The ‘perfect storm’ that left Melbourne’s roads clogged yesterday

A “perfect storm” yesterday led to traffic chaos on Melbourne’s roads.

While there were 300,000 fewer trips made on the city’s roads than were made on Tuesday, there were extensive delays across the city.

It began with a serious smash on the West Gate Freeway, which left only one lane open for hours from about 1pm.

There were also serious crashes on the Western Freeway, Princes Freeway and M80 Ring Road.

Then the storm hit.

One 3AW Mornings listener said a trip from East Melbourne to the CBD, which would ordinarily take three minutes, took half an hour, while another journey from Prahran to Northcote took two hours.

Chris Miller from the Department of Transport says a big part of the problem is a decline in driving skills during lockdowns.

“We’re not used to this level of traffic, it’s sort of come on very quickly in the last couple of weeks,” he told Neil Mitchell.

“If we can just try and be a little bit nice to each other, and just back off a little bit, it might help the whole network flow a little bit better.

“We’ve got more bad weather on the roads this afternoon so please, everyone, just take care. Expect it to be busy, allow yourself some extra time.”

Press PLAY below to hear about the ‘perfect storm’ that left Melbourne’s roads clogged