Is it just us, or are Ballarat's roads getting busier?
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Particularly as more people settle in Ballarat's west, the congestion is beginning to get more conspicuous.
While it's not at 'two hours on the Monash every day' levels, it's a harbinger of how growth will affect our city.
The state government has already come to the party, committing $60 million to upgrade six intersections across the city, but the question remains, will these much-needed traffic lights and roundabouts be enough?
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The Courier decided to check it out for ourselves, beginning a months-long project - quite unscientific, we concede - to check in on the congestion more and more residents are experiencing.
Noting half of the intersection upgrades are taking place in and around Delacombe, we decided to hit that area first, and see how Sturt Street is faring as the last of the Regional Roads Victoria upgrades are completed.
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We decided on a morning school run to test as an example, as afternoons are harder to measure, but anecdotally just as bad.
Setting out at 8.30am on a school day, four drivers followed the traffic as if on a school run past the high schools on Sturt Street, meeting at Town Hall on Sturt Street as if for a 9am appointment - possibly not an unusual commute for many people.
We went via a few different routes: one from Delacombe Town Centre up Wiltshire Lane to Sturt Street; and three from the Dyson Drive and Carngham Road intersection which will eventually become a roundabout - one along Carngham Road and Learmonth Street; one up Dyson Drive to Cuthberts Road, then left at Learmonth Street; and one following Dyson Drive to the Ballarat Link Road and turning right onto Sturt Street.
We'll do these routes again in a few months, when construction work is under way, and again when the construction work is complete.
As well as the 8.30am start, we also followed some of the routes again at 8am and 8.15am through the week.
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The times were slightly quicker than expected - there is the caveat that we didn't stop to drop off any students, and the traffic lights conveniently went our way.
The DTC route was the most analysed - starting at 8am, our reporter made it to Town Hall in 13 minutes and 20 seconds; from 8.15am, just 15 minutes; and from 8.30am, 18 minutes and 20 seconds.
Along Carngham Road, our reporter left Dyson Drive at 8am, and took 15 minutes and 31 seconds; from 8.30am, it took 19 minutes.
Taking Cuthberts Road, our reporter left Dyson Drive and Carngham Road at 8.30am, and arrived at Town Hall in 22 minutes and 38 seconds; our reporter on Dyson Drive took 21 minutes.
So what can we take from all this?
Firstly, our reporters all definitely noticed the banked-up traffic at key intersections, well before we hit Sturt Street.
It's obvious that something needs to change at the Latrobe Street and Carngham Road intersection, which has a mix of cars and construction traffic, but this is one of the intersections being targeted - a set of traffic lights will replace the roundabout.
But there are other choke-points as well - the roundabout at Cuthberts Road and Learmonth Street, for example, had a line of cars heading down Cuthberts Road every day we went past.
Similarly, cars coming through the Arch of Victory towards the high schools were also held up.
The run from the Arch to Town Hall was certainly congested, but traffic still flowed well - however, two more traffic lights will soon be activated.
With more houses still under construction in Delacombe, and growth zones announced for further west, the strain will be increasingly felt, and particularly during the construction for the Keeping Ballarat Moving upgrades.
The City of Ballarat has previously advocated that planning should involve creating a "10 minute city" - that is, making sure services are all within 10 minutes of residents.
That will clearly require work to balance out masses of people driving each day towards the CBD, including investments in public transport, schools and healthcare, and businesses moving into growth zones.
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It's also worth noting that as the reported post-pandemic exodus from Melbourne leads to more people moving to Ballarat, and the opening of the state government's GovHub office, there'll be more pressure on the roads connecting residential areas to the CBD and Ballarat's two train stations.
We took our results to Public Transport Users Association Ballarat convenor Ben Lever, who has long advocated for a review of the city's bus network, which could help that pressure.
"Currently our bus network is very radial and geared towards getting people into the CBD and Ballarat train station, but it should also be a bit more orbital, allowing for trips like Delacombe to Wendouree, and also make it easier to make those local trips," he said.
"Of course, the route structure is only part of that equation - we need timetables that are fast and frequent enough to be a viable alternative to driving, and that run late enough into the evenings to get people home after dinner.
"It's also the case that some of the estates in Ballarat's west aren't served by buses at all yet - it's really important that public transport is provided from day one, rather than several years after households have moved in and bought two cars.
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"The other thing to keep in mind is that Ballarat's traffic may flow relatively freely compared to Melbourne's today, but that can change quickly as our population grows, if we stick to a car-dependent mindset - so the 10 minute city idea is as much about maintaining our standard of living as we grow.
"The Keeping Ballarat Moving roadworks will be a big improvement from a safety perspective, but if we really want to keep Ballarat moving as our population grows, there needs to be a real investment on providing people with space-efficient alternatives to driving, like public transport and cycling."
We're looking forward to getting out and about in a few months to see what the situation is like, and compare the times before and after the roadworks are complete.
- What's your commute like? How would you improve things? Let us know below.
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