This new topic is a place to relocate some of my earlier posts. I've cut-and-pasted six posts from the 'Australian Road Markings' topic. They began there in order to illustrate points of difference in AU road markings, but increasingly that placement has seemed inappropriate as they strayed into general interest and (marginally...!) entertainment.
There's a new post (#7) today, so skip the next six - you've seen them!
Selected Australian Driving Videos
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Peter Freeman
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Selected Australian Driving Videos
Last edited by Peter Freeman on Tue Aug 13, 2024 04:01, edited 1 time in total.
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Peter Freeman
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- Location: Exits 9 & 10, M1 East, Melbourne, Australia
Re: Selected Australian Driving Videos
{Originally posted 25-10-2021}
Driving video from Australia #1. Mainly just for fun, but illustrates many characteristic features of AU motorways and the way we mark and sign them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGz_8LTuMn8
You'll notice some items British-looking, many American-looking, and some pure Australian. The driving too. This 80km route crosses Melbourne from an outer SE suburb to the northern exit from the built-up area. It traverses M1, M2, M80, M31 - four of our major freeways. Journey time is 90 minutes (relaxed progress), condensed to 20. It seems to have been filmed in 2018, late on a cloudy summer evening, so the traffic's light. Each of these freeways has been widened in places since the video was shot.
Items of interest -
Sections of D2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Sections of HS, ALR, and our common 'semi-ALR' (shoulder tapers in and out where there's space left over).
Almost continuous smart features.
Smart gantries are never blank: speed limit confirms that the lane is open.
Arrows on gantries point upwards, not downwards (except in the tunnel).
Electronic signs (on M1) show calculated driving times to forward destinations.
Blue signs for tollways, green for freeways (a Melbourne convention).
Full-speed electronic tolling, harmonized and single-billed with all AU tollways.
Extensive 80km/hr speed limit through the central area.
Two-lane exit diverges with single lane drop and no ghost islands.
Clues to future widening allowance (space for more arrows on gantry signs).
Use of red X (11m25s) over M2 left lane at roadwork (for merge by under-construction M4).
Many glimpses of ramp meters (none active, and some difficult to spot). eg. There's one (2 lanes wide) near the video's start (0m34s), on the ramp where M1 is first entered; and there's one (4 lanes wide) where M3 merges into M1 (3m25s).
video credit: 'Great Australian Drives' (not personally known to me).
Driving video from Australia #1. Mainly just for fun, but illustrates many characteristic features of AU motorways and the way we mark and sign them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGz_8LTuMn8
You'll notice some items British-looking, many American-looking, and some pure Australian. The driving too. This 80km route crosses Melbourne from an outer SE suburb to the northern exit from the built-up area. It traverses M1, M2, M80, M31 - four of our major freeways. Journey time is 90 minutes (relaxed progress), condensed to 20. It seems to have been filmed in 2018, late on a cloudy summer evening, so the traffic's light. Each of these freeways has been widened in places since the video was shot.
Items of interest -
Sections of D2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Sections of HS, ALR, and our common 'semi-ALR' (shoulder tapers in and out where there's space left over).
Almost continuous smart features.
Smart gantries are never blank: speed limit confirms that the lane is open.
Arrows on gantries point upwards, not downwards (except in the tunnel).
Electronic signs (on M1) show calculated driving times to forward destinations.
Blue signs for tollways, green for freeways (a Melbourne convention).
Full-speed electronic tolling, harmonized and single-billed with all AU tollways.
Extensive 80km/hr speed limit through the central area.
Two-lane exit diverges with single lane drop and no ghost islands.
Clues to future widening allowance (space for more arrows on gantry signs).
Use of red X (11m25s) over M2 left lane at roadwork (for merge by under-construction M4).
Many glimpses of ramp meters (none active, and some difficult to spot). eg. There's one (2 lanes wide) near the video's start (0m34s), on the ramp where M1 is first entered; and there's one (4 lanes wide) where M3 merges into M1 (3m25s).
video credit: 'Great Australian Drives' (not personally known to me).
Last edited by Peter Freeman on Tue Aug 13, 2024 04:54, edited 1 time in total.
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Peter Freeman
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- Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2012 07:52
- Location: Exits 9 & 10, M1 East, Melbourne, Australia
Re: Selected Australian Driving Videos
{Originally posted 05-04-2022}
Driving video from Australia #2. If you enjoyed the video of driving across Melbourne a little way up-thread, and you have even more time to waste, you might enjoy this drive right around Sydney's Orbital Motorway. Driving time is 76 minutes, but the video duration is compressed to 26. It's nicely filmed (not by me - I wish ...), and fairly recent. Oz rock bands soundtrack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX1EecuzlCs
Interesting points -
Follows M7, M2, M1, M5.
Unfortunately the orbital, though complete, doesn't have a single number.
The drive travels through several of Sydney's older tunnels.
The M2 has some right-side bus lanes, and bus stops in the median.
Exit signs are map-style: resembling UK's, unlike Melbourne's.
No blue tollway signs in Sydney: all green.
No ramp meters on the orbital, but used elsewhere in Sydney.
Smart features are limited, so far.
HS width and presence varies.
You may spot a few of AU's large multi-trailer trucks.
The on-screen notes mention that the M7 (ie. the first few minutes of this drive) is still good to drive on and not too congested, for a D2M. Since the video was made, that statement's become outdated, and a needed D3M upgrade is now underway (as part of the M12 project - new motorway to 2nd Airport). There are also other orbital upgrades, including the Warringah Freeway, and braiding of one M5 ramp.
Driving video from Australia #2. If you enjoyed the video of driving across Melbourne a little way up-thread, and you have even more time to waste, you might enjoy this drive right around Sydney's Orbital Motorway. Driving time is 76 minutes, but the video duration is compressed to 26. It's nicely filmed (not by me - I wish ...), and fairly recent. Oz rock bands soundtrack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX1EecuzlCs
Interesting points -
Follows M7, M2, M1, M5.
Unfortunately the orbital, though complete, doesn't have a single number.
The drive travels through several of Sydney's older tunnels.
The M2 has some right-side bus lanes, and bus stops in the median.
Exit signs are map-style: resembling UK's, unlike Melbourne's.
No blue tollway signs in Sydney: all green.
No ramp meters on the orbital, but used elsewhere in Sydney.
Smart features are limited, so far.
HS width and presence varies.
You may spot a few of AU's large multi-trailer trucks.
The on-screen notes mention that the M7 (ie. the first few minutes of this drive) is still good to drive on and not too congested, for a D2M. Since the video was made, that statement's become outdated, and a needed D3M upgrade is now underway (as part of the M12 project - new motorway to 2nd Airport). There are also other orbital upgrades, including the Warringah Freeway, and braiding of one M5 ramp.
Last edited by Peter Freeman on Tue Aug 13, 2024 04:56, edited 1 time in total.
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Peter Freeman
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- Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2012 07:52
- Location: Exits 9 & 10, M1 East, Melbourne, Australia
Re: Selected Australian Driving Videos
{Originally posted 27-09-2022}
Here's driving video from Australia #3, for those who like them, this one in Queensland state.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zM89q-UE4o
I think these, in an easy visual way, best get across the atmosphere and feel of a foreign country's roads, short of actually visiting (avoiding 24 hour each way flights, and saving lots of fuel for the driving!). Sabristi with special interest in road marking, signage and signalling can spot AU differences, and perhaps pick up good and bad ideas. For example, at 14m03s is a sign that answers a question that has come up on Sabre: "How can you indicate lane assignments ahead that have more lanes than you currently see; and which side widens?" The white triangle shape seen there is the way AU does it (though it's not a good example, nor a good view of it).
This 80km stretch of M3+M1 Pacific Motorway connects Brisbane to Gold Coast, QLD's fastest-growing city. Upgrade and widening works are visible in the video at a few places, off to the sides, and now in 2022 are extensive.
There are many different interchange types (which QLD is notable for), though that's not discernable from road level. My favourite is a DDI at exit 87, slightly farther south than this video goes, but a super-SPUI that I posted about in the single-point topic is passed at exit 57 (11m45s in the video). BTW, exits are numbered by km (most other AU states number sequentially, like the UK).
Although quite large in scale, and part of the Sydney to Brisbane route, the Pacific Motorway here is an urban and commuter road: Brisbane and Gold Coast are gradually merging into a linear conurbation. It may seem surrounded by green at many points, but, mostly, just over the noise walls, is suburbia. Some smart features, and soon ramp metering, are being gradually added. Still, it has AU's characteristic pragmatism, including the hard shoulder being wide or narrow, intermittent or absent - no-one really minds or even notices. The motorway speed limit varies between 70 and 110 km/hr, while you'll see that city streets can go right down to 30km/hr.
The video starts with a few Brisbane streets, and ends on the streets of Surfers Paradise.
Here's driving video from Australia #3, for those who like them, this one in Queensland state.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zM89q-UE4o
I think these, in an easy visual way, best get across the atmosphere and feel of a foreign country's roads, short of actually visiting (avoiding 24 hour each way flights, and saving lots of fuel for the driving!). Sabristi with special interest in road marking, signage and signalling can spot AU differences, and perhaps pick up good and bad ideas. For example, at 14m03s is a sign that answers a question that has come up on Sabre: "How can you indicate lane assignments ahead that have more lanes than you currently see; and which side widens?" The white triangle shape seen there is the way AU does it (though it's not a good example, nor a good view of it).
This 80km stretch of M3+M1 Pacific Motorway connects Brisbane to Gold Coast, QLD's fastest-growing city. Upgrade and widening works are visible in the video at a few places, off to the sides, and now in 2022 are extensive.
There are many different interchange types (which QLD is notable for), though that's not discernable from road level. My favourite is a DDI at exit 87, slightly farther south than this video goes, but a super-SPUI that I posted about in the single-point topic is passed at exit 57 (11m45s in the video). BTW, exits are numbered by km (most other AU states number sequentially, like the UK).
Although quite large in scale, and part of the Sydney to Brisbane route, the Pacific Motorway here is an urban and commuter road: Brisbane and Gold Coast are gradually merging into a linear conurbation. It may seem surrounded by green at many points, but, mostly, just over the noise walls, is suburbia. Some smart features, and soon ramp metering, are being gradually added. Still, it has AU's characteristic pragmatism, including the hard shoulder being wide or narrow, intermittent or absent - no-one really minds or even notices. The motorway speed limit varies between 70 and 110 km/hr, while you'll see that city streets can go right down to 30km/hr.
The video starts with a few Brisbane streets, and ends on the streets of Surfers Paradise.
Last edited by Peter Freeman on Tue Aug 13, 2024 04:58, edited 1 time in total.
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Peter Freeman
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- Location: Exits 9 & 10, M1 East, Melbourne, Australia
Re: Selected Australian Driving Videos
{Originally posted 09-12-2022}
After three motorways, driving video from Australia #4 shows a Sydney main road from a previous generation. The city has many roads of this general type and scale, including several that form lengthy, still-vital routes right across the city, though most would not be used end-to-end now. This one, the A3, forms a 50km N-S arc bypassing the CBD. Video -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5hdMIRFUzM
Such roads are generally D3, with only occasional grade separations. However, they do carry high flows - A3's mid-point, near the M4 interchange, has an AADT around 100,000. The generally efficient flow is discernible in the video, though that impression is exaggerated by the action speed-up and the edit-out of wait times at red signals.
A3 has nine GSJ's, more than most roads of this class. Most are SPUI's (easy to miss in the video), and often A3 is not the free-flow partner. Major intersections are signalised: no roundabouts (though three small roundabouts are seen near the end of the video, on minor local roads after leaving the A3 and A1).
A3 starts at 01m35s. The first few km (up to 06m00s) are surprisingly rural, passing over high ground between two outer suburbs. This is Mona Vale Road, currently being upgraded (roadworks are visible in the video). A3 improvements elsewhere are unlikely, except for one planned GSR-to-DDI conversion.
The more typical A3 style begins at 07m50s, passing below a SPUI with A1 (Pacific Highway). A3 once again meets A1 (Princes Highway) in the south, at 19m16s.
After three motorways, driving video from Australia #4 shows a Sydney main road from a previous generation. The city has many roads of this general type and scale, including several that form lengthy, still-vital routes right across the city, though most would not be used end-to-end now. This one, the A3, forms a 50km N-S arc bypassing the CBD. Video -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5hdMIRFUzM
Such roads are generally D3, with only occasional grade separations. However, they do carry high flows - A3's mid-point, near the M4 interchange, has an AADT around 100,000. The generally efficient flow is discernible in the video, though that impression is exaggerated by the action speed-up and the edit-out of wait times at red signals.
A3 has nine GSJ's, more than most roads of this class. Most are SPUI's (easy to miss in the video), and often A3 is not the free-flow partner. Major intersections are signalised: no roundabouts (though three small roundabouts are seen near the end of the video, on minor local roads after leaving the A3 and A1).
A3 starts at 01m35s. The first few km (up to 06m00s) are surprisingly rural, passing over high ground between two outer suburbs. This is Mona Vale Road, currently being upgraded (roadworks are visible in the video). A3 improvements elsewhere are unlikely, except for one planned GSR-to-DDI conversion.
The more typical A3 style begins at 07m50s, passing below a SPUI with A1 (Pacific Highway). A3 once again meets A1 (Princes Highway) in the south, at 19m16s.
Last edited by Peter Freeman on Tue Aug 13, 2024 04:59, edited 1 time in total.
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Peter Freeman
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- Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2012 07:52
- Location: Exits 9 & 10, M1 East, Melbourne, Australia
Re: Selected Australian Driving Videos
{Originally posted 04-07-2023}
Driving video from Australia #5 is a short showcase of a Melbourne roads icon - Westgate Bridge. Just for fun.
This 2016 eastbound video is rather out of date. Being Melbourne's busiest freeway (though not busy at the time of this run), many enhancements* have since occurred. However, none of the omissions diminishes the dynamic experience seen here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N06_VPb19g
American producer of USA road videos with creative flair, 'Freeway Brent', fortunately sometimes visits AU.
* Some of the recent enhancements are -
1. At 21s, where the off-ramp to Williamstown Road diverges, the view has been radically changed by a portal on the left for the in-construction Westgate Tunnel.
2. At 35s, rising up the bridge, elevated ramps leading to the Spotswood industral area now flank each side of the M1.
3. At 1m40s, the off-ramp to M2 (signed as route 43 in 2016) has been widened, and metering signals added before the merge into M2 nb.
4. At 1m55s, on the right, the connector from M2 sb to M1 eb now adds two lanes, through metering signals, instead of the single lane add seen here. That makes seven lanes eastbound. Various exits strip it down to only three before it approaches the Burnley Tunnel at 2m40s.
[edit: credit added]
Driving video from Australia #5 is a short showcase of a Melbourne roads icon - Westgate Bridge. Just for fun.
This 2016 eastbound video is rather out of date. Being Melbourne's busiest freeway (though not busy at the time of this run), many enhancements* have since occurred. However, none of the omissions diminishes the dynamic experience seen here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N06_VPb19g
American producer of USA road videos with creative flair, 'Freeway Brent', fortunately sometimes visits AU.
* Some of the recent enhancements are -
1. At 21s, where the off-ramp to Williamstown Road diverges, the view has been radically changed by a portal on the left for the in-construction Westgate Tunnel.
2. At 35s, rising up the bridge, elevated ramps leading to the Spotswood industral area now flank each side of the M1.
3. At 1m40s, the off-ramp to M2 (signed as route 43 in 2016) has been widened, and metering signals added before the merge into M2 nb.
4. At 1m55s, on the right, the connector from M2 sb to M1 eb now adds two lanes, through metering signals, instead of the single lane add seen here. That makes seven lanes eastbound. Various exits strip it down to only three before it approaches the Burnley Tunnel at 2m40s.
[edit: credit added]
Last edited by Peter Freeman on Tue Aug 13, 2024 05:01, edited 1 time in total.
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Peter Freeman
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- Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2012 07:52
- Location: Exits 9 & 10, M1 East, Melbourne, Australia
Re: Selected Australian Driving Videos
{Originally posted 28-05-2024}
Here's Driving Video from Australia #6, another one filmed by 'Great Aussie Drives'. It follows Victoria's M1 edge-to-edge across Melbourne city, passing below the centre. The route is partially a repeat of one I posted before, but this video starts farther out in the east, and stays on the M1 westwards instead of diverging. Also, it's up-to-date: the road has been upgraded and widened (and is being so again now, as you can see just after crossing the bridge at 16m20s).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-4RKcrhuFs
The motorway length covered here is 90km, which shows you the sprawl of this 5 million population city. Travelling that distance E-to-W in England would carry you from Huddersfield to Liverpool or from Hull to Leeds. This journey takes just over an hour (off-peak!), costs a few dollars, and passes 44 GSJs.
M1 is Melbourne's busiest and most important motorway, the same as Sydney's M1 and Brisbane's M1 - and M1 in the UK of course. My home is 4 km north of exit 10E, passed at 9m25s in the video. Curiously, my childhood home in the UK was 4 km from M1 J28, and my Cape Town home was next to an off-ramp of N1. Something about me and roads numbered 1 ... ? That could explain a lot !
Here's Driving Video from Australia #6, another one filmed by 'Great Aussie Drives'. It follows Victoria's M1 edge-to-edge across Melbourne city, passing below the centre. The route is partially a repeat of one I posted before, but this video starts farther out in the east, and stays on the M1 westwards instead of diverging. Also, it's up-to-date: the road has been upgraded and widened (and is being so again now, as you can see just after crossing the bridge at 16m20s).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-4RKcrhuFs
The motorway length covered here is 90km, which shows you the sprawl of this 5 million population city. Travelling that distance E-to-W in England would carry you from Huddersfield to Liverpool or from Hull to Leeds. This journey takes just over an hour (off-peak!), costs a few dollars, and passes 44 GSJs.
M1 is Melbourne's busiest and most important motorway, the same as Sydney's M1 and Brisbane's M1 - and M1 in the UK of course. My home is 4 km north of exit 10E, passed at 9m25s in the video. Curiously, my childhood home in the UK was 4 km from M1 J28, and my Cape Town home was next to an off-ramp of N1. Something about me and roads numbered 1 ... ? That could explain a lot !
Last edited by Peter Freeman on Tue Aug 13, 2024 05:03, edited 1 time in total.
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Peter Freeman
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- Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2012 07:52
- Location: Exits 9 & 10, M1 East, Melbourne, Australia
Re: Selected Australian Driving Videos
Here's Driving video from Australia 7 : heavier-than-normal evening peak traffic using M1, M80 and M8, from Melbourne to its farthest-west suburb, Melton.
Most of the videos I've posted are filmed in quiet or normal traffic, so I thought it only fair to show AU roads having a bad-hair day. Off-peak, this 40km trip takes 30 minutes, but this mid-winter evening drive home clearly took much longer. Don't worry, it's only a 7 minute video. It's a collection of hand-held shots, edited into this short sequence, with pieces missing. The producer is unknown to me. Despite its unusual content, there are unexpected photogenic moments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k2ZrR--dgk
Index -
- 0m00s Journey starts from Melbourne Docklands district.
- 0m22s This wide stop line is at a complex, a-typical SPUI, to join the M1 Freeway.
- 0m28s Normal, slowish pm peak traffic westbound on Westgate Bridge.
- 1m35s Oh-oh! Much slower. This is not normal: queueing past Westgate Tunnel roadworks. These works will end soon.
- 1m45s Just visible on the left is a portal and vent stack under construction for the tunnel, narrowing and slowing the freeway here.
- 2m10s 'House in the Sky' giant public art work suspended above the M1/M80 interchange (we have many public artworks adorning our motorways).
- 2m20s The camera operator here becomes fixated on a very smoky fire a few km away.
- 2m50s Slow again here: a stopped vehicle with hazard lights is on the right-hand-side hard shoulder, and drivers are also distracted by an emergency vehicle on the opposite carriageway.
- 3m15s No excuses here though - always slow at peaks. This 1990's D3 piece of M80 ring road is the only part not yet widened (work just beginning now).
- 4m10s Now on M8, and slow again: there seems to be another stopped vehicle, this one on the left shoulder. This is modern D2M but its capacity is held back by leading to ...
- 5m45s ... the worst freeway in Melbourne: M8 Western Highway, always slow at peak. This is mainly a cheap 1980's D2M, upgraded from an even older DC. A proper upgrade is imminent, to complement the planned finalisation of the ring road.
- 6m35 The freeway does later ease, mostly skipped, but here we've exited: this road is C801, the main street in Melton. Home, I suppose.
Most of the videos I've posted are filmed in quiet or normal traffic, so I thought it only fair to show AU roads having a bad-hair day. Off-peak, this 40km trip takes 30 minutes, but this mid-winter evening drive home clearly took much longer. Don't worry, it's only a 7 minute video. It's a collection of hand-held shots, edited into this short sequence, with pieces missing. The producer is unknown to me. Despite its unusual content, there are unexpected photogenic moments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k2ZrR--dgk
Index -
- 0m00s Journey starts from Melbourne Docklands district.
- 0m22s This wide stop line is at a complex, a-typical SPUI, to join the M1 Freeway.
- 0m28s Normal, slowish pm peak traffic westbound on Westgate Bridge.
- 1m35s Oh-oh! Much slower. This is not normal: queueing past Westgate Tunnel roadworks. These works will end soon.
- 1m45s Just visible on the left is a portal and vent stack under construction for the tunnel, narrowing and slowing the freeway here.
- 2m10s 'House in the Sky' giant public art work suspended above the M1/M80 interchange (we have many public artworks adorning our motorways).
- 2m20s The camera operator here becomes fixated on a very smoky fire a few km away.
- 2m50s Slow again here: a stopped vehicle with hazard lights is on the right-hand-side hard shoulder, and drivers are also distracted by an emergency vehicle on the opposite carriageway.
- 3m15s No excuses here though - always slow at peaks. This 1990's D3 piece of M80 ring road is the only part not yet widened (work just beginning now).
- 4m10s Now on M8, and slow again: there seems to be another stopped vehicle, this one on the left shoulder. This is modern D2M but its capacity is held back by leading to ...
- 5m45s ... the worst freeway in Melbourne: M8 Western Highway, always slow at peak. This is mainly a cheap 1980's D2M, upgraded from an even older DC. A proper upgrade is imminent, to complement the planned finalisation of the ring road.
- 6m35 The freeway does later ease, mostly skipped, but here we've exited: this road is C801, the main street in Melton. Home, I suppose.
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Peter Freeman
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- Location: Exits 9 & 10, M1 East, Melbourne, Australia
Re: Selected Australian Driving Videos
Driving video from Australia #8 might not be what comes to mind when you think 'Aussie Road', but actually this one is not unusual except, as the title points out, for being classified as a C road. It's located in the Australian Alps, which cover most of inland eastern Victoria. The Alps, and extensive associated hill country, are actually full of these rough and sometimes precarious tracks. Four-wheel-driving is a popular pastime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEeFLZrh_WM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEeFLZrh_WM