By Jessica Anstice
Traffic on Narre Warren-Cranbourne road faces multiple delays due to heavy congestion on a daily basis.
“Travel times on Narre Warren-Cranbourne Road are awful every day and time of the week,” Cranbourne East resident Kerry Brown said.
Ms Brown has lived in the Hunt Club Estate for 10 years.
“The roads have consistently gotten worse with no improvements,” she said.
“Traffic lights for the shopping centre are just creating more crazy drivers who run red lights and cause accidents.
“If I drive my daughter to school, she attends Casey Grammar which is one kilometre down the road, it can take me anywhere from five to 15 minutes. I can walk and it takes me less time.”
Ms Brown said in regards to general traffic it is constantly busy as it is a single lane road so when someone is turning right on the road you need to wait until there is no oncoming traffic and sometimes this can take a few minutes.
“The frustration is that this road should have been widened years ago before the area became so congested,” she said.
“There are apparently plans to widen it but I cannot see that happening as there is no mention of this road in any upgrades.
“Having to wait up to five minutes to make a right hand turn is absurd and extremely dangerous.”
Ms Brown would love to live in a safer environment for her family where they are not risking their lives just trying to drive locally.
“I want to see the road widened and possibly even lights at our entrance to the Hunt Club so it gives pedestrians and cars safer access to turn or cross the road,” she said.
“There is a school crossing but during the day pedestrians are risking their lives by crossing the road.
“Cranbourne itself has gotten so busy and the infrastructure has not kept up, residents are suffering and the council and government are doing nothing about it.”
All local roads are busy and the community want it fixed.
“Stop with the immigration to start with,” Ms Brown said.
“People need to hold an Australian driver’s license not international as they cannot drive on our roads and cause more accidents and congestion.
“VicRoads also has to be held accountable too.”
South Gippsland highway is another major road in the region that is causing grief for drivers.
“The section of South Gippsland Highway between Pound Road, Hallam and High Street, Cranbourne is so congested in peak hour that it can take 40-50 minutes to travel what is only a few kilometres,” Narre Warren South resident Darren O’Brien said.
“However on weekends or evenings it takes less than 10 minutes to travel.
“I find it frustrating because there are no alternate routes as any other option is also just as heavily congested.
“It is like there is a huge gridlock in Casey and nothing seems to be being done by the government to try and ease it.”
Mr O’Brien would like to see the roads widened and over passes or under passes built at intersections where possible.
“With the rapidly increasing population in Casey, something drastic needs to be done promptly,” he said.
