We got a ‘fix’, but we’re still choked

IT was back in the 1950s that planners first recognised the need for a ring road to circumvent traffic around Geelong’s city centre.

Even then, almost 60 years ago, city leaders realised that traffic travelling through Geelong to the Surf Coast and Great Ocean Road was going to eventually clog up the city’s main arterials and frustrate locals, and the campaign to see it built began.

The problem worsened as Geelong grew and the population began to spread to new, outlying suburbs. By the time a ring road received its first funding pledge in 2004, La Trobe Tce was one of the city’s busiest roads as local workers, residents and commuters battled to make their way from the north of the city to the south.

Now, seven years after the Geelong Ring Road was officially opened, La Trobe Tce remains one of Geelong’s traffic snarl headaches.

Any traffic problems that were alleviated when the road first opened have slowly built up again as the population explosion promised as a positive flow-on effect of the new road continues to put pressure on the city’s infrastructure.

Recent VicRoads data has revealed that an average 48,000 vehicles travel along La Trobe Tce every day. The traffic levels were at 52,000 vehicles before the Geelong Ring Road opened in 2010 — and dropped by 10,000 almost immediately after its launch.

A growing Geelong population — with new suburbs such as Armstrong Creek and major land development in the city’s west and north — is part of the reason the traffic volumes are still high.

But Public Transport Users Association convener Paul Westcott hits the nail squarely on the head when he highlights the region’s over- dependence on cars and inadequate public transport system.

We are a growing, thriving region about to experience a further influx of new residents and workers when WorkSafe arrives next year. We pride ourselves on being a progressive “city by the bay”, but unless our public transport is brought into line with the demands of our growing population, we will all soon be choking on exhaust fumes.