Is traffic really getting worse?

Yes, according to one in three voters across 26 New South Wales electorates.

The National Roads & Motorists’ Association (NRMA) surveyed 16,000 voters across 26 seats, 34% of whom believe that their daily commute, on roads or via public transport, has progressively worsened in the last four years. Conversely, 23% indicated that their commute had improved since 2011.

The NRMA has released its Congestion Busting Plan, which calls on the next NSW Government to establish a local government congestion innovation fund of $150 million for local councils to implement measures that will reduce congestion on local roads.

The fund would be contestable with a focus on funding the most innovative projects, which could include using the latest technology, improving lane markings, new turning bays and alternative parking measures near clearways.

NRMA President Kyle Loades said councils were responsible for the management of 90% of the state’s roads and clearly needed more support in tackling local congestion.

“While we know how important the big projects like WestConnex, NorthConnex and the North-West Rail Link will be to delivering long-term benefits to Sydney’s travel times, we should not ignore the impact that smaller, local solutions can also have,” Loades said.

“Who better to fix local roads than local councils? They are the ones with the local know-how, which is why the NRMA wants this special fund to encourage these councils to bring their ideas to life.”

The NRMA Congestion Busting Plan has also outlined a number of low-cost solutions to tackling local congestion:

• Extend the NSW Government’s clearways strategy to encompass more roads, particularly on weekends. Traffic volumes on Sydney roads between 11 am and 5.30 pm on weekends are now comparable to weekdays.
• Clear up accident and traffic breakdowns faster by allowing incident responders to use bus lanes to get to locations faster. Little progress has been made over the last 12 months in improving the clearance times when an unplanned incident occurs, with delays only falling on average less than two and a half minutes to 37.67 minutes in 2013-14.
• Do more to encourage people to use transit lanes by providing better road markings and signs on transit lanes so that people know they exist.

The NRMA plan also calls on the Roads & Maritime Services to use its quarterly road performance data for major roads as a measure of the effectiveness of the RMS and Transport Management Centre. It also calls on local councils to share data about busy roads that traverse neighbouring councils.

“These simple measures are all about doing a better job of managing the road network and using local knowledge and know-how to clear up traffic hotspots - we encourage the next NSW Government to adopt these measures.”