West Gate Freeway to receive anti-weaving barriers
March 11, 2009 by Matt Brogan
Concrete barriers aimed at keeping vehicles within a single lane will be installed along the West Gate Freeway in Melbourne from next week.
About a kilometre of barriers will be installed between the Bolte Bridge and Todd Rd in a bid to stop what is said to be dangerous weaving. Roads Minister Tim Pallas said the change would be first of many on the West Gate that will change the way we drive on our freeways.
“Motorists will need to get into the correct lane in advance of their intended exit,” Mr Pallas said. “By separating the lanes, we are removing some of the weaving and merging that currently happens in that section, making it safer and easier for all.”
Drivers heading west using the Todd Rd exit or the Bolte Bridge will be affected by the changes. Motorists who want Todd Rd, including the Shell service station, will exit 800 metres earlier than they do now.
Source: News.com.au
Print it: 
This is a doozie – select your lane more than 1 kilometre in advance, too bad if you get it wrong or a vehicle breaks down in front of you.
If you get it wrong, you have to go all the way over the bridge, do an exit and re-enter, go all the way back over again to do another U turn via Todd Rd or Montague st, and stop and ask someone who might know which lane you should use (good luck) and try again.
That’s the Victorian brains trust hard at work.
I agree with Reckless1, plus theres always one driver at the front who decide to drive 20KM/h below the limit causing a massive 10KM car train behind them during peak hour.
Im so glad i dont take the bridge everyday, may gawd have mercy on all of you who do.
I feel sorry for tourists and non-locals who will not be familiar with where the exits are and not change lanes in time. It will curb the idiots who sit in the right lane for ages and then dart across three lanes to exit at the last minute.
Another stroke of genius from our state government. What happens the next time a truck breaks down in my lane on the way to work? What a joke. Surely the money this is costing could have been better spent on fixing the public transport system up.
Sheer lunacy. Pallas is on drugs. Imagine the catastrophic consequences of someone accidentally jumping their lane kerb and causing a pile-up. Or what if someone bumps their kerb, bounces back into their lane and still suffers a loss of control as a consequence.
He’ll have blood on his hands, the moron.
This better not have anything to do with a certain idiot and an Aston Martin!
Bad luck Victorians, They warned you to stop changing lanes on that bridge! Taking your life in your own hands at the touch of an indicator stork. How dare you make your own desicions on which lane to be in and when! The government knows how to keep you safe with more concrete on the roads!
Bet you rear end collisions skyrocket..any takers? no each way betss
I hope they have actually sat down and thought about this.
What happens if someone breaks down infront of you?
what happens if you break down in the middle lane and need to move across to the emergancy lane so as to not block traffic?
What happens to all those people who dont know the area very well?
The government should be giving everyone a free GPS setup with lane denature assist, to let us know which lane to actually get off at! God I feel sorry for tourists.
The Victoria Government need to be shot.
This is from the same idiots who were going to stop you changing lanes through the Burnley tunnels as well. The state government is useless when it comes to road users. Just don’t get me started on their $50- ’safety’ levee for motorcyclists either.
Sounds like Victorian road safety ‘experts’ are even dopier than those in NZ.
Oh wait….. we base our stupidest rules on those that don’t work in Victoria.
This defeats the purpose of having a multiple lane highways and freeways.
Maybe while these politicians and RACV “experts” are at it they can lower the speed limits to 20km/h.
Seriously people, this entire mess on this freeway is just because the speed limit in the tunnels and across the bridge is 80km/h, and with less lanes then the rest of the Freeway the traffic jams occur.
How do you expect to have 3 lanes of 100km/h traffic to travel 2 lanes of 80km/h traffic travel at the same volume of vehicles. I seriosly doubt any of out “beloved leaders” has ever done fluid dynamics or anything like that. Another idiotic decision.
WHAT ABOUT FAST TRACKING THE MONEY FOR THE SUICIDE BARRIERS????? MONEY BETTER SPEND I’D SAY……
I think that this is absolutely rediculious, you know we’ve all done it driving along not really knowing were to go becuase the GPS isnt very clear so you carry straight on when you should of taken the exit. What if your car breaks down or you have a crash. I think that it is going to casue more problems than solve. GOVERNMENT GIVE US SOME CREDIT, WE ARENT AS STUPID AS YOU THINK
judging by the article they are just gonna put barriers to seperate turning lanes from the freeway so as that u dont get those clowns that fly across 3 or 4 lanes at the last minute to turn off. i dont think they would be stupid enough to put barriers on the thru lanes. lanes are barely wide enough for trucks now if they narrow them further all hell will breakloose with the trucks.
They wouldn’t need barriers if they had more highly visible signage.. and having the signs painted on the road would help as that’s where the drivers attention is supposed to be.
There are just too many signs that are “strategically” placed so that they are hidden or obsured by either a tree or a billboard etc.. which is one of the reasons so many drivers are unsure of the speed limits are
Simply paint arrows on the road with the words… Todd.. Street.. Exit.. 300m.. Ahead.. Left.. Lane.. and it would make it alot easier.
this is an absolute disaster waiting to happen
This could only have come from the fertile mind of a bureacrat.
WOW That’s sooo stupid.
Victorian slot car racing!!
LABOUR PARTY say no more
sorry LABOR
Maybe just maybe, they should have designed the road correctly in the first place. Its like the merge from the Bolte Bridge onto the Westgate heading east. Of all the stupid road designs I have seen, this takes the cake. If you want to head south through the tunnels, you have to cut accross three lanes of traffic or you are forced to exit. Try doing that in peak hour traffic!
What I want to know with these barriers is, what happens when somebody (probably drunk or a visitor makes a late decission and has a head on accident into the start of the barriers? Don’t think that it won’t happen because it will.
Check out the link below:
http://www.citylink.com.au/fil....._FINAL.jpg
It illustrates how it will work. I think the consensus here is that every lane will be lined with barriers, but this link shows that only the turning lane will have the barrier.