Should we pay for citylink when traffic is high

[paulie0735]

I'm not that old...... but I do remember the days when the tulla and the sth eastern carpark were a lot worse than they are now. The increase in traffic over the last 10 years would have made those 2 arterial roads next to useless for 20 hours a day if it weren’t for the significant works undertaken by citylink. I'm no fan of tolls either but the alternative scares me more than the monthly bill does.

[chevypower]

Yes Paulie, but road developments should happen anyway without tolls, look at how many thousands of roads were developed all over Australia with no tolls. Governments didnt used to go wow we made all these roads, now they extend a road, or widen a road slightly, and wack a toll on there, and go LOOK AT WHAT WE HAVE DONE EVERYONE, sorry but these things should happen anyway. Thats why we pay taxes on income, and fuel.

[schmidty]

Originally Posted by chevypower

Oh yes please... please increase the toll charges. Please increase our taxes too. 200% GST and 90% income tax. I want to pay 200% car park levy and $10,000 per yr registration so i can be the only person on the road. Make it excise of $10 per litre too.... end of sarcasm too. GET RID OF TOLLS!!!

If you owned a B-Double registered prime mover you would be paying $10,000 PA for rego, and a higher toll than a car. So should they get right of way when its busy?

Originally Posted by maxford

I don't think that we should be charged for travelling on citylink or any other toll motorways when traffic is bumper to bumper or we would spend less time travelling via suburbs. Voice your opinions in the poll. Thanks

One solution for citylink would be to disable the scanners when they see that there is a traffic congestion on the freeway.

Could price the lanes in the tunnel, so you could pay $1.50 for the cheap left lane, $3.00 for the mid range middle, or $4.50 for the fast lane priority.



What i really hate is during busy times they'll close off 1 lane of the tunell for emergency vehicle access. This compounds the congestion so much.



What about.... listen to the traffic report, and if city link is choked, use an alternate free route?



Everyone is in the same boat when its busy, and its not city links fault hey. They dont guarantee trip times when you get your etag.



Its a service you know the stakes of before you use it. If you go to the fish and chip shop and its a busy public holiday and takes an hour to get your order do you demand them for free? Should everyone get them for free because of the wait? It's a business, they'd close for the night before they gave everyone free fish and chips. You know when you walk in that its clearly busy, and make the decision weather or not to do business there.

[outback_ute]

I agree with paulie, Citylink is still a million times better than what it was, when the SE Freeway started at Punt Rd/Batman Ave, and you had to crawl through about a dozen sets of lights to get to the Westgate Fwy, and the Tulla Fwy ended at Flemington Rd (try getting off that in peak hour! From Punt Rd there were 4 traffic lights on the SE/Monash Fwy which was just ridiculous - mind you it was and still is faster than using alternative surface roads. The alternative routes are horrendous for traffic. The ironic part is you probably save more time on Citylink in peak hour than at other times.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by schmidty

If you owned a B-Double registered prime mover you would be paying $10,000 PA for rego, and a higher toll than a car. So should they get right of way when its busy?

You forgot the rego for the two trailers

[GTP-814]

one of the biggest things that get my goat, is that we still pay a ***** load of money of petrol tax, regos etc to the govt & they dont spend it on free roads, which is supposed to be for, instead they outsource to a private co who charge us again

[paulie0735]

Originally Posted by GTP-814

one of the biggest things that get my goat, is that we still pay a ***** load of money of petrol tax, regos etc to the govt & they dont spend it on free roads, which is supposed to be for, instead they outsource to a private co who charge us again

That’s a fair point GTP-814 and while this isn't the forum for political views I for one would love to see our hard earned taxes better spent............ that’s the key to this. The amount of OUR money that is wasted on pompous government crap has to be criminal. If not for the waste the gov wouldn't need the likes of citylink to free up the traffic. :

[4.9 EF Futura]

Originally Posted by robjh80

Makes ya wonder where all that tax money is going, certainly not where it should be going obviously.

Absolutely.

Those freeloading hospitals, bums charging health to medicare, wasteful crime prevention/punishment, feeding those pathetic people without jobs and all the rest of it....

Should all be scrapped and put into roads so the rest of us dont have to put up with eastern staters whinging about tolls!!!

Nah, j/k guys. I dont know how youve put up with it for so long!! And your state govts keep getting back in?!?!?

In all seriousness tho... some interesting concepts of economics being put forward... you want them to DROP the toll because it's too busy? The effect on demand would be....... (<--- fill in the blank)

[BA_BOSS]

I don't use City link but the same applies for Sydney tollways. I do not agree with paying toll on a motorway when it becomes a parking lot. It's an insult.

As others have mentioned, what happens with the tax $$$ collected from fuel etc that is meant to fund roads?

In NSW many moons ago, the then Liberal State Govt introduced a scheme to rasie revenue to fund road building. It was called 3 X 3 and the Govt placed small aqua blue signs with 3 X 3 on them all around the state to remind us.

3 X 3 was a tax scheme that added 3 cents a litre to the pump price of fuel for a period of 3 years.

The scheme was so successful at raising $$$ that after the 3 years, the signs began to dissapear (so we would not be remined of it) but the tax stayed, even until today.

The Govt has millions in their coffers to fund road building so why should we be slugged once again a toll to drive on roads we have already funded through a seperate tax scheme that was introduced to fund them?

[EA2BA]

I think you use you pay, regardless of traffic load, you cannot blame the operator of the road for building it how the government wanted it and then expect a free run due to congestion. So what a car breaks down and we get a free toll road, someone has an accident you get a free toll road, grandma does 50 you get a free toll road.

The congestion is out of the hands of the toll road operator, if they were holding things up with an alternative way to alleviate the traffic but chose not to do it then I would vote yes, but otherwise the answer is NO, use public roads otherwise and stop complaining.

[coupdy do]

I call them and give them **** if i get a bad jam.... they toldme that there were too many cars on the road not that citilink was crap
just another reason why WA kicks arsse -no tolls and better roads with less peoiple and more Km of roads
Victoria is a **** ant state with over 4 million people and still cant get decent roads with tolls what a joke :