Moving around something

Transport tops wish list
Fixing the public transport system is the single most important issue confronting our city.City chiefs fear Melbourne has lost so much ground to traditional rival Sydney, we won't catch up. Water shortages and other looming resource depletion were also highlighted.

Toll tangle
Drivers are snarling at each other in traffic tangles on CityLink, and tollway operator Transurban and the Victorian Government need to find a solution.Transurban says traffic congestion at the interchange of the Calder and Tullamarine freeways, on the Monash freeway, and on the Westgate Bridge can be fixed. It just takes money. Instead of asking the taxpayer to pick up the tab, why doesn't Transurban offer to pay half? They're the ones making the profits from increased traffic on the tollway.

Most popular cars fail whiplash test
ONLY one in 10 popular cars had headrests that performed well in protecting against whiplash, an RACV test found. Australian favourites such as Toyota Corolla, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Mitsubishi Magna offered least protection.

Editorial - Think beyond the bottleneck
The Government and Transurban should work together to clear traffic congestion.
Anyone trying to drive to Melbourne Airport using CityLink will know the familiar problem at the intersection of the Tullamarine and Calder freeways; the evening peak-hour queueing and frantic bout of obligatory lane-changing to ensure you take the road to QF437 instead of the one to Diggers Rest; or the long, slow-moving line of vehicles going the other way during morning peak-hour; or the similar congestion where CityLink joins the West Gate Freeway at Bolte Bridge; or the phalanx of chrome and exhaust fumes at Warrigal Road and the Monash Freeway. These and other trouble spots fly in the face of the lofty assurances on Transurban's website: 'On CityLink there are no traffic lights, no toll plazas or boom gates and no traffic bottlenecks ... The result is fast, safe and stress-free travel.' Up to a point - and that point was reached long ago. More often than not drivers, not only on the tollroads but surrounding ones affected by the build-ups, find their travel slow and stressful.