Road transport in Victoria

The roads of Victoria are the highest density in any state in Australia. Unlike Australia's other mainland states where vast areas are very sparsely inhabited "outback", Victoria has population centres spread out over most of the state, with only the far north-west and the Victorian Alps lacking permanent settlement. The state capital, Melbourne, is served by a freeway network which is the earliest and the most extensive in Australia.

VicRoads is responsible for road planning, motor vehicle registration, and driver licensing in Victoria. A number of private companies operate toll roads in the state.

History

Highways

The highways of Victoria are the highest density in any state in Australia. Unlike Australia's other mainland states where vast areas are very sparsely inhabited "outback", there are population centres spread out over most of the state, with only the far north-west and the Victorian Alps lacking permanent settlement. Highways have therefore been built to service the population centres.

The highways generally radiate from Melbourne and other major cities and rural centres with secondary roads interconnecting the highways to each other. Functions of these highways include freight (intra and interstate), personal travel and tourism and most routes have higher traffic than most other states. Highways such as Hume Highway, Western Highway and Princes Highway have some of the heaviest traffic in Australia.

Many of the highways are built to freeway standard ("M" freeways), while most are generally sealed and of reasonable quality.

Urban Freeways

As early Melbourne grew beyond the Hoddle Grid, the city stretched out along the tram and rail lines, often with pieces of open country in between. In the 1950's and 1960's as private car ownership rose, newer suburbs were built beyond the limits of the tram and rail lines. This eventually led to congestion on the road network between the suburbs and the CBD.

As Melbourne extended, planners and politicians decided that the roads could no longer cope. The 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan called for construction of an extensive network of freeways. The Victorian government were advised by American highway planners and it sent its road engineers to the US. The resulting network is probably the most extensive in Australia.

Unlike many American cities, Melbourne had an extensive public transport network and opposition to the plan grew, arguing that money is better spent on public transport upgrades, particularly to areas of Melbourne poorly served by public transport such as the outer east. This led to clashes including the showdown in 1977, over the plan to build the F19 freeway through Collingwood and Fitzroy. In the fiercest battle, groups of protesters such as the Carlton Association barricaded Alexandra Parade Fact|date=June 2007. Although the resulting Eastern Freeway was finally built, many road projects were shelved and freeway building largely went quiet until the mid 1990s. One notable exception was the South-Eastern Arterial which was constructed under the John Cain Labor government. The party had a policy of no new freeways, but the road was desperately needed to link the existing Mulgrave and South-Eastern freeways. The result was multi-lane highway with traffic lights at every major intersection. This created traffic congestion, the road being dubbed Melbourne's longest carpark. It was eventually upgraded to freeway standard, and incorporated into the Monash Freeway.

Freeway construction was resumed in the 1990s; for example the Western Ring Road, CityLink and others. Most of these freeways will eventually join each other in a continuous and extensive network. Most recently, the 45km Eastlink Tollway opened to traffic on 29 June 2008.

Impacts on Melbourne

Where they were built, population growth followed, as Melburnians moved away from the crowded inner and middle suburbs to cheaper outer suburbs; for example, Monash Freeway and Mornington Peninsula Freeway led to explosive growth of population in the south east and the Mornington Peninsula.The completion of Western Ring Road spurred housing growth in the western suburbs.

Melburnians in general are divided over the freeways; supporters crying "progress and growth" and detractors lamenting for example, the destruction of habitats and the loss of peace and tranquillity along the freeway path and at the ends where the freeway traffic is spilled onto local roads. The relative lack of spending on public transport infrastructure has also caused criticism as it is at odds with the governments Melbourne 2030 agenda which promotes development along existing transport infrastructure with reduced dependence on cars.

Numbering

Victorian highway naming is straightforward. Most are generally named after the geographical regions and features, cities, towns and settlements along the way. Some are even more straightforward e.g. Western and Northern highways which radiate westwards and northwards from Melbourne. Notable exceptions include some interstate highways and some metropolitan highways.

The numbering system is based on 'ring and spoke' system. The 'ring' highways (highways that circle Victoria) numbers are given in the multiple of hundreds e.g. Henty Highway (200), Murray Valley Highway (400) and Great Alpine Road (500) make the outermost ring. Midland Highway (300) and Maroondah Highway (300) is the inner ring.

The spokes generally inherit their original National Route numbers. Otherwise, east-west aligned highways are given even numbers and north-south are given odd numbers. Highways and primary roads are given numbers in multiple of tens. Other roads are given other numbers which indicate their general alignment.

ee also

*Rail transport in Victoria

References

*cite book
last = Davison
first = Graeme
title = Car wars: How the Car Won Our Hearts and Conquered Our Cities
publisher = Allen & Unwin
year = 2004
isbn = 1741142075