Driving & Traffic

Whereabouts is that one… the ones I’ve seen on the main highways on the southside of Brissy (near Ipswich and down through Logan) only list Sydney.

From memory, new signage on the Tullamarine Freeway following the current upgrade works (which, among other things, finally features a renumbering from State Route 43 to M2) does list Sydney as a destination, alongside the two airports at Melbourne (Tullamarine) and Essendon.

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I didn’t know VicRoads had switched to using thin white borders. Interesting.

Victorian signage is very reminiscent of a much older standard that was used in NSW (and I think QLD too), where the road names are actually printed in the large white text on the signage.

Now it’s the standard across the rest of Australia to print the road name inside a white road name patch, and the destinations in the large white text, but Victoria mostly stuck with its older ways. They’ve almost fully transitioned to using road name patches, but their signs are still generally more verbose and less graphically complex than signage in other states.

Many signs in Victoria do it too, but the large white text with the road name is still very prevalent across the road network.

So here are some NSW signs from the 1970s:


compare that with today’s standard in NSW:


and today’s standard in Victoria:


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Those one’s on the Monash Fwy are very old, not replaced during the long and painful 2007-2011 M1 corridor upgrade (currently under another upgrade, along with every other freeway in Melbourne LOL).

Over the past 15 years, multiple upgrades at various times, have replaced numerous signs, but not all. You’ll always seen a frustratingly odd one.

1990s/2000s I’d guess?

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There are still recent ones which have a style that’s basically identical though. I mean, this one’s on a section of the Mornington Peninsula Freeway which was only opened in 2013.

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Yes, that’s Peninsula Link.

Which had all its signage up by 2012 (I regularly observed the construction between 2010-2012, as I live on the Morningron Peninsula :wink:)

You’ll notice a couple of very interesting differences to the norm there:

  1. VicRoads logo removed from all signs. As the freeway (whilst not a toll road), technically isn’t a VicRoads road either. It’s a “Public-Private Partnership” road, owned & constructed by a consortium - Southern Way & operated by Lend Lease (so it still has a control room/detectors/CCTV/response vehicles/maintenance).

A very unique freeway. It’s bloody fantastic too, cuts hepas of time, modern, fast & very safe + a twin Maccas :hamburger:

  1. As per what I said above, all freeway “Help Phone” signs have the VicRoads logo covered over with a blue sticker.

Peninsula Link connects the two sections of the old “Mornington Peninsula Fwy” between Mt Martha (my home :smile:) & Frankston. So the M11 corridor stretches from Springvale Rd (Aspendale Gardens) to essentially Boneo Rd (Rosebud), with land locked-off for years for a potential extension. These two sections opened in the early 80s and is one of Victoria’s oldest (and most neglected roads in terms of signage and maintenance). Of note, freeway help phones stop at the Nepean Hwy interchange in Dromana

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Victorian Government has announced (in conjunction with VicRoads, Transurban and Connect East) that 9 freeway-to-freeway Ramp Signals will be switched on in December.

A first for Melbourne and indeed Australia.

Many would have seen the regular freeway Ramp Signals across Melbourne (on entry ramps), but this will be the next level and test everyone, getting high volumes at ~100km/h to suddenly come to a stop, merging off one freeway onto another.

Potential for serious accidents, further gridlock and confusion I say?

Locations I know of (have seen the infrastructure already installed):

•Monash Fwy / EastLink

•Bolte Bridge / West Gate Fwy

•Calder Fwy / Western Ring Road.

VicRoads CEO speaking to Neil Mitchell on 3AW radio now.

Glad to see all the comments on the Herald Sun website from Australia’s brightest minds on how this is a Labor party conspiracy :roll_eyes:

More on the theory of ramp meters in the first 3 or so minutes of this video:

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An executive from the VicRoads TMC further spoke to Neil, saying if completely unsuccessful (for whatever means) they’ll be removed or at least switched off in due course.

I seem them working well at Monash / EastLink, where they are needed to slow down and stop high volumes merging at once during the morning inbound particularly (as flow breaks down further downstream between Wellington Rd and Huntingdale Rd ramps anyway).

They’re also long ramps there, could also be easily widened if needed for storage. With those flashing signs that warn drivers they’re switched on / prepare to stop, shouldn’t be that big a deal.

The locations include:
• CityLink (city-bound) to West Gate Freeway (city-bound) – INTRODUCED NEXT MONTH
• West Gate Freeway (city-bound) to CityLink (airport-bound)
• M80 Ring Road (Greensborough-bound) to Calder Freeway (city-bound)
• M80 Ring Road (Greensborough-bound) to Tullamarine Freeway (airport-bound)
• M80 Ring Road (Altona-bound) to Tullamarine Freeway (airport-bound)
• M80 Ring Road (Altona-bound) to Tullamarine Freeway (city-bound)
• Calder Freeway (city-bound) to M80 Ring Road (Greensborough-bound)
• Calder Freeway (outbound) to M80 Ring Road (Altona-bound)
• Monash Freeway to EastLink

Here is the VicRoads press release about the new freeway ramp signals:
https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/newsmedia/2017/smart-on-ramps-to-boost-safety-and-keep-traffic-moving

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https://www.3aw.com.au/vicroads-reveals-plans-to-put-red-lights-on-freeways/

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/motorists-will-have-to-stop-at-red-lights-on-freeways-in-melbourne/news-story/fafe3acabd26bb67cd38ae5e7d7f1178

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Should the definition of freeway be changed now with the addition of ramp signals? As far as I know, freeways only have signals at either end and not in between.

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Why?

A freeway is still a freeway.

The signals aren’t on the running lanes (carriageway), only the ramps of course.

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Not quite true. Tasmania was actually the first state to introduce the alpha-numeric route numbering system. Victoria first introduced it in the Mid '90s, however Tasmania introduced it as far back as 1979.

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Freeways shouldn’t have flat intersections on them, but all of Victoria’s long distance freeways that radiate from Melbourne are absolutely peppered with them.

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If there are signals on ramps between freeways (or between a freeway and a tollway), then they should be called motorways, not freeways.

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Okay.

But I think we’re being a little pedantic and petty with the word “freeway”.

It’s a general road term more than anything, not to mention @mubd’s point about many VicRoads rural freeways having intersections (technically not free).

As well as the fact “motorway” is not a commen term at all in VIC, not one example exists. Melbourne is rather US-centric in a road sense.

The term “freeway” and “motorway” are identical. They are simply regional variations on the term ‘road with no at-grade intersections’.

Neither should have traffic lights or at-grade intersections.

The only reason the term ‘motorway’ was introduced in QLD and NSW (these states historically used the term ‘freeway’) was because the state governments began introducing toll roads in the suburbs.

People started using the argument ‘hurr durr this is FALSE ADVERTISING it’s a FREEway I shouldn’t have to pay for it’ (even though the ‘free’ in ‘freeway’ doesn’t refer to the cost - it refers to being free of at-grade intersections).

So politicians just started calling them motorways to obfuscate the difference between the free roads and toll roads (which I think is dishonest). NSW renamed the two most prominent freeways in the state - the F3 and F6 Freeways to the Pacific and Princes Motorway in 2013. I much prefer the term ‘freeway’ myself.

The actual term for a high quality road which may or may not have at-grade intersections is an expressway.

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i’ve noticed a ton of people (at least up here in brisbane) not knowing how to indicate at roundabouts. it’s really annoying when you are waiting to go through but because someone isn’t indicating left you assume they are not exiting… only they do.

the law in queensland is that you inidcate left or right coming in and left at exit. almost no one indicates left at exit.

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Herald Sun reports today that if the Coalition wins next year’s Victorian state election, it will resurrect the East West Link project which was dumped by Labor, and would build it before North East Link. However the Coalition is seriously considering a radical “super road” policy that could effectively combine them into one tender.

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