NSW - Church Street Exit on M4 is Calling for Fatal Accident

ShazOz on 12/02/2023 - 18:51
Last edited 12/02/2023 - 18:59

I remember there were 2 lanes for Church Street Exit on M4 when they were installing new toll system. This has now been reduced to 1 and I have seen so many near misses because so many people tend to forget it and try to merge at last seconds. This causes the people travelling behind these jerks in middle lane to apply sudden brake while travelling at speed of 80KM/HR.

To add salt to the injury, the traffic is static most of the times even in single lane exit and extend to 100's of meters. This makes the people travelling in that lane prone to accident particularly if they are travelling at speed of 80KM/HR and then there is static car right after the corner.

I wonder why they came up with such a stupid design and decided to close the 2nd lane. They should have installed traffic light (red or green) similar to how they have in place for various entries during peak times.

Automotive

Comments

  • SF3 on 12/02/2023 - 19:30
    +2

    Collision collusion with smash repairers. /s

  • chillybags on 12/02/2023 - 19:39
    +1

    Theres already been at least two fatal accidents that I can recall. That was pretty soon after opening the M4 widening. Extremely poorly designed and nothing has been done - absolutely disgraceful.

  • mskeggs on 12/02/2023 - 20:15

    I think the changes you describe were in response to the last crash. Still not very good, I agree.

  • thetrain on 12/02/2023 - 20:27
    +5

    They don't forget, they merge at the last second to cut the queue.

    The best solution would be to extend the plastic barrier so people can't merge in last second

  • randomusername2017 on 12/02/2023 - 20:28

    Just as many accidents on the church st onramp…

  • Ryanek on 12/02/2023 - 20:30

    Yes very odd design, especially considering it's just empty land to the left of the exit way. Plenty of room to widen it.

  • bcarp on 12/02/2023 - 20:45

    Two exit lanes was worse than one exit lane. You used to get two lanes blocked up with traffic, and people in the third lane trying to sneak in & suddenly braking. This now affects one less lane. Those people you say "forgot" didn't forget. They intentionally try to jump the queue. And even if they did forget, braking suddenly is stupid. Just keep going & take the next exit rather than causing an accident.

  • aoeueoa on 12/02/2023 - 22:20
    +1

    I drove this exit daily and would think daily that its design is fatally flawed. The absolute worst part is that it's a left bend with right-hand drive cars. The limit is 80 but many do 100. So you have people doing 100 coming around blind left turn not seeing what's backed up ahead and there were almost daily multi-car accidents there back in 2018/19. You'd have people tailgating you in the exit lane with no clue that the traffic was backed up ahead.

  • afoveht on 12/02/2023 - 22:28
    +1

    Just went past it today coming back from the mountains. Always a schemozzle. It's like they intentionally made / left this bottleneck to entice people to go past the toll point.

  • Gunnar on 12/02/2023 - 22:44

    It is such a terrible location. You’ve got the people who forget but the ones who are irritating are ones who go all the way to the end and then merge. That’s how the accidents happen.

    I’d rather just pay the toll and avoid all the idiots on Parramatta Rd

  • Sinnerator on 13/02/2023 - 07:42
    +1

    You asked why?
    Because Toll Roads makes the rich friends of politicians and bureaucrats richer.

  • tyarrhea on 13/02/2023 - 15:35

    They need to reduce the toll but extend where it starts further out west. The vast majority of people exiting at Church St do so to avoid the tolls and then drive recklessly through Harris Park/Rosehill to reach James Ruse Drive

    • Subere on 14/02/2023 - 10:19

      The old toll used to start after James Ruse. Now it's $4 or whatever to get off at James Ruse for 1km of road. They got greedy and it's causing massive congestion.

  • Subere on 14/02/2023 - 10:18

    This is my exit to go home if I'm travelling in that direction. What frustrates me is that even when it's not busy drivers in the left lane slow down to 60 when they have over a km to go to the exit. The exit itself is empty and there's a few cars at the traffic lights. There is no reason to slow down so much whatsoever.

    What also causes the bottleneck is the Burnett St on ramp that is 600m before the Church St exit (and the Coleman St not much further behind that). So many are trying to get onto the M4 proper whilst others are trying to merge into the exit lane. This is also why many merge very late into the exit lane. Just trying to avoid that previous on ramp merge standstill.

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