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Motorists who commute from Adelaide’s eastern suburbs into the city are experiencing severe delays due to this week’s Adelaide 500 road closures, traffic data analysed by RAA shows.
Of the impacted roads analysed by RAA, The Parade was one of the worst affected, with median travel times on Monday morning blowing out to more than six times usual peak-hour levels. Median travel times between Portrush Road and Fullarton Road increased from taking five minutes during the normal morning commute to up to 30 minutes on Monday morning.
Other arterials under duress include Payneham Road/North Terrace, Magill Road and Greenhill Road (between Devereux Road and Portrush Road), where median morning journey times doubled, often taking around 20-30 minutes longer than usual.
Southbound median travel times on Portrush Road (between Payneham Road and Greenhill Road) were also about 10 minutes longer than the usual 15-minute trip in the morning peak period.
RAA Senior Manager Safety and Infrastructure Charles Mountain said drivers coming from east of the city in the morning peak times this week would continue to face significant delays.
“Delays for drivers travelling into the city from the eastern suburbs are inevitable while the current road closures are in place, so our advice is to use alternate transport options or work from home if possible,” he said.
“With a favourable weather forecast this week, it’s a good opportunity to cycle, walk or take public transport. Cycling may well be a quicker transport option for a lot of people this week.
“For cyclists, the Norwood-Magill Bikeway also provides a great low-traffic route and has a new crossing at Glynburn Road that opened on Tuesday morning.
“Another strategy for drivers would be to leave earlier than usual. Traffic data from Monday and Tuesday this week shows that severe delays didn’t begin until around 7.30am, so if you are travelling earlier than that you should miss the worst of the traffic.”
The traffic data analysed by RAA also shows the morning peak period lasted 30-60 minutes longer than usual on many affected roads, meaning the heavy traffic levels remained on many roads until nearly 10am.
It also shows travel times for drivers travelling from south of the CBD into the city were less affected, with Unley Road’s median travel time only increasing by four minutes.
Mr Mountain said RAA had also observed some additional delays for afternoon peak commuters.
“While there have been some longer travel times in the afternoon, these have been less pronounced than the morning delays due to the typically longer afternoon peak experienced in Adelaide.”
The current Adelaide 500 road closures remain in place until between 6-8 December, and can be viewed here.