Rush hour slows to 20km/h

June 5, 2007

Tristan Swanwick

PEAK-HOUR traffic crawls at an average speed of just 20km/h in parts of Brisbane, an RACQ study has revealed.

The shocking statistic has prompted a call from the RACQ for the state and federal governments to do more to ease the growing gridlock.

During March and April, the RACQ conducted a travel time survey along 16 major roads used by commuters in Brisbane.

It found commuter gridlock has cut peak-hour speeds on some of Brisbane's busiest roads to less than a third of the 60km/h legal limit.

A commuter to the city on Old Northern Road can expect to average only 18.1 km/h.

"The survey proves that we are well and truly facing a congestion crisis here in Brisbane," RACQ spokesman Gary Fites said. "Without significant and comprehensive changes to the way we manage traffic, that's just going to get worse."

Mr Fites said a package of measures was needed to ease the congestion.

"We need a toll-free ring road system and an improved public transport system," he said.

Mr Fites criticised Lord Mayor Campbell Newman's plan to put tolls on bypass routes.

"Tolling bypass infrastructure is fundamentally flawed," he said.

"The bypass capacity should be toll-free because tolling bypass roads only tends to put traffic back on to existing congested routes. Without those sorts of measures we believe we're just going to see those travel times get worse as Brisbane and southeast Queensland continues to grow."

Mr Fites said the state and federal governments needed to do more – "the State Government because it's simply too big a job for the Brisbane City Council".

"The Federal Government's responsibility – which to date they've washed their hands of – is the fact that Brisbane is a major economic powerhouse for this country and congestion can choke that economic progress," Mr Fites said.