I’ve started a new job, one that occupies so much of my time. Especially since I spend an hour commuting each way, winding through “main roads” that in the States would be considered residential streets. It’s an interesting adventure though, trying to figure out which of the eighteen routes home is the fastest, and on which day are each appropriate. To top it all off, dodging the large holes in the street and the aggressively driven work-utes adds an entirely new dimension of fear that I’ve never experienced before. And yes, it’s different than driving in Southern Californian rush hour traffic. At least then, you’re given the opportunity to cut across five lanes of relatively smooth freeway concrete to get to your exit that you almost missed, even though there’s another exit not even a 1/4 of a mile up the road.

But that’s nothing I need to worry about here in Australia. The only exits from major roads here are the toll roads, and even then, there’s only about five exits you need to worry about throughout the entire length of any of the major roads in the Sydney area. I suppose I wouldn’t mind using these a bit more often if wasn’t paying $8 to sit in traffic. I love paying to drive a car on a road that isn’t getting me home any quicker and throwing money towards a tunnel project that is going bankrupt and showing no signs of change. Why should we lower the tolls to encourage people to use it? Let’s raise it instead, and oh, let’s make the bypass road smaller, by making one of the lanes a bus only lane. Now we have a bankrupt tunnel project AND horrible traffic.



The start differences make anyone that isn’t used to this style of driving perk up and pay attention. But why is it so different? It’s not. Well, not really. At least compared to the rest of the world. You see these roads are older, and less developed than the US Interstate System. And the Australian road system was built to get people from A to B, not to transport troops and supplies during wartime.

Wartime you say?

The Interstate Highway System was authorized by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 – popularly known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956 – on June 29. It had been lobbied for by major U.S. automobile manufacturers and championed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was influenced by his experiences in 1919 as a young Army officer crossing the country in a truck convoy (following the route of the Lincoln Highway), and his appreciation of the German Autobahn network as a necessary component of a national defense system. In addition to facilitating private and commercial transportation, it would provide key ground transport routes for military supplies and troop deployments in case of an emergency or foreign invasion.

So what is the motivation behind updating and upgrading the Australian road network? Unfortunately, it’s not really there. The Australian population is growing exponentially due to the influx of immigrants and if nothing is done soon, the gridlock will only get worse. My daily commute, on a Sunday, would only take 30 minutes. During the week? Over an hour. The problem with the solutions that are being put forth by the Rudd government is that they’re planning just a few years ahead. These roadwork projects will take years to completed, and by the time they’re completed they’ll be outdated and need to upgraded again.

The American Interstate system was built for the future. Why can’t Australia do the same?

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