Mornington Peninsula drivers are set to face road restriction to lower traffic on roads and reduce the number of potholes.
In a first anywhere in Australia, the state government has introduced restrictions limiting peninsula drivers to only driving every second day with an “odds and evens” number plate schedule. Vehicles with number plates ending with an odd number can drive Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays and those ending with an even number can drive Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
“Look, the roads are getting worse by the day,” said Cliff Snufkin, a spokesperson from the Department of Transport and Planning.
“We only had two options; either fix the potholes or bring in driving restrictions. So, driving restrictions it is.”
Visitors to the Mornington Peninsula will be exempt from the new restrictions, but not all will get off without limitations.
“We’re going to limit those big Ford Rangers driving like twits with their jet skis on the back,” said Snufkin.
“They’ll only be able to drive on days of the week ending with a ‘y’.”
Asked about the continued danger of potholes if the state had decided not to allocate funds to repair the roads, Snufkin was upbeat.
“We absolutely have a solution for that. An army of ‘stop and go’ people, recruited from Big Build sites, will be deployed at the largest potholes to warn motorists of the impending loss of an axle,” he said.
“That way, your car doesn’t get damaged, and we can provide $200,000 a year jobs for people most in need in our community.”
Samantha Wafflewood from the Department of Premier was quick to shift the blame away from the state government and onto the real cause of the crisis; peninsula motorists.
“Everybody on the peninsula bangs on about the potholes. It makes the Premier so livid,” said Wafflewood.
“The other day she made us bring her a map of Victoria and show her where the Mornington Peninsula was. She kept trying to stab her finger into the peninsula as she spoke, but kept missing and instead poking Regional Victoria in Gippsland or Regional Victoria in Geelong instead. It was quite strange to watch.”
“The truth is the roads are not the problem, it’s the vehicles that use the roads. If nobody drove on the roads, there wouldn’t be any wear and tear at all,” she said.
“So, stop pushing blame off onto us and start taking the blame yourselves.”
People with personalised number plates will be exempt from the new rules, which is seen as a big win for local real estate agents.
