5.8
Traffic on residential streets (‘rat-running’)
The Coordinator-General has requested an identification and assessment of any new risks of significantly increased traffic on residential streets around congestion points (‘rat-running’) associated with both the construction and operation phases of the project and proposed mitigation measures. The effect of the Project on traffic volumes on local roads has been assessed in Chapter 4 of the Supplementary Report and compared to both the scenario without Northern Link, and to the EIS Reference Project. Forecast effects on local roads are shown in Table 4-13. Table 4-14 reports the modelled changes in traffic volume across screenlines located in the inner west suburbs. The Project would provide sound levels of traffic relief across the surface network, however, the level of overall reduction in traffic on the surface network would not be as great as it would be for the EIS Reference Project. For example, by 2026, the Project is forecast to result in a reduction of 26,000 vpd across the surface network at Toowong and Milton, whereas the EIS Reference Project yielded a further 14,000 vpd reduction with the diversion of trips via the local connections. The relative comparison of effects on local roads between the EIS Reference Project and Project is tabulated in Table 4-15 and Table 4-16. Examples of the forecast effect of the Project in 2026 compared to the scenario without the Project include:
On the Milton Road-Coronation Drive radial road corridors used by bus routes, and other roads used by east-west traffic, an 11% to 9% reduction by 2026 (26,000 vpd) in the network across the Toowong and Milton screenlines respectively is forecast. This includes traffic relief of about 14% on Coronation Drive and 6% on Milton Road.
The Toowong activity centre would benefit from traffic reductions including a forecast decrease by 23% at High Street to 28,300 vehicles per day in 2026, which would be lower than existing traffic levels.
Traffic on Moggill Road through Toowong would reduce by 18% to 40,800 vehicles per day, although there is a small increase at Indooroopilly (4%) as traffic from suburbs such as Indooroopilly and Taringa could access the Project via Moggill Road and the Western Freeway. This is also reflected in Table 4-14 with an increase in traffic in 2026 over the Indooroopilly screenline slightly higher than that forecast for the EIS Reference Project.
As the Project provides an orbital (or ring) route alternative within the network, a range of heavily trafficked regional ring roads in the broader Western Brisbane area are forecast to experience traffic reductions and improved operation. Examples at 2026 include Frederick Street (-9%) and Jubilee Terrace (-5%), which are components of MetRoad 5, and Miskin Street (-3%) and Sherwood Road (-19%) to the west of Jephson Street.
Daily traffic reductions on many City Distributors such as Sylvan Road south of Croydon Street (-10%), Caxton Street (-11%) and Latrobe Terrace (-12%) would be experienced compared with the scenario without the project. Unlike the EIS Reference Project, traffic reduction would also be experienced on Jephson Street (-4%) and Burns Road (-4%).
Croydon Street traffic volumes with the Project are forecast at 31,000 vpd, 4% higher than without the project (29,700 vpd) by 2026. By comparison, with the EIS Reference Project, a more substantial increase on Croydon Street was forecast, with volumes of 44,900 vpd forecast by 2026 with the local connection at Toowong. The forecast small increase in traffic on Croydon Street with the Project would occur due to a combination of factors - re-distribution of some local traffic from Moggill Road-Coronation Drive to
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