The working day clearway system has been with us for a long time and traffic flow would be impossible without it to aid the morning and afternoon peaks. The city's main arterial roads are it's life blood and now we are finding that travel times on the weekends are reaching saturation point - and it seems inevitable that weekend clearways will be introduced.
The first will commence this March on a section of Victoria road at Rozelle - and it will ban parking from 8 am until 8 pm on a trial basis. The logical extension of weekend clearways includes Mona Vale road, King Georges road, Lane Cove road and the Princes Highway.
Banning parking from 8 am to 8 pm seems heavy handed. The weekday peak was caused by people trying to get to work in the morning and heading home after work in the late afternoon, but the steady expansion of Sydney as a city extended the traffic flow and the clearways became a longer parking ban.
At this stage, the weekend traffic starts later and a clearway from 10-30 am would be more appropriate. In most cases, weekend traffic slows after 5-30 pm and ending the clearway restrictions then would give some relief to those who actually have their homes along our highways.
Weekend clearways will obviously impose a financial change on many people. It is likely that their imposition will result in a loss of value on premises fronting major highways - at least in the short term. They will be a disaster for many retail businesses that rely on the passing traffic for trade and they will be bitterly opposed by many trade associations.
Eventually, it seems inevitable that the arterial roads will become a 24/7 clearway, but just as the weekday clearway times applied to restricted hours originally, the time factor became an extension as the need increased. This same thinking would be appropriate to the hours to be applied to weekends.
The usual demand for compensation will be aired by those likely to suffer financial loss from this imposition, but the writing has been on the wall for a very long time and establishing a business on a heavily congested road has carried very apparent risks.
Residents living on a road subjected to weekend clearways face a changed lifestyle. Those with more cars than onsite parking will face a parking headache that will extend to those living in nearby streets, and the loss of ability to host a BBQ or other social gathering on the weekend because of guest access will be resented by many.
Unfortunately, the passage of time brings with it change - whether we like it or not. The ability to travel across this city is a requirement that imposes restrictions on others and brings with it the inevitability that more changes will become necessary in the future.
The wise will take that into their considerations when making future plans.
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