Transport in Adelaide - Roads

Roads

Road transport in Adelaide has historically been comparatively easier than many of the other Australian cities, with a well-defined city layout and wide multiple-lane roads from the beginning of its development. Historically, Adelaide was known as a "twenty-minute city", with commuters having been able to travel from metropolitan outskirts to the city proper in roughly twenty minutes. However, these roads are now inadequate to cope with Adelaide's growing road traffic.

In 1964 the 'M.A.T.S.' plan (Metropolitan Adelaide Transport Study) was commissioned by the S.A. Government. It examined establishing a large network of highways along Adelaide's main urban transport corridors. The plan went as far as the State Government of the day purchasing land along Adelaide's major roads, in preparation for highway construction. However, later State Governments abandoned the plan during the 1970s. The consequences of the political rejection of this plan are now being realised as increased traffic has seen travel times increase, and congestion on main thoroughfares such as South Road has become a daily reality.

Adelaide is connected to Port Wakefield Road and the Sturt Highway in the north, and the South Eastern Freeway in the South East. The Southern Expressway acts as a bypass for congested South Road in the southern suburbs of Adelaide. The expressway is unique for changing direction according to peak flow.

Read more about this topic:  Transport In Adelaide

Famous quotes containing the word roads:

    Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
    And sorry I could not travel both
    And be one traveler, long I stood
    And looked down one as far as I could
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    Lift your eyes
    Where the roads dip and where the roads rise
    Seek only there
    Where the grey light meets the green air
    The hermit’s chapel, the pilgrim’s prayer.
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)

    A novel is a mirror carried along a high road. At one moment it reflects to your vision the azure skies at another the mire of the puddles at your feet. And the man who carries this mirror in his pack will be accused by you of being immoral! His mirror shews [sic] the mire, and you blame the mirror! Rather blame that high road upon which the puddle lies, still more the inspector of roads who allows the water to gather and the puddle to form.
    Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)