Banishing the Beach Road bottleneck

New part time 'No Stopping' parking restrictions will be installed along the east side of Beach Road between Orlando Street and Linacre Road in Hampton to alleviate traffic congestion during afternoon peak times.

Council will install the signage in the next 3-4 weeks to ensure afternoon peak traffic travelling south does not have to merge to avoid parked cars, causing significant delays and congestion.

Bayside Mayor, Cr Clarke Martin said that while peak hour traffic isn’t a problem at the moment, the stretch of road was a renowned bottleneck pre COVID-19.

“This section of Beach Road has been an anomaly for many years, with parked cars leading to delays, accidents and frustration for many residents and road users,” Cr Martin said.

“Council’s action to make two lanes available Monday to Friday 4.00-6.30pm will help to prevent frustrated motorists using adjacent residential streets as an alternate route. This will avert high traffic loads, noise, air pollution and damage to parked vehicles on side streets that are only designed for local traffic, Cr Martin said.

Southbound traffic on Beach Road in the vicinity of Orlando Street currently carries over 12,000 vehicles per day, with approximately 1,300 vehicles per hour during afternoon peak.

Beach Road is under the control of the Department of Transport however Council has the ability to implement No Stopping restrictions on all roads. On-street parking in this area of Beach Road is already restricted south of Linacre Road.

Council will also continue to advocate to the Department of Transport to review traffic conditions on Beach Road between Bay Road and Balcombe Road following the implementation of the ‘No Stopping’ restrictions in Hampton.