Your local Cumberland newspaper

A bus lane to nowhere

Wednesday 23 April, 2008 12:00pm

GREENS MP Lee Rhiannon has challenged Roads Minister Eric Roozendaal to visit Victoria Rd and find room for the eighth lane of traffic planned for the intersection of Darling St and Victoria Rd at Rozelle.

Government plans to widen the Iron Cove Bridge hit another hurdle when community groups suggested it was not possible to fit an extra lane at the intersection.

Ms Rhiannon said this week that the government had offered the extra lane as a dedicated bus lane to sell the unpopular project to the public.

She said it was clear the median strip and footpath were too narrow to accommodate the extra lane, which was identified in preliminary RTA plans for the project.

An RTA spokesman said the extra lane would work through changes to line marking. "Victoria Rd at this intersection is 24.5m wide. Traffic lanes will vary between 2.8 and 3.3m wide for the new configuration allowing for safe travel in an urban environment," he said.

When asked about the location of the eighth lane in parliament earlier this month, Mr Roozendaal said the Victoria Rd project would deliver a continuous 3.5km city-bound bus lane to speed up travel times and a tidal-flow scheme through Drummoyne and Rozelle, similar to the peak-hour lane changes on the Harbour Bridge.

Canada Bay Council is calling for the proposal to be dumped after a council report concluded that "none of the benefits (of the upgrade) have been proven or justified to council or the community". Councillors voted last week to write to the Planning Department, the RTA and Mr Roozendaal asking that the allocated funds be redirected to fast-tracking the northwest metro rail link instead.

They also requested the immediate implementation of a dedicated bus lane between Gladesville Bridge and the city during morning peak time.

The Greens have challenged the government to publicly release traffic modelling for the project as well as plans for other road projects nearby.

"Where the government hasn't been honest with the public is how this project links up with expansion plans for Port Botany, the M4 East and the M7," Ms Rhiannon said. "They are not disclosing their plans because they know how angry communities will become when they find that there will be more motorways cutting their community in half."