VACC, the peak body for the retail automotive industry in Victoria, supports calls for a rethink of Melbourne's traffic and congestion problems.

• better management of existing infrastructure
• extended clearway times
• flexible traffic lane use
• dedicated near-city parking infrastructure
• more scooter- , motorbike-, and bicycle-friendly roads
• slowing traffic on city approaches

"But the proposals to date are either too limited in their scope, and likely to produce limited benefits - such as those recently announced by the Melbourne City Council - or too costly and too far-off to produce the shorter term benefits needed by both industry and the community," VACC Executive Director David Purchase said.

"Some of the solutions may be found in better management of existing infrastructure. In VACC's view, through traffic flows would also be assisted if clearway times were extended, or if parking on the key thoroughfares was prohibited - except for branded vehicles servicing businesses along those routes. Cars backing into car spaces along key city through-routes, hold traffic behind them while executing the park, which has a knock-on effect the length of the street.

"Clearing parking from busy thoroughfares may also enable middle lanes to be used as turning lanes for traffic to move into, and out of the through lane. King Street traffic, for instance, is regularly snagged behind cars turning right.

"Creating clearways on each side, plus the installation of lighting for flexible lane use (such as occurs in Queens Parade during peak hours), would enable cars to pull out of the traffic flow when turning right," Mr Purchase said.

"Similarly, on some of the wider, less heavily-used cross streets, angle parking should be introduced to replace parallel parking. This would help compensate for the loss of parking from streets such as Kings Street and Exhibition Street should clearways be extended.

"A great part of the congestion is caused by too many cars coming into the city (for work or business), which could otherwise be accommodated in city edge suburbs such as South Melbourne, Port Melbourne, Docklands and North Melbourne. Certain areas within these suburbs, parts of which are, to a degree, 'green fields' in that their use is changing from industrial to residential and business developments, could be allocated to city parking, and connected to the CBD via dedicated frequent-service trams or buses.

"Traffic congestion could also be relieved by the simple measure of slowing traffic on city approaches before it reaches the CBD. Traffic currently simply tears into every bottleneck, then comes to a congested stop. Slowing traffic earlier would ease the pressure on the bottlenecks and create a more efficient, orderly and less polluting flow through the city.

"Measures such as outlined above could have an immediate impact on congestion and the environmental problems and degradation of amenity which results. Business needs a free-flowing city. The community of Melbourne also needs a solution to these problems. "

"VACC also supports any measures that will make it easier and safer for commuters to use scooters and motorcycles, as well as bicycles. The footprint of a scooter is tiny compared to a car. Yet, typically, most cars coming to the city carry the same number of passengers as the typical scooter - a single passenger, the driver.

"We all, as a community, need to put a lot of thinking into this if our city is not to slowly grind to a halt. But the solutions, in the short time, may simply require some creative thinking around existing infrastructure," Mr Purchase said.