mins from Parra to City is a dream run. Just pay for it, if you don't, just stuck in traffic
How many years of free public transport would $16B pay for?
Public transport now along Victoria now is so bad now. I now get off the Bus just after Gladesville Bridge and walk to the ferry to the city as it is now way quicker, than traversing Rozelle
Having lived in Sydney for the past 10 years (and loving most of it), I think it has the absolute worst road signs of any place I’ve ever been to. They’re completely vague / don’t tell you where the road spits you out and if you make a mistake you’ll lose over an hour of time. It’s also common that there’s no street signs anywhere. Makes driving without a gps almost impossible unless you’ve driven the route before
I've never had an issue with Sydney's arterial road signage. It's quite clear and understable in 99.9% of cases and I rarely go off course because of signage. My one gripe is that they are no longer putting the white border around the highway numbers. This doesn't make signs confusing, just harder to read.
As someone who lives very close to Parra Rd Annandale, I just wish they would stop all the construction. I'll survive with the traffic for a bit of peace from construction noise
In my view its great to have these infrastructures build when interest rates were super low. Look at other states struggling to build infrastructure when interest rates are high.
My understanding was that the NSW government signed some document (a non-compete clause of sorts) that doesnt allow for competing public transport along parramatta road (e.g. somrthing that provides an alternative to travelling via tolled roads)
Genuine question, is this what's happening:
Traffic from out West is having a dream run all the way to town, but at the expense of traffic from Victoria Rd?
I mean why are there suddenly more people wanting to get on Anzac Bridge (ooh new tunnel, let's go for a jolly drive into town - seems unlikely)? It's too soon for induced traffic, in fact all the bad press should be suppressing traffic.
If that's what's happening, surely the pragmatic response is, take a lane off the incoming traffic from the West, make them merge in the tunnel, and give that lane to the Victoria Rd traffic to more fairly allow access to ANZAC bridge?
(If that's not the scenario, forget I spoke)
@BuildingBeautifully, can. you do a post about the WestConnex Airport exit? Spills out to suburban Mascot and Gardeners Rd. Seems like the newly constructed overpasses between the Domestic and International terminals were a wasted opportunity to link with WestConnex traffic?
I don’t know why they do snap openings. There should be a clear date and on-road signage in the weeks ahead preparing drivers. eg. “Iron Cove to Anzac bridge opens 26 Nov. Toll free.” It’s good to have online available animations but you can’t beat the reach of signage to the actual road users.
Often lost in the discussion but happy to see included here is one of the “why-was-it-built?” reasons and that is freight. Every productivity report for decades on Sydney has called for better movement around the city and out of the city for freight out of the airport and port botany. Costing the economy x to y billions.
Will be interesting to also see the impact the new western Sydney airport has here, although the city continues to grow and it may just absorb the benefits for the growth.
The warning signage you mentioned was in place, both on overhead electronic signs and on portable roadside signs. The problem is, people do not read them.
You're gonna love the Hong Kong MRT. Enjoy your trip.
And now Brisbane is about to make the same mistake with the Gympie road tunnel
5:00 Attacking Engineers over the M5 is not warranted at all!!! When Bob Carr was elected in 1995 he promised to remove the tolls from the M4 and M5 and build the M5 East toll free. Possibly two of the worst public policy decisions ever made. Before the election, companies had already put forward high quality 2 x 3 lane tunnel proposals as tollways. When they were asked for proposals to build the same tunnels toll free, the government claimed they couldn’t afford it. Civil Engineering companies, including my former employer, spent tens of millions of dollars repricing the project five times before they ended up with the affordable cheap and nasty M5 East we have now. The blame lies squarely at the feet of politicians, specifically Bob Carr who won the 1995 election on a lie about tollways.
been waiting for you take on this
This was an absolutely rubbish cash grab.
Not an answer to the problem: too many cars on road.
Here’s some thing that would have helped: traffic lights that use smart technology which was designed in the early 90’s. Some parts of Sydney don’t even have this technology. It’s a joke.
Hi. Really enjoy your videos and have been a subscriber for a while. At 17:27 you state that Transurban is a private company. It is in fact a publicly listed company on the ASX, owned by the shareholders.
Nb. Disclaimer. I own shares in Transurban
Simple fluid dynamics will predict that running 10 lanes into 4 will cause a log jamb. Who'd have thought!
Generally, way-finding signage and lane markings have dived in quality in recent years. I tried to find my way from Crows Nest to Parramatta road recently and found that the 'bridge' lane became the 'tunnel' lane around a bend, necessitating an almost dangerous move to the lane I wanted. Then I was after a road to connect to Parramatta Rd so I could get to a function at a Sydney Uni college. No tips from the signs at all. All the signs were about distant destinations, or so general as to be useless. Confused signs confuse drivers, confused drivers are dangerous drivers. Dangerous drivers have accidents.
Some of our freeway/motorway signage is just as confusing. The practice I'm used to in the States has some great ideas: numbered exists rather than unhelpful and sometimes ambiguous place names which mean nothing to newbies. Maybe both. so I can tell someone to get off the M4 westward at exit 10 instead of, say, the turn just past May's Hill, but before you get to Prospect (apologies to Laurie Anderson's song). Why not use both. Also the signs in the US, East coast anyway, that warn you for coming turn-offs. They have ''1st exit, Smithfield, 2nd exit Weatherill Park...(sorry just local names I've grabbed), which allow better planning of lane position than suddenly at 110 to come up to 'turn off in 2km to..." although one needs that as well.
That's why I take the train.
The Hume Motorway has numbered exits and I am not sure why. It means nothing and the signage you mentioned will just get forgotten by many. What people need to understand is that it is not possible to include all place names on a sign. Only a handful of destinations can be covered and this is generally what happens.
For everything else, there is the humble street directory.
Isn't the only real issue here is that people Don't want to pay tolls, it's a communication problem not a traffic problem
I'd be happy to pay tolls if they were reasonable, and went to actually building the toll road, not to investors.
Just to be fair about rail freight vs trucking, the freight line from Port Botany is already supplying three intermodal freight depots - my understanding is that the freight line is pretty much maxed out, and getting trucks in and out of Port Botany (some of Australia’s most expensive and critical infrastructure) was a big part of the motivation for WestConnex.
Omg I am so glad I moved to the Illawarra 6 years ago
the way you say Paramatta Road has the exact same disgust and spite people have for Sydney Road in Melbourne
This project seems like a royal stuffup, how can you spend so much time and money and have it flop on opening day, I'm glad I don't go near Rozelle very often, and will definitely be steering clear of it until they can rectify the issues.
The money from sale of Westconnex $13billion went to the NSW Generations fund. Basically a hedge fund to gamble on stock market. They sold public assets to gamble and NSW now $130 billion in debt....
Request: check out Mascot station, it has weird 1.5 width escalators, where people go up single file. what type of nut would build that?
Hi there, what do you think of Toll roads discriminating against private vehicles? For example registered heavy vehicles get free travel meanwhile light vehicles will need to pay 10x more to cover both costs. At what point toll road prices and congestion force people to change their commuting habits? I believe the best compromise to improve congestion without major infrastructure changes is to get people on motorcycles/ scooters. It worked in Vietnam, road design there was bad but everyone still got around. When they started to buy cars that's when congestion got bad and then they decided to build a metro.
Thanks a good wrap of some of the issues. Silly to label people nimbies tho. Don’t forget everyone else is a nimby until YOUR quality of life gets affected.
westconnex provides value. Every day I save 30-60 mins of my time travelling to sites all over Sydney, and when Gateway opens it gives me another 20 mins. Its questionable why it costs so much, where money goes, who gets cosy multimillion pension from it and so on, but at least it works and saves.
And what gives me all these boulevards, pushbike paths and hypotetical trams on Parramatta rd? What to do there at all? How I get one cent or one minute from them? No way. Refuse.
Agreed
It’s super important to consider the future of Parramatta Road and Victoria Road before answering the question. Creating a pedestrian boulevard and dismantling a stroad requires the tunnels that have been built so far.
converting it to a pedestrian boulevard requires people to use those tunnels which they wont do if its tolled. Tolls have consistently resulted in lower then expected capacity on express ways. If we remove the stroad traffic will just redirect on to surrounding streets.
It's long passed time we stopped allowing tolls, they make everything worse.
Having the Paramatta LightRail through-run to CQ will add complexity to the network and result in a bottle neck. It would be best to add the connecting lines but terminate services at Railway SQ or Haymarket. If it does through-run then the L2 or L3 should terminate at Central for the slot to be given to the L4.
10 lanes into 4 is the main issue, especially with traffic lights to manage it and not working as they should
I don't agree with a lot of what you have to say, but starting to actually like you as a person / presenter. Puzzling confliction, hope you have a good holiday!
Sydney born and bred, I'm grateful I don't have to navigate this nightmare.
I really thought I was paying ~$10 to go from Campbelltown to Wynyard....
You could slways use the Rozelle interchange as a light rail interchange as a part of sydney wide light rail network, just make it more difficult for private cars to use the roads.
If they reduced Parramatta rd to single lane, traffic would be chaos. They built westconnex to cater for the increasing amount of traffic and to profit from that. A tram along Parramatta rd without more tunnels would instantly gridlock the entire city.
off topic i know but 10:42 the black car that nearly rear ends the golf 😅
With the comment “ideally there should be almost no traffic coming from Victoria Rd onto the ANZAC Bridge” - you’ve made exactly the same mistake the planners clearly did - ignoring the traffic coming from Balmain / Rozelle / Birchgrove. They have no choice but to use Victoria Road.
The proposed medium density precinct near us in Leichhardt is 100m behind yet is part of the "Parramatta Rd Revitalisation"?! Yes, it's walking distance to the light rail... the over capacity light rail... but why not include the commercial properties ON Parramatta Rd.
Plus look at Camperdown - there are sad, soot covered established apartments along Parramatta Rd - will we get more of the same? Where's the traffic going if its not being reduced enough for bus lanes to be added (the Govt said they can't fit them in as the traffic post-Westconnex won't go down enough).
This all makes it very easy to be a NIMBY. There's no faith in the process or the outcomes. Would love to know what percentage of NIMBYs are anti-development versus anti poor planning?