Toll Roads
Potential Saving: $4526.40 per annum – or more
Toll roads in Australia are a complete rip-off. In particular during peak periods, Sydney’s toll roads deliver no tangible benefit to the motorist, yet toll roads cost a bomb. Traffic just grinds to a halt on the major toll roads (and the major free roads) - only the drivers stuck on the toll roads can't get off or try an alternative route. Everyone stuck on a toll road in peak-hour is trapped in a linear car park - and paying through the neck for the 'privilege'. The only group benefiting from toll roads are the companies that own them.
Incredibly, the toll road trip below – common enough for people who live in the north-west sector – costs more than $4500 annually.
We tested what happens when you slash that cost to zero using established free roads.
Above: Castle Hill to the Sydney CBD via toll roads - 34km
Alternatively, try this larger version of the map
TOLL ROADS: NEED TO KNOW
Castle Hill to Sydney CBD via the following toll roads:
- M2 Hills Motorway (toll road): $4.95
- Lane Cove Tunnel (toll road): $2.89
- Sydney Harbour Bridge (toll road): $4.00 (in peak periods)
Return Trip via the same toll roads:
- Lane Cove Tunnel (toll road): $2.89
- M2 Hills Motorway (toll road): $4.95
- (Note: no north-bound toll on the Sydney Harbour Bridge)
THE PROBLEM
It's w-a-y too much money. Obviously.
- The daily cost of this journey via toll roads is $19.68
- The weekly cost of this journey via toll roads is $98.40
- The annual cost of this journey via toll roads is an incredible $4526.40
(The above annual toll roads cost assumes four weeks of annual leave and 10 working days of public holidays, plus weekends, during all of which it’s assumed toll roads charges are not incurred.)
That staggering $4526.40 is a lot of tolls.
This amount of money buys 3000 litres of petrol – enough to drive 30,000km in an average Australian car. (More than twice the national average distance travelled by cars in Australia.)
THE SOLUTION
Boycott the toll roads. It's the only behaviour governments understand. In the above example, try this route instead:
Above: Castle Hill to the Sydney CBD via free roads - 32km
Alternatively, try this larger version of the map.
Give it a go. You’ll arrive at the CBD during peak periods within 10 minutes of anyone using the toll roads (we tested this theory, twice) and you’ll save more than $4500 annually.
For an office worker on a salary of $70,000, saving $4500 is equivalent to more than a six per cent pay increase – funded entirely by contributions you didn’t make to toll road rip-offs.
Charging taxpayers this much money to use roads that should have been free anyway is both immoral and unethical.