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I have heard about the awful Perth traffic - advice please


Sulac

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I am well aware of the notorious Perth traffic. But what is it like if you go early - say I had to be in central Perth (Riverside area) for either 6am start or 7 am start would I miss the traffic then? I am heading in from the Reid Highway Balcatta way and heading south. Any idea how long it would take to get in for those two start times? Any guidance appreciated.

 

:biggrin:

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'Notorious Perth traffic' ? I guess it depends where you live in the UK but I didn't find it any more problematic than commuting here.

 

I lived near Fremantle (about 20km south of Perth), if I left before 7:30 it took about 40 mins, if I left after 9am (which I did when i dropped my son at school) it took 35 mins. Leaving between 7:30-8:00 it took about an hour - of course add an accident, heavy rain, roadworks or something and you get the odd nightmare journey but that's the same anywhere.

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I am well aware of the notorious Perth traffic. But what is it like if you go early - say I had to be in central Perth (Riverside area) for either 6am start or 7 am start would I miss the traffic then? I am heading in from the Reid Highway Balcatta way and heading south. Any idea how long it would take to get in for those two start times? Any guidance appreciated.

 

:biggrin:

 

notorious !!! sounds a little drastic.......its like anywhere , its a City I use to drive through it every day , was a lovely drive over the Swan River , sometimes took the coast road .........I wouldn't knock it ......you could be in London ect .......

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Maybe you heard of the endless roadworks...because they are everywhere...slowing you down.... keeping the jobless rate down of course..

 

But apart from that its not Bangkok, KL or...London!

 

As Tm says Freeway on the river...even train has riverviews

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Traffic has increased over the past 5 years, that is fact. But depending on where you are coming from into the city it will be different. My bro in law has to drive in because of his job so not everyone can get on the train and can sometimes take him up to 1.5 hrs each way every day. All roads are busy now well the ones North anyway.

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If you’re doing an early start you’ll breeze it. My Mrs leaves the house at 6.00 and is in her office in East Perth most days before 6.45; and we live in the sticks. Coming home (Northbound) is much better now as the freeway has been widened just outside the city and again up to Hodges Drive. I work in Osborne Park (Hutton St), I don’t travel to work on the Freeway but I do to travel home. If I leave at 3.00 I am home at half past.

The traffic is very busy in rush hour but my M62 journey was worse, it depends what you're used to. There are road works planned for Joondalup Southbound which will cause headaches for a while, they are replicating what they have done on the other side.

Worse than the traffic is the pedestrian speed limit. The main reason it takes so long is everyone is effectively going 60 mph. Mind you, once you see the average driver over here, you’ll be glad of that.

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In my experience it looks worse than it actually is.

 

Can't comment on the Mitchell Freeway as I'm coming up the Kwinana in a morning. But our 23km commute from around the Cockburn area to Subiaco takes us about 40 minutes in a morning. We generally leave the house between 7.30-8.45 and get into work at around 8.10-8.20.

 

If we got the train/public transport it would take us a lot longer and cost the same, so we drive.

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You have to be kidding. Sydney is much worse. So is Melbourne Brisbane and Adelaide. Perth is a breeze by comparison.

 

I agree. It would be bad though if your coming from a small village, in rural England , with a population of a couple of thousand and you have never lived anywhere near a city. Seems to be the case with a lot of folk mate.

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I agree. It would be bad though if your coming from a small village, in rural England , with a population of a couple of thousand and you have never lived anywhere near a city. Seems to be the case with a lot of folk mate.

 

That would be true.

 

I used to commute from Windsor to Chiswick on the M4 each morning - would take me an hour + to get to work, crawling all the length of that stupid bus lane (was better once it was removed). So for me the Kwinana really isn't that bad.

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I remember when I left Perth 15 years ago, and I picked up a taxi at Cockfosters. It was mid day. I asked the driver why it was so busy, was there some sort of major event on? He looked at me like I was from Mars and said it's not busy, it's moving. You should see rush hour.

 

Perth isn't busy as such. The volume of traffic isn't that great. But the roads are very badly designed. When I travel any distance in the UK I am rarely stationary enough to even blow my nose. In Perth, even in light traffic, you would be stationary a sufficient amount of time to build a medium sized lego model. It's traffic light heaven.

 

I am well aware of the notorious Perth traffic. But what is it like if you go early - say I had to be in central Perth (Riverside area) for either 6am start or 7 am start would I miss the traffic then? I am heading in from the Reid Highway Balcatta way and heading south. Any idea how long it would take to get in for those two start times? Any guidance appreciated.

 

:biggrin:

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Just come back to Perth after being away for 7 years and I have noticed a dramatic increase in traffic all over Perth. Locals and friends say the population has swelled with FIFO's. The amount of pristine 4 wheel drives hogging the roads is ridiculous. I take public transport whenever I can as in some cases it's quicker to get to my destination.

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I am well aware of the notorious Perth traffic. But what is it like if you go early - say I had to be in central Perth (Riverside area) for either 6am start or 7 am start would I miss the traffic then? I am heading in from the Reid Highway Balcatta way and heading south. Any idea how long it would take to get in for those two start times? Any guidance appreciated.

 

:biggrin:

 

I'm no expert having only spent a few weeks in Perth and never done morning rush hour, but I drove across the city a number of times during the day and early evening and compared to London the traffic was light. Laughably light.

 

One main road we drove on through Perth had, if I remember correctly, five lanes in each direction. Compare that to some of London's main arteries that have one lane, or two lanes effectively reduced to one because of the parking on both sides of the road.

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I'm no expert having only spent a few weeks in Perth and never done morning rush hour, but I drove across the city a number of times during the day and early evening and compared to London the traffic was light. Laughably light.

 

One main road we drove on through Perth had, if I remember correctly, five lanes in each direction. Compare that to some of London's main arteries that have one lane, or two lanes effectively reduced to one because of the parking on both sides of the road.

You need to spend more time here. You can't compare perths traffic to London's traffic. Perths no bigger than a small uk town with a couple of hundred thousand people in and london has 11 million people. Regarding the 5 lanes I think your thinking of the freeway going out of the city. A km down the road it goes to 3 lanes so it bottle necks back into the city and further down ( or up ) it goes to 2 lanes creating yet more bottle necks.try getting out of the city (in rush hour )on the freeway north or south and see how far you've gone in 30 minutes. Not far I can assure you

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You can't compare perths traffic to London's traffic.

 

Why not, it's pretty relevant for anyone moving from London to Perth. There's a huge difference in the size of the two cities but that puts the 5 lane roads into even greater perspective. How many of them do we have in the UK?

 

You need to spend more time here. You can't compare perths traffic to London's traffic. Perths no bigger than a small uk town with a couple of hundred thousand people in and london has 11 million people. Regarding the 5 lanes I think your thinking of the freeway going out of the city. A km down the road it goes to 3 lanes so it bottle necks back into the city and further down ( or up ) it goes to 2 lanes creating yet more bottle necks.try getting out of the city (in rush hour )on the freeway north or south and see how far you've gone in 30 minutes. Not far I can assure you

 

This was going North to South and back a few times. Probably a freeway but it went through the city. We were laughing as it was busier late Friday afternoon / early evening than other times but it was a walk in the park compared to what we're used to.

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Why not, it's pretty relevant for anyone moving from London to Perth. There's a huge difference in the size of the two cities but that puts the 5 lane roads into even greater perspective. How many of them do we have in the UK?

 

 

 

This was going North to South and back a few times. Probably a freeway but it went through the city. We were laughing as it was busier late Friday afternoon / early evening than other times but it was a walk in the park compared to what we're used to.

Ok Pete you know best

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