The study first involved a public meeting in September 2021 and our online community engagement website ‘Shape Monash’ to collect your views on Hughesdale’s existing traffic issues.

We then established a community focus group which included councillors, council officers, local community volunteers and traffic engineering consultants.

The group helped identity and discussed existing traffic issues, including:

• traffic speeds on higher volume collector roads
• traffic volumes/through traffic during commuter peak periods
• congestion and safety at local schools during pick-up/drop-off periods
• lack of pedestrian crossing opportunities across Kangaroo Road.

The data tells us that traffic speed issues mainly focus on the higher volume collector roads, including Kangaroo, Neerim and Willesden Roads. We also observed higher traffic speeds in Hotham Street and within the 40km/h school zones near Oakleigh Grammar.

There’s a level of through traffic associated with motorists avoiding congestion on the boundary arterial roads around Hughesdale. However, the grid nature of the existing road network makes it hard to reduce through traffic volumes. This is particularly the case given the number of schools and non-residential uses which have a real need for local access. Because of this, our proposals focus on reducing traffic speed in the local area rather than through access control measures (i.e. road closures, turn bans, etc.).

Summary of recorded traffic speed and volume statistics for key streets in the local area

You may already know that we don’t manage all the roads in Hughesdale. The DoT manages some of these roads and we’ll be raising several other issues the study identified with them.

• Warrigal Road/Barkly Street – options for road safety improvements.
• Warrigal Road Pedestrian Bridge – improved facilities for bicycles, prams and wheelchairs.
• Poath Road/Willesden Road – review signal phasing and timing.

The key output for the study is preparing a traffic management plan. This is like the ‘master plan’ to identify key proposals for the future. While the plan will guide future traffic management implementation, the proposals are still subject to future Council approvals and funding opportunities.

We’ve considered a range of options to address the existing issues in the area, including roundabouts, road humps, pedestrian/cyclist facilities and improvements to streets near schools.

A summary of the key proposals and the poll are provided below. A copy of the Proposed Traffic Management Plan is provided on this page.

Install a series of ‘modified flat-top’ style road humps along:

• Kangaroo Road
• Neerim Road
• Hotham Street
• Willesden Road
• Clapham Road.

The location of property driveways, street lighting and road hump spacing requirements means we’d only be able to install them at limited locations.

The road humps would be full width and lower in height. The modified flat topped road hump is lower than a standard hump (75mm high instead of 100mm). It provides a smoother drive and reduces noise, while still addressing speed concerns.

This way of doing road humps is now our preferred design to encourage drivers to have a more consistent speed, instead of repeated acceleration and braking. This can often happen when the humps are higher and more apart. They would still allow public bus routes to operate on Kangaroo Road and Hotham Street.

We’ve installed similar humps along Mackie Road, Mulgrave (pictured above right).

We’ve reviewed the following intersections in the area based on historical crash data and community concerns. We propose the following improvements.

• Euston Road/Clapham Road – install a roundabout.

• Warrigal Road/Euston Road – restrict movements out of Euston Road to left turn only (i.e. no right turn from Euston Road into Warrigal Road).
• Warrigal Road/Kangaroo Road – install linemarking guiding the double left turn arrangement from Kangaroo Road into Warrigal Road.
• Parking near intersections – increase ‘No stopping’ areas at several local street intersections improving sight lines for exiting vehicles.

• Neerim Road/Service Road/Paddington Road – realign Neerim Road/Service Road intersection to separate it from the adjacent Paddington Road/Service Road intersection.
• Euston Road/Corr Street/Wilbur Crescent – install splitter islands to manage vehicles cutting corners at the off-set intersection.

This is a key feature of the plan especially along Kangaroo Road, which has historically been a barrier to pedestrian movements.

• Raised zebra crossing between Preston Road and Hotham Street.
• Central median island and raised zebra crossing at the Kangaroo Road shops.
• Utilise existing traffic island to the east of Dalston Street as a pedestrian refuge.
• Introduce a road hump on the east approach to the Poath Road/Kangaroo Road roundabout to slow vehicle speeds.

• Provision of a bicycle connection from the Richardson Street carriageway to the Djerring Trail.
• Improve the intersection of the Djerring Trail and the railway pedestrian crossing.
• Pram ramps across Carlisle Crescent at Richardson Street.

• ‘No stopping’ restrictions in the sections between the indented parking on Austin Street.
• Extend school time ‘No stopping’ restrictions on the west side of Brine Street to the North Road intersection.
• ‘No stopping’ on the south side of Dallas Avenue, opposite Hotham Street to help bus movements.
• Additional indented parking on the west side of Austin Street adjacent to the school.
• Continue enforcement of double parking.

• Linemark a centre line along Latrobe Street to define the traffic lanes.
• Linemark parking bays on both sides of Latrobe Street.
• Review parking restrictions in Normanby Street to provide ‘waiting’ opportunity for parent pick-up movements.
• Raised school crossing in Kangaroo Road.
• Continue enforcement of double parking.

• Raised school crossing on Willesden Road.
• Two road humps in Willesden Road.
• Road hump in Clapham Road.
• Continue enforcement of double parking.