Our residents face significant transport issues each day. Congested road networks steal time from families, affect the cohesiveness of our community and lead to poorer health outcomes compared to residents living in the inner suburbs of Melbourne.
The transport story so far
The travel and transport patterns in the City of Whittlesea identify many issues and challenges, including:
- residents are heavily reliant on private motor vehicles for transport
- traffic congestion is the primary community concern
- traffic congestion and a lack of access to public transport are more critical to our residents in the northern part of the municipality that the south
- infrastructure provision has not kept pace with population growth and development
- current public transport provision is insufficient to meet people's needs - in terms of frequency, reliability and general access
- trains are the most popular form of public transport but only for a small percentage of the population
- public transport usage suffers from a lack of accessibility and infrequency of service
- cycling is moderately popular as a form of recreation
- walking is very popular as a recreation activity
- residents walk to amenities and facilities when they are within walking distance, if footpaths are adequate and there are pedestrian crossings
- better footpaths and more bike lanes or off-road paths are needed to encourage more cycling and walking in the municipality
- rat-running through local residential streets by motorists seeking alternatives to clogged arterial roads impacts adversely on resident's local amenity.
Transport network
Travel in our municipality is framed by 3 north-south corridors:
- Plenty Valley corridor
- Epping Road/High Street corridor
- Yan Yean Road corridor
Capacity of these 3 corridors fall short of accommodating our current population at peak travel periods.
Growth in the Epping North/Wollert and Mernda/Doreen areas will result in significantly more congestion along these corridors.
The Victorian Government's Mernda Rail extension and the O'Herns Road interchange (with Federal Government assistance) will improve our transport network, although further infrastructure is required.
Projected traffic congestion
In 2015, transport modelling of our road network was undertaken with the purpose of identifying road transport infrastructure needs and to indicate priorities over the next 20 years.
Not surprisingly, this analysis showed that projected population growth and changes to land use would result in significantly more traffic congestion in the municipality if the road network and transport system was not improved.
The model highlighted insufficient capacity along the north-south transport corridors and east-west roads such as Cooper Street.
Established areas
The existing transport network in the established areas of our municipality is overused and need improvements to cope with expected population growth.
This is due to an increase in the number of people getting to and from work, and visiting entertainment and shopping precincts from the outer growth areas.
The forecast growth of 145,000 residents will create a further 450,000 trips per week .
Economic development
High levels of population growth are projected to continue, particularly in the north of the municipality. The challenge for growth areas is to match this rate of development with appropriate infrastructure.
Job creation is likely to be slower than population growth, highlighting the need to address transport capacity issues in line with population growth to provide access to employment.
During morning and evening peak times, journey to work tips stretch the capability of the network in both growth and established areas with congestion highest along Cooper Street and the Epping Road/High Street corridor.
Employment in the municipality is concentrated in the Cooper Street employment area in Epping (near the Hume Freeway), in Epping Central and South Morang and in the Thomastown industrial area adjacent to the Metropolitan Ring Road.
The majority of existing jobs generated are from small businesses, with 25% of all businesses involved in manufacturing. The growth of local employment is key to addressing traffic congestion within the City.
Local jobs take the pressure off congested road networks, particularly those that are centred around public transport hubs such as Epping Central, Plenty Valley Town CEntre and the future Mernda Town Centre.
Social impacts
The social and health impacts of long commute times as a consequence of traffic congestion is a significant issue in our municipality.
Residents fare worse in health, community engagement and work-life balance compared to the Victorian average.
The impacts of long commute times in the municipality are projected to get worse if the provision of transport infrastructure and services are not improved.