Embedded Files
Take Me Home,
“Some of the best engineers, designers and builders from across Australia
and around the world have worked for years
to refine the design of North East Link to ensure it delivers
the best outcome for the whole community.”
Duncan Elliott, Chief Executive of the North East Link project
Sunday Herald Sun, pg 30, 12 February 2023
As illustrated on this page . . . While North East Link is being built,
your safety on roads in Bulleen is in the hands of
some of the most mediocre engineers and designers from across Australia and around the world.
Rob Morgan
So many of the temporary traffic arrangements in Bulleen as part of the North East Link project look like they have been designed by consultants with virtually no traffic engineering or road safety engineering skills. They certainly show no sign of any human factors skills, upon which sound road safety relies.
Can they read the traffic signing and pavement marking manual (the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices or 'MUTCD')? There is little evidence to show they can and plenty to show that they cannot.
This page discusses some of the sillier (and more dangerous) examples of what is happening now in Bulleen.
While this page looks like a collection of unfortunate jokes, it is worth asking a serious question:
How can we have any confidence that the final North East Link project has been designed safely, when so many fundamental design flaws have been made by this project in the traffic schemes they have already implemented in Bulleen?
Thomb'ln Road
Here is a photo on the westbound exit ramp off the M3 Eastern Freeway at Bulleen Rd (July 2024) -> -> -> ->
The section of Bulleen Road beyond the overbridge on the right has been closed and deviated. The right hand lane (ahead) on this exit ramp used to be the best lane to access Bulleen Road. But now it's a trap lane into Thompsons Road. Not one single sign on the ramp or approaching it warns unfamiliar drivers of the lane change or the road deviation. No new direction signs have been added for ramp users. Somehow the "best engineers and designers from across Australia and around the world" think that pavement messages are an adequate substitute for direction signs. They are not. There is nothing in the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) that permits that: pavement messages cannot be seen for a sufficiently long enough time for drivers to read them. They are no use in heavy traffic, in rain or at night.
And what does the message mean? Who would seriously think that 'THOM B'LN RD' can be comprehended by an unfamiliar driver to mean two roads: Thompsons Road and Bulleen Road? The MUTCD requires that each line of a pavement message is separated by 0.5 to 1.0 times the letter height. This has not been done, so the letters simply blur together and are meaningless.
Thomb'ln Road, take me home
To the lane I belong
Let's begin here. Mountin' blunders
Take me home, Thomb'ln Road
Further up the ramp you can go to THOM I THOM
or maybe TO HRN BL MY ?
Looking north on Bulleen Road, about to cross the M3 Eastern Freeway (early June 2024)
Coming along Bulleen Road from North Balwyn and about to cross the overbridge over the M3 Eastern Freeway, drivers are given no warning that Bulleen Road is closed and deviated (June 2024). The first sign is the one in the distance at the closure, which drivers are expected to decifer while they negotiate the forced right turn. Too bad if you are in the left lane and a truck is in the centre lane. 'TH'SONS RD' on the sign does not match 'THOM RD' painted on the road pavement. The high signs in the upper photo were removed by early July 2024.
'ONLY' is painted on the left lane and the right lane, even though ONLY is never used in this way in Australia (It is an American invention for trap lanes. Here, we use signs). Just more paint to try and read. This is someone who is involved in North East Link's 'bright idea' that simply creates a non-standard, inconsistent treatment that drivers have to deal with. Maybe pavement messages are cheaper than effective signs?
The lower photo shows how, without the standard separation between each line of the pavement message, all the letters simply merge together.
'THOM RD ONLY' in the right lane is actually wrong, as this lane also leads to the M3 Eastern Freeway entry ramp.
Once the right turn is made, there is not a single sign to direct drivers into the two-lane right-turn area that leads to the M3 Eastern Freeway. All the previous direction signs for that maneouvre were removed and no new signs were installed.
Pavement messages always remain on the road surface - until they don't (early Aug. 2024)
Looking north on Bulleen Road, at Hillview Road,
North Balwyn (early July 2024)
500 m further back, on the same approach is this variable message sign (VMS) with its two-panel message: BULLEEN ROAD / USE 2 LEFT LANES
But there are only two lanes in total northbound on this section of road!
Worse still, the right hand lane of these two only goes to Thompsons Road, or to the M3 Eastern Freeway eastbound.
Whoever designed (or signed off on) this sign had no understanding that (as per the MUTCD manual) any direction sign that describes the number of lanes MUST refer to the lanes AT THE SIGN POSITION, not at some later position, further along the road.
This is a very basic traffic signing matter.
Also, the word 'USE' must not be used, except in very specific situations, as described in the MUTCD manual. What does the word 'USE' add in this position? Nothing - it just takes longer to read.
This VMS should have used a single panel (not two), reading:
BULLEEN RD
LEFT LANE
Inexperienced professionals tend to overcomplicate signs, while at the same time having a poor understanding of what the signs are trying to achieve and how road users will interpret messages on signs.
Southbound on the Bulleen Road Deviations
It's the same issue southbound on Bulleen Road, approaching the deviation of Bulleen Road that lines up directly with the outbound (eastbound) entry ramp onto the M3 Eastern Freeway.
Where the variable messages signs (VMSs) are located, near the Veneto Club, there are only two through lanes in total, but here is the advice they give (early June 2024):
Just before the Veneto Club:
CITY VIA 2 RIGHT LANES
- obstructed by a Shared Path sign that had been redundant for a year,
as the path had been closed by NEL
Just after the Veneto Club (same roadway):
RINGWOOD VIA 2 LEFT LANES
- same two lanes, but now they apparently go to
a completely different destination !
This is just clueless - or should I say "it's been designed by some of the best engineers and designers from across Australia and around the world"?
And like 'USE' in the previous example, 'VIA' adds nothing, except an increased time to read the message.
By late July these two VMSs (and the one in North Balwyn) had been removed, so the situation changed from 'wrong information' to 'no information'.
What actually happens beyond these VMSs is that
the left lane later splits into two lanes that go onto the freeway (or turn left onto Thompsons Road eastbound, from the left hand lane), and
the right lane is a trap lane that must turn right onto Thompsons Road (westbound), to reach the freeway to the City , but also reach Bulleen Road into North Balwyn.
Thompsons Road? Continuing on Bulleen Road to North Balwyn? The advance signing doesn't mention those. And when you get to Thompsons Road, there is not a single sign to tell you the road name or where you are. I am pretty good on map reading and having a spatial sense when driving, but the first time I drove this deviation of Bulleen Road I did not know where I was (unknown to me, I was approaching Thompsons Road, opposite the entry to the freeway, outbound).
Here is what happens where the left lane splits into two lanes:
On the left side, the dashed 'continuity' lane suggests that the new outer lane is exclusively for left turns - that's the purpose of continuity lines. They must not be used where the additional lane continues through in the same direction as the lane it splits from. So here, because the left lane does continue through (to the freeway entry ramp), this continuity line is wrong: there should be no dashed line at all.
On the right side, the right lane is a 'trap' lane (a lane that starts as a through lane, and then is only for turning traffic). But there is no hint it is a trap lane. Because the right lane is an exclusive right turn lane, that 'standard lane line' should not be used: it needs to be a continuity line. Right turn arrows should be marked on the road pavement in the right lane - back to here, or further back, because traffic queues back before this point in the peak periods. And finally, rather that relying on the one small VMS with arrows in the photo, permanent standard signs should be installed at intervals beside the right lane (starting before this point), advising 'RIGHT LANE MUST TURN RIGHT'.
I am not dreaming this up - it is in the MUTCD manual, AS 1742.2 (2022), illustrated in Figure 2.11.
Once again, what has been put on the road is just clueless. (late June 2024)
It's not entirely correct to say the VMS above is the first sign. There's one sign on the left, well away from the edge of the road, obstructed by fence posts, signal poles and other posts, while drivers need to focus on traffic signals for a works access that are located on a blind curve in each direction . . . (early Aug 2024)
The photo below shows the right lane, approaching Thompsons Road. There is a single 'RIGHT LANE MUST TURN RIGHT' sign, well after the traffic has queued. Drivers who don't want to turn right are trapped and block the lane for turn turn drivers (The queue in the left two lanes is usually longer that the queue in the right lane). By early August 2024 there was still no information about it being a trap right turn lane, until drivers got close to the Thompsons Road intersection. That's OK in light traffic, but no use at all in heavy traffic. This mediocrity is all for the want of some standard signs and line marking that the designers evidently know nothing about.
Closer to the signals at Thompsons Road, there is a diagrammatic sign on the left: too small, too late and too complicated to work out in the time available . . .
Is 'TO M3 City' straight ahead (right vertical arrow)? Looks like it, but that's wrong
Too late to be useful, and hidden by queued trucks heading to the M3
Having turned right onto Thompsons Road, to return to the Bulleen Road bridge over the Eastern Freeway, the signs still point you (to the right) into the road closure (early July 2024). These two lanes turn left onto the bridge, which has three lanes southbound. As they have always done, the left lane can go to the freeway or North Balwyn. The right lane has to go onto the M3 freeway (see left photo below). But now this section of road has to carry the traffic from the north on Bulleen Road, creating long queues in the left lane. So in the first week of August the turning line was changed, so that the right lane could go to the freeway or North Balwyn (see right photo below). This was a good move, but there was no information (signing) to advise drivers about the change, or where each lane now leads to. Once again, drivers are left to weave between lanes and avoid each other on the bridge, as they work out for themselves which lane to be in. If you look at the sign outside the Bulleen Bus Interchange (see below - the sign with the young tree in front of it), you can see that the advance sign 'City VIA M3 FWY' does not say that this now can only be reached by being in the right hand lane.
But then this lack of information about the change in lane markings was followed by completely wrong information . . .
On 9th August 2024 (a day or two after the turning line was changed), 'M3 ONLY' was marked in the right lane on Thompsons Road (see above). This lane has, for decades, only led to the M3 Eastern Freeway. So, for decades this pavement message would have been correct (although it was never marked). Yet, a day or two after this information ceased to be correct (because the turning line has been shifted at the intersection), it was marked in the right lane.
I am not making up this stuff!
The use of the word 'ONLY' on signs (and pavement messages if they must be used) is fraught with the danger. AS 1742 Part 15 (Direction Signs) warns against its use. I can only surmise that the engineers or designers who came up with this 'M3 ONLY' message thought that it was saying that drivers can now ONLY access the M3 freeway from the right lane. But, of course, that is not what it says. It says that the only destination you can reach by being in the right lane is the M3 freeway.
Update since the previous item:
OK, I surmised wrongly - I gave them too much credit for thinking about it.
By 13th August 2024 the left lane had been marked as well
(see photo on the right, here).
This information is completely wrong, because since the turning line at the intersection was realigned:
the left lane only leads to Bulleen Road, North Balwyn, and
the right lane leads to either Bulleen Road, North Balwyn or the the M3 Eastern Freeway.
Update on 10th September 2024: the turning line at the intersection has been put back to where it was marked in late May 2024! By doing this (rather than changing the destination names on the pavement in Thompsons Road), the original problem of the lane imbalance in Thompsons Road (far more cars queuing in the left lane) has once again been created. The consultants/contractors/NEL had the opportunity to fix this up, but instead they have made it worse.
The uneven queues in the two westbound lanes in Thompsons Road (11 Nov 2024)
Bulleen's Latest Candidate for an Accident Blackspot (early August 2024) . . .
Looking north-west on Bulleen Road, approaching the old Koonung Creek bridge. Here is a new set of traffic signals that provide access for works traffic (Why do they not have enough access points already, without needing to put traffic signals on a tight blind curve?). The signals are on a tight set of reverse curves created by project (see the road snaking right, then left, then right in the background). Due to the tight curve, the signals are not in the likely field of view on the approaches. See how the right-hand signals will be hidden by any large oncoming vehicles. There is no 'mast arm' (cantilevered) overhead signal or active advance warning. Static advance warning signs are minimal. The signals will be unexpected by unfamiliar drivers. There will be mud and dust on the road from the works access (a skidding issue). I anticipate this to be the site of numerous rear end / nose-to-tail crashes, unless there are major changes.
Manningham Road / Bulleen Road / Bridge Street
In early April 2024 this area was converted to one way traffic on Bridge Street (eastbound) and on the nearby section of Manningham Road (westbound), to allow sections of North East Link to be built. North East Link (NEL) advises that this arrangement is to be in place for two years.
The signing along and approaching Bridge Street has been so poor that by August 2024 it was still a regular occurrence to see westbound / southbound drivers getting themselves in the wrong lane and having to make last minute lane changes after they turn right out of Bridge Street - or trying to change lanes in Bridge Street, only to find later that they were in the correct lane for going into Bulleen Road southbound.
First, NEL had to close the right lane in Banksia Street, eastbound while they built the westbound tie-in. Below is a photo , eastbound in Banksia Street, approaching the Yarra River bridge:
Trust me - the right hand lane is closed up ahead. Notice that there are two of every sign on the right hand side (i.e. on the median), but there are no signs at all on the left side. I can only conclude that the signing plan showed a pair of signs to be installed at each position, with one to be on the left and one to be on the right. But then "some of the best builders from across Australia and around the world" didn't interpret the plan correctly, and then "some of the best engineers from across Australia and around the world" didn't check that the signs had been installed as intended.
As a result, drivers in the left lane (and also in the centre lane if there are trucks in the right lane blocking the view of the signs) have no information to slow down or anticipate closure of the right lane. This arrangement by the contractors set up a situation in which different drivers had different expectations about the road ahead.
There's a permanent variable message sign (VMS) here: why could it not simply say 'RIGHT LANE CLOSED' instead of giving that general information about dates?
And why couldn't the actual lane closure be seen in advance? Typically a lane closure has a big flashing arrow board in it, so drivers get out of the right lane in time.
. . . Because the lane closure started right after the crest over the Yarra River bridge, where it was hidden from view for approaching drivers!
Here (above), the lane closure was set up without adequate advance warning. But - warning or no warning - starting a tapered lane closure straight after a crest should never be done. Drivers do not have enough time to respond safely to what they see. As can be seen from the above three photos, this dangerous arrangement resulted in last-minute braking and last-minute lane-changing by drivers in the right lane. One false move and they'd hit an adjacent vehicle or hit the lane closure. If a lane needs to be closed in this kind of situation, the lane closure should start before the crest, where drivers can see the big flashing arrow board, and see the tapered lane closure.
Bridge Street, Looking East (mid August 2024)
Once the deviation was complete (in April 2024) drivers then needed to assess which lane they should take. The first sign on the left is good, though it could have been located earlier. Note how the two left lanes go to a different destination from the right lane (which later widens to two lanes to Bulleen Road), but all the longitudinal lane lines are the same (a standard 3 m line with a 9 m gap). How much better it would have been for drivers to distinguish between these two lane groups by marking the line between the centre lane and the right lane with an obviously different line, such as a 9 m line and a 3 m gap - and making it 150 mm wide, instead of 100 mm wide (i.e. an LL3 line in the jargon of the MUTCD).
The sign on the left has wider capital letters (easier to read). Looks like it's been made to the 2019 standard. But the sign on the right has narrower letters (the old standard - harder to read). [Don't blame NEL for this one: the new national standard for direction signs was published in 2019 (Before COVID !) and still in 2024 the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP - ex-VicRoads) cannot find ~$50,000 to get the Victorian standard updated. So a $26 billion project - and all the other projects around the state - have substandard direction signs that are harder to read and comprehend]. Confession: I was the drafting leader for that national direction signs update. Our working group had people from all states. The adopted new national standard was agreed to by all states and territories, including Victoria.
One other thing the 2019 MUTCD (Part 15) states, at Clause 2.3.2 is that "at a multi-lane turning facility with multiple downstream lane destinations, it is preferable to use a combination of G9-7 signs over the turning lanes, rather than using a G9-42 or G9-43-type sign." (Sorry for the jargon - stay with me here, it gets simpler). The signs with arrows in the next two photos are G9-42/G9-43-type signs. What that quote from the MUTCD means is that in the situation here on Bridge Street (where there are multiple turning lanes and then the downstream lanes split to Manningham Road and Bulleen Road), "it is preferable" to use (i.e. North East Link's consultants should have used) overhead signs over every lane, rather than using the side-mounted signs they did use. But as the people in charge of the DTP could not find a measly $50,000 (possibly less than the cost of all the signs here), everyone working for NEL has a let-out: "We didn't know about the new standard."
Once again, "What we've got here is failure to govern."
The photo above also shows signs hidden behind other signs, the completely unwarranted 40 km/h roadwork speed limit signs that very few people comply with (most travel at around 60 km/h), and the start of painted messages in all the lanes.
Further along Bridge Street you can see why overhead direction signs are needed here, above each lane (and remember that this temporary arrangement is in place for two years). As drivers negotiate relatively narrow lanes on a curve, they are expected to decipher arrows on signs that are obstructed by poles: 'Which lane am I in, compared with what the sign shows?' and then swap lanes, all the time checking what traffic ahead is doing, approaching the traffic signals.
Just like the 'ThomB'ln Rd' road surface messages near the Eastern Freeway, the messages in Bridge Street have inadequate space between each line, so the legends all just blur into one blob of paint.
On the side mounted direction signs, why oh why is 'MANNINGHAM RD' abbreviated to 'M'HAM RD' and 'Doncaster' abbreviated to 'D'caster', when there is all that space for the full words? And would it not be better to have the arrows to Manningham Road drawn as reverse curved arrows (see example below), not right turn arrows, to distinguish them from the Bulleen Road arrows?
Here is the type of overhead direction signing that should have been installed over Bridge Street (G9-7 type signs), instead of those side mounted signs with arrows (G9-42/G9-43-type).
Directions to the M3 Eastern Freeway would be on simply-worded side mounted signs to supplement the overhead signs.
No messages on the road surface are needed; just arrows that reflect the arrows on the overhead sign.
Closer to the traffic lights at Templestowe Road - Bulleen Road, it's just a mess of paint on the road and an approaching forest of signs. But, small mercies, they have not used 'ONLY' on the road surface, like the other contractors near the Eastern Freeway have.
The warning signs are minimum size (and why would you warn someone about to do a left turn at a T-junction that the safe speed is 15 km/h - it's just silly over-signing).
On the left is the first of two signs stating 'HEAVY VEHICLES TO M'HAM RD MUST USE LEFT LANE'. Surely this is important? If so, the sign is too small and too late and (as the previous photo shows) it's hidden around the left curve on the approach.
In the distance in the above photo, on the far side of the intersection are two direction signs with chevrons (>). A close up image of them is shown here in the left hand image. The one on top is for the right hand lanes (to Bulleen Road) and the one below is for the left hand lanes (to Manningham Road). They should be the other way around. Also, the sign to Manningham Road should have an elbow-shaped arrow, so drivers get confirming information about the split of lanes they are about to encounter when they reach Manningham Road, 200 m away.
My mockup of a better pair of signs is shown in the right hand image.
The signs that were installed:
- both directions look the same, and
- the order of the signs is opposite to which lanes drivers need to get into.
What the signing should have been. This gives advance advice about the imminent left turn back into Manningham Road. It would be even better if the direction 'To Eastern Freeway' was added to Bulleen Rd.
Five Full Weekends of Traffic Jams
Bridge Street was widened to three lanes (one way) and all the eastbound traffic off the Banksia Street bridge over the Yarra (i.e. Manningham Road) was diverted onto Bridge Street in early April 2024 (see the three photos above). Just five months later, North East Link's contractors decided they needed to throttle this new three lane roadway down to one lane from 8 pm on Friday through to 6 am on Monday for five full weekends, starting on 6th September 2024, so they could do works on that new Bridge Street road space (see the notice below).
Why couldn't the contractors be more organised and do that work BEFORE they diverted all the eastbound traffic onto the widened Bridge Street.
More importantly, why couldn't North East Link (MRPV) consider the travelling public and insist that the contractors keep three eastbound lanes open (or at least two lanes, absolute minimum). Extra temporary road width could have been built along the north side of Bridge Street if necessary. Instead, North East Link acquiesced, the contractor saved money and traffic queued back 1 km to Rosanna Road. The government's contracts must be very poorly written if the narrowing of this vital river crossing can happen for such a lengthy time. That or the arrangements between North East Link and the contractor are a little too cozy.
2 pm on Saturday 7th September 2024.
Eastbound traffic on Banksia Street is queued back to Rosanna Road in Heidelberg, because the three lane roadway has been throttled down to one lane at Bridge St.
Part of North East Link's Works Notification, September 2024 (delivered 04.09.2024)
Over the weekend of 13-16 September 2024 there were no lane closures. No explanation or advance advice was given on site or could be found on the NEL website. The dates were simply adjusted forward by a further week. But then on 11-13 October, once again there were no eastbound lane closures. And that was that - no more weekend lane closures for that job. It was estimated to take five weekends, but it took only three. Why put us through that?
Bulleen Road, looking south from Bridge Street (mid April 2024)
Lines everwhere that drivers struggle to comply with. Side mounted diagrammatic signs here (out of view on the left) and in Bridge Street are poorly sited: unfamiliar drivers have to try lining up the arrows on the signs with the paint on the road. Overhead signs over the road, showing where each lane goes, should have been provided in Bridge Street; side mounted signs cannot do this task.
Here, we have B'LEN RD, not to be confused with B'LN RD further south.
A major hazard in this photo is that, at the stop line in the middle distance (at Manningham Road) the width between the signal lanterns on the left and those on the right is the equivalent of seven-lane-widths. Despite this extreme width, there are no cantilevered 'mast arm' signals out over the road. This is likely to lead to drivers going through the red signal and having crashes. This scheme will be in place for two years.
Manningham Road, looking west across Bulleen Road (mid June 2024)
Crying wolf: instead of a 60 km/h speed limit, 40 km/h is being used permanently (presumably for two years) on these three sections of road. Few people drive at 40 km/h; most drive a 60 km/h - and my professional opinion is that 60 km/h is an appropriate speed for the conditions. But a few people do drive at 40 km/h ('Rules are rules', or they've booked booked elsewhere before) and this sets up dangerous speed differentials and needless lane changing. There is no need for the 40 km/h limit: sight lines are good. If sight lines (visibility) are limited anywhere (though I cannot see where), then the concrete barriers should be set back at access points or the screens should be removed, rather than relying on a low speed limit that the majority of drivers see no need for.
This is not an enforcement issue - it's an issue about poor, risk-aversion-based traffic design that ignores human factors.
This is serious (Update 5th August 2024)
The above photo (Bulleen Road, looking south from Bridge Street) was taken in mid April 2024, soon after the one way scheme was introduced. In late July (last week) I posted the words below that photo. See the paragraph starting 'A major hazard in this photo is . . .'
Early this morning, 5th August 2024, it would appear that my concerns were well founded. A fatal right angle collision occurred between a truck travelling south (approaching on the leg without the mast arm cantilevered traffic lights) and Toyota Tarago travelling west through that intersection (Bulleen Road / Manningham Road).
Fatal collision, Bulleen Road / Manningham Road, Mon. 05 Aug 2024 (looking north)
Fatal collision, Bulleen Road / Manningham Road, Mon. 05 Aug 2024 (from SE corner)
Risk Aversion: Crying Wolf All Over the Project
By late October 2024, 40 km/h speed limits had been extended southward down Bulleen Road past the shops to some indeterminate location after the shops - or is it after Golden Way, where the next 60 km/h sign is? Also, 40 km/h signs were in place in both directions from the Veneto Club access southward to Thompsons Road. In late January 2025, 40 km/h was introduced in both directions on the Bulleen Road bridge over the Eastern Freeway and from there, along Thompsons Road to east of the Manningham Hotel access.
As with the earlier 40 km/h limits (applying at all times), most drivers have been taking a pragmatic approach and have been 'driving to the conditions'. Seeing that there is actually no roadwork occurring on these roads, most are driving at around 60 km/h, which in my professional view is reasonable for the conditions.
This risk aversion approach by this project simply reduces the credibility of speed limits and increases the risk at locations where 40 km/h really is needed for safety.
Crying wolf: there are no roadworks near the road. Looking south on Bulleen Road from Manningham Road ( 1 Nov 2024). This view also shows that Bulleen Road shifts to the left past the shops (after the veranda) - showing how easy it would be to provide a safer service road at the shops (see The Wrong Design for Bulleen).
Update 27 February 2025: a second fatal crash on a North East Link road in Bulleen
On Thursday afternoon, 27th February 2025 a second fatal crash occurred when a mini concrete mixer truck rolled over on Thompsons Road, just east of the Bulleen Road bridge over the Eastern Freeway (Bulleen Road north of Thompsons Road was still closed/deviated). The truck was travelling to the east and came to rest ~30 m east of the east side of the existing freeway bridge.
This crash occurred about one month after 40 km/h speed limits were installed on this road and the Bulleen Road freeway bridge. Likewise the fatal crash on 5th August 2024 was in a 40 km/h roadworks zone - where no roadworks were taking place on the roads at the time. This illustrates that relying on inappropriately low speed limits, due to risk aversion, does not create a safe road environment.
Bulleen Bus Interchange
The originally-proposed major Bulleen bus interchange was removed from the north side of Thompsons Road, just east of Bulleen Road (where the former Boroondara tennis courts used to be) and was squeezed into a smaller site on the south side of Thompsons Road. This was done to clear out the former site so that the problematic northerly tunnel ramps connecting with Thompsons Road could be built - instead of the original and much better ramp connection design at Greenaway Street, near Manningham Road (see the page 'the Wrong Design for Bulleen').
As a consequence the 'park and ride' bus interchange is much smaller and the car park fills up each weekday morning, well before the peak is over (see photo).
Because the site is very tight, the car park ramp and aisle arrangements are poor and dangerous: to enter and then go to the lower car park, drivers are meant to travel all the way through the ground floor car park, and then all the way back again, to access the ramp to the lower level. Soon after it was open, a temporary patch up was installed to stop drivers taking the quicker route to the lower level (see photo). This is another fine example of “Some of the best engineers, designers and builders from across Australia and around the world [having] worked for years to refine the design of North East Link to ensure it delivers the best outcome for the whole community.”
When the bus interchange opened in late April 2023, the existing direction sign to the two freeway entry ramps (see above, August 2023) was not relocated. Waiting for a bus at the interchange, I'd observe car drivers entering the new buses-only area, do a loop and then exit (including a 'grey nomad' couple towing a caravan). It was evident to me that the left-pointing arrow on the sign was directing these drivers the wrong way. I suggested to North East Link that they shift the sign further down near the bus stop (see the photo). A guy from the Department of Transport and Planning (ex VicRoads) got back in touch and told me that this was not possible, as there were probably services underground. Seriously! The sign is misleading and needs to be shifted. There was room for the foundations for a bus shelter, but not for a sign? So the sign remains where it has always been.
But don't fret - a solution is developing:
Firstly, they angled the left arrow at 45 degrees (up, to left). But the new tree (planted as part of the bus interchange landscaping) is growing and is now covering over the left-pointing arrow - so it no longer matters what angle it's at.
And in June 2024 another sign (pointing right, to the Bulleen Road deviation) was installed below the other sign. The new sign is well away from the roadway, on the left side - not a location likely to be spotted by someone in the right lane.
Other Fun with Signs and Lines
While the Bulleen bus interchange was being built, the one-way service road along the opposite side of Thompsons Road had to be temporarily closed at one end, with two way traffic happening. Here are two efforts at signing at the service road.
I think the lower sign should have faced the opposite direction.
It never did.
This sign was used to prohibit a traffic movement, but the most prominent word is 'Permitted'.
Bulleen Road near Ilma Court, late Jan. 2024
How many traffic controllers does it take to control a single lane of traffic on one side of a divided road? The answer would appear to be 'Four' on North East Link.
(Bulleen Road at Ilma Court, Saturday 3rd August 2024)
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