Texas - the king of freeways (good lord!)
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They do proper free flowing interchanges in the US. If it was Australia (particularly Qld!) theyâd have traffic lights on the overpasses - like the much lauded Bruce Highway - Caloundra Rd interchange under construction. All that money and still with the traffic lights!
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Victoriaâs Department of Transport has nominated a section of Eastern Freeway between Hoddle Street and Bulleen Road for state heritage protection 
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/state-government-seeks-heritage-protection-for-eastern-freeway/news-story/6c05328fc7d20603aece4e3d55adafbf
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A freeway getting heritage protection??
I thought I had heard of everything⌠I was wrongâŚ
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Canât read the article but is it something to do with the design of the bridges which cross over the freeway? I remember reading somewhere theyâre all unique single span designs. Must admit, The Eastern has always been my favourite freeway.
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Here is a similar article on The Age website.
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Does that mean now itâll never get upgraded?
No, just need a permit. Take the MCG for example, heritage listed buy the Oldst thing there are the light towers built in the mid 1980s.
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I donât think heritage protection of a freeway is necessarily a bad thing (some freeways are genuinely worth heritage listing, like the Arroyo Seco Parkway - the first ever freeway - in Los Angeles), but the Eastern Freeway is kind of bland.
It only seems notable to me for being exceptionally large and wide for the amount of traffic it handles, only for it to terminate suddenly in the middle of the inner suburbs.
It doesnât look like the North-East Link would really touch the parts of the Eastern Freeway which I would consider the most suitable for a heritage order - that is, the parts with a very wide median west of Bulleen Road. The only change I can see would be an added lane for a new âexpressâ carriageway.
That being said, I think the Eastern Freeway upgrade closer to the tunnel is an obscene spaghetti mess which should be reined in. The same with the West Gate Tunnel.
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I believe thatâs one of the grounds for the listing, the social impact and protests against the proposed route which wouldâve seen Alexandra Parade turned into the freeway in the 1970s.
I believe the protests were against the proposed route in the 1970s which would have seen it cutting through Fitzroy and Collingwood to a New York-style terminus at Victoria Parade.
The route youâre thinking of is actually the F2 or Merri Creek Freeway, essentially what is now the Hume Freeway was to cut through Coburg and Clifton Hill and extend along Hoddle St and Punt Rd. This would have intersected with the Eastern which would have continued westwards towards Nicholson St.
This is a good albeit partisan resource
Last night, ABCâs 7.30 program had a report on worsening traffic conditions in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The clip is now up on YouTube.
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Interesting. While I fully support the need for more infrastructure spending the first 2 examples of commuting (Central Coast to western Sydney and Gold Coast to Brisbane) are a CHOICE by those two women. They choose to live that far away from their work and then boo-hoo about the commute. Itâs their choice!
Particularly the Gold Coast woman. That is a lifestyle choice not an economic necessity to live on the coast rather than somewhere in Brisbane itself. If her work is in the Brisbane CBD and she chooses to live on the Gold Coast then 3 hours a day in the car is the result. And perhaps the poor thing wouldnât get such a bad back if she drove something other than a low slung sports car!
Oh and FYI ABC the road she takes each day is NOT the Bruce Highway! Try Pacific Highway. Ugh.
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I know that property prices in the more desirable parts of Sydney are quite high, but even so I wouldâve thought itâd still be a bit cheaper to have a house in the Western suburbs than on the Central Coast?!
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Yes. I choose to live one stop on the train from Brisbaneâs CBD. Five minute commute. My cost of living? Less than $200 a week rent.
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Northern parts of the Coast like Lake Haven have some of the cheapest real estate around.
You can easily get a 3 bed house for about $400k.
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I suppose a key part of that is rent.
A lot of the people with crazy commutes would have done so to try and buy property, that owning a house 2 hours from work is better than renting one 20 minutes away.
Iâd rather the sleepâŚ
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Which has become a lot harder in recent years for many people with property prices outpacing wages growth, and with job security not getting any better.
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True but thatâs not the case in this particular example. Living on the Gold Coast (where she was anyway) isnât generally cheaper than living in most parts of suburban Brisbane. Hers was a pure âlifestyleâ choice.
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