By Prealene Khera
As the daily commute for Fraser Rise residents turns into a “dangerous” bumper-to-bumper ordeal, locals are concerned the widening gap between population growth and infrastructure development in the area could cause significant road-safety issues.
Ongoing congestion, frustrated motorists, and near-misses are now commonplace occurrences on roads in and around Fraser Rise according to residents, particularly during school drop-off and pick-up times.
For some parents, like Gigi Avati, who have children studying at local Springside West Secondary College, driving through traffic to get to school has been extremely frustrating.
Ms Avati said she has no other alternative.
“I don’t feel safe letting my kids ride through the roundabouts near Fraser Rise on their bikes, so I need to drive them,” she said.
“I’ve seen accidents happen, especially because drivers get restless and cut people off so it can get quite dangerous.
“I would prefer to have the kids ride their bikes but I’m not confident that we’ve got the infrastructure to keep them safe.”
This “poor” up-scaling of infrastructure has meant increased pressure on existing facilities, Ms Avati said.
“There’s all these houses built on top of each other, but the streets are tiny – it should have all been planned better,” Ms Avati said.
These planning concerns are shared by other residents, including Ashleigh Johnstone, who moved to Fraser Rise from Caroline Springs more than two years ago.
“Fraser Rise is a lovely suburb but there’s too much traffic so you’re going to get annoyed,” Ms Johnstone said.
“It’s been getting hard, we want to pick up our house and put it in a more developed suburb.
“I know people who have moved out because of the congestion, so I hope things get better soon.”
Melton council city delivery director Neil Whiteside said the organisation was aware of the significant traffic increase in the area and is undertaking upgrades to ease congestion and improve safety.
This includes the installation of traffic lights at Sinclairs Road, Gourlay Road and Westwood Drive, and the duplication of Taylors Road to four lanes between City Vista Court and Westwood Drive.
“This will see the replacement of all roundabouts between Leakes Road and Westwood Drive with traffic lights,” Mr Whiteside said.
“New pedestrian crossings and an upgrade of the active transport network will help create safer ways to travel for pedestrians and cyclists.”
Work has started on some of these projects with the remainder expected to commence this year, according to the council.
