Oh glad this isn't just me. this happened to me a couple weeks ago. Just wanted to get into the city. The signs to Parramatta and the Blue Mountains felt like a threat.
I just hug the left lane as soon as Homebush Bay Drive hits and stay there. That lane doing 60km and the other two lanes are doing 80km? Yeah I'm not changing lanes; I've been burnt before
All over Sydney, even just ordinary street signs!
IF the intersection even has them, there's a good chance they'll be in a position that you can only see once you're in the intersection.
Then there are the signs to "City" or "Hospital" that just stop showing up as you get closer to where you need to be.
It's insane.
I really thought it was just me
Also the fact that your lane can end anytime is distressing. And you don't know what lane you have to be to turn next. Thankfully most Sydney drivers understand the situation and let you in.
I moved to Sydney from Melbourne a couple years ago and I have not stopped complaining about the lack of adequate road signage here since. No wonder people in Sydney drive like lunatics, we’re all too busy trying to figure out where the hell we are to pay attention to the cars around us.
this is so true!! I left Sydney 4 years ago with my primary reason being the terrible roads and traffic. I lived there for 18 years and didn't like leaving my local suburbs because of the stress factor of getting lost. I live in Adelaide now. No chance of getting lost here.
This happened to me the other day! Trying to get to inner west coming over the bridge and it sends me on bloody Cahill expressway. Next thing I know I’m stuck in traffic near pit street mall with pedestrians all over the place
My therapist is in the inner west and that got me the first few times. You have to be in the right lane before you get to the bridge. Once you're across, if you're in the far left you have ONE opportunity to get onto the western distributor but if you don't know it's there boom, it's fucking Cahill Expressway Hell for you!
The signs coming down the Warringah Freeway are good. Don't wait until you're on or near the bridge to start looking at them, you want to watch them miles before that point. Pretty much as soon as you get on the freeway, watch the signs and get into the right lane. Do that, you'll be fine.
Drive like a country driver. I always let someone in if they are trying to get across. It’s good Sydney karma. But they need to wave thank you, stupid city people.
Oof, yes, that's much too late to do anything than the last minute lane change right before the distributor.
For next time - you know that median strip you can't cross? When it disappears cross into the bus lane. I know it's a bus lane but outside peak hour (IIRC) you can drive in it. Then when the median strip on the right of the bus lane ends, you can immediately change lanes to get on the western distributor. Otherwise you end up near Wynyard.
If it's inside bus lane hours, change lanes just before you get onto the Cahill Expressway and that'll be just before the part where you can change again onto the western distributor.
This took me about three trips to hammer down lmao
I realise this is no consolation at all but your anxiety is not misplaced lol. Don't worry, once you've done it a couple of times you'll get the hang of it!
Driving back from Gosford a few months ago, accidentally went into the westconnex tunnel. Exorbitant toll aside, we couldn’t even get off it until a ridiculous amount of distance later
This. When I moved to Sydney the Navi always said shit like “continue on Bradfield Highway” when going over the bridge, which has multiple lanes, each of which takes you off in a different direction. I have never seen a sign for Bradfield Highway, but when you bring this up, people who have lived in Sydney since the Second World War will start waxing poetic about the old Bradfield Highway.
It's a struggle and I spent a lot of time thinking on why it could be, in comparison of other places and I pin down to signage.
Most cities will have clear indications on where to go - here it's a wild guessing game.
One prime example is the NO RIGHT TURN ^(except you actually can)
There’s a T junction in St Peters, I think it’s Mary’s street that says NO LEFT TURN.
Then underneath it says NO RIGHT TURN IF OVER 6 METRES
To make things even more ridiculous it’s a one way street so you can’t back up or turn around.
So I guess if you are over 6 metres you have to just live there now
There is this ONE lane in the inner city that takes you on a very horrifically surprise trip down the harbour tunnel to north Sydney….
EdIT … I think I’m mistaken .. it’s that one unmarked slip lane on Bridge road that takes you over the Harbour Bridge in a heartbeat …
THIS IS THE ONE RIGHT HERE. This is the one that has got me before. I needed to be one lane over, and I would have arrived at my destination in 5 minutes. It was about $30.00 and 40 minutes later that I got back.
Also from $5 toll to $35 in as many minutes as a result!
Oh please, No more tolls as the taxpayers pays repeatedly, firstly our taxes get spent on the Transport NSW men projects teams who handed over the billions in dubious contracts to private international companies and the Lib pollies family investments, to give them the right… to charge the taxpayer again? It is wrong. Stop the road toll contracts, improve and invest in hospitals, free public roadways, science, innovation and housing.
This shit is terrifying. I’ve never driven in a big city. I didn’t realize some had toll roads through the city that you needed to pay to use? Wtf are taxes for?
I may be misremembering the details as it was a fair few years ago, but there's one that screwed me once north-south and one that screwed me south-north.
I have no idea. There's a few big lane changes coming either way and I hadn't been in the city for years, might have been north-south into the city before the tunnel instead of the opposite direction. The lane I wanted to get into went from a dashed line, to a solid line, to a small, raised section with those little lane control pegs faster than I realised I needed to be in it. And I was stuck in the tunnel. By the time I got GPS again it was a long way back.
Ah yes. My dad directed me onto that lane one of my first drives when I got my L plates. I nearly had a heart attack when I realised I was going onto the bridge.
I think you mean John Young Crescent at the domain carpark, it forks off and one lane takes you back up to the State Library, the other goes down to Woolloomooloo, or Tunnel/Cahill expressway.
It's actually pretty well signposted. I guess it's the mistake you only make once!
And if you want to get from the Gore Hill Fwy onto the Harbour Bridge, there's only one lane you can take and it's a weird slip way into lanes coming from the Warringah Fwy. Not even the cost of the Eastern Distributor and Harbour Tunnel were enough to plant in my memory the exact way to go until I'd made the mistake several times.
And for some god unknown fucking reason the split to north Sydney and crows nest and chatswood and gordon fucking merges past the stupid tolled ramp anyway!!! What's the fucking point????
I'm imagining some final design meeting where someone finally notices this fuck up and a department head is like "leave it, no one will notice" and they all agree cause they're already behind schedule and over budget and the caterers had just announced lunch was ready.
See also: the exit onto James Ruse Drive from the M4 westbound
Lol exactly. Posting my comment again, cos that lane bites many…
My poor American husband went to pick up our rental car in the CBD a few months back and then come back and pick me up in Paddington. Couldn’t do it - he made it to North Sydney before he could rectify the turn he missed in the city.
There should at least be a sign that says ‘last exit til airport’
I can’t imagine Transurban would though, since they make money from every customer who makes the mistake
Its no conspiracy, its just a poorly designed exit.
They actually changed the original lane layout when they opened up the tunnel extension to alexandria/airport.
Previously 2 lanes exit the tunnel at ashfield onto parra rd.
Now its only the left most lane that exits the tunnel, but the signage implies its the left 2 lanes that exit.
It gets everyone on their first pass.
Never forget an elderly aunt of mine who was revisiting the city after a long absence. She got ensnared in the new motorway network, and in her own words “the next thing I knew I was caught up in a night race round the Parramatta Speedway”
As I will soon be considered the elderly aunt, and I haven't been to Sydney in many, many years, I can see this happening to me. Mind you, I used to be a paramedic in Sydney, and tend to still drive like I have lights and sirens, so I may even manage a place!
But honestly, reading all this is making me think that if we ever do decide to go back to Syd for a visit, driving is NOT going to be fun, but may, at least, provide a few good stories!
I visit from regional and have never lived in Sydney, every trip’s an absolute minefield driving in. Using google maps or waze seems to make things worse, not better. I swear sometimes it’ll tell you to take the next exit but actually means the 2nd exit (that may be user error though).
I run into this problem constantly. I don’t think it’s Google’s fault, I just think that whoever manages the road signs has no clue what they’re doing.
I get into this agrument every now and then with a friend. I have a bachelor's in visual communication... and he still doesn't believe me when I say that there are probably 1 in 10,000 dumb users who will not understand signage but if 1 in 10 users make the same mistake the first time using something, the designer is dumb. Or corrupt.
NSW transport made life such a bureaucratic nightmare of justification and policy writing for it’s designers, and undermined the team who led who the new systems planning and implementation B bus F ferry T train and deployment, they have not replaced them with a team who is as good, knowledgeable or committed. as heaven forbid NSw transport spend on expertise that is not another project manger without specialist knowledge, or do things properly in terms of user centric design, legibility as well as using the appropriate technical approach, so whilst there has been this void you can see the utter horror of ignorant, bloody minded, inaccessible wide and squashed incompatible fonts, on big cheap dodgy green and red led signs (colour blind anyone?) for the bridge exits and elsewhere for tunnels and west connex design designed to bamboozle for toll collection. Hope it becomes professional again but has been greatly destructive to a system that was being so well rolled out and then completely undermined by amateur, ignorant, arrogant and emergency measures as no longer had the respect or understanding for planning or talent, after that team got forced out.
I find that I have to not use the nav if I want to learn how to get somewhere, I think because I am constantly checking the nav, I'm not actually retaining what the route is, whereas if I check the route first and then drive without the nav on, I have it completely memorised in a couple of tries and then it's easy. The road signs generally make sense, but if you're trying to find signs that agree with your nav, it can get confusing.
Yeh, I've been thinking this down through the thread. I own shares in TCL yet always go around the tolls. I rely on google maps and know it will take a while for complex new roads to include a word used on the road sign. Heaps of spots on non-toll roads where google maps and giant signs don't match, especially when they're new or changed.
Yeah it’s hard not to feel bitter when you’re not use to toll roads, and get forced onto one accidentally only to immediately go through another to fix the mistake. I’m still not confident enough to go without a map and it definitely makes me want to visit Sydney less. If within-state airfare wasn’t so pricy I’d just fly every time.
On holidays in town, borrowed my aunt's car to drive to Canberra. No idea how much I'm going to owe her in tolls and this thread is making me think I may need a bank loan.
Going to Canberra is fine, most of that trip is free. It depends on how many trips in and out of the City/CBD you do. Or if you are crossing over from North/South Sydney to another section.
Even though I know the route I recently fell victim to a Google Maps lag and missed the airport turnoff on the M5, nearly ended up at La Perouse.
On the flip side, recently reached a milestone where for the first time in 8 years I didn't get utterly confused when trying to exit Town Hall station.
Eurgh I once got lost in Central station and it took me almost an hour to manage to exit to the street. This was over ten years ago and they had lots of hoardings/false walls up, and maybe some missing signage.
The platform my train put me down at needed to exit the station via other platforms, it didn’t have any direct exit itself. But it also didn’t have any signage about that either, so I just walked around, up and down a very long tunnel in confusion for a long time……
Not my brightest moment but I also blame Central station haha
I dread every time I have to drive to North Sydney from the Inner West. Idk even know what it’s called, but that section of like bajillion different exits towards different suburbs of North Sydney is absolutely awful.
It's the Warringah Freeway and it's an absolute free for all. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I've ended up going to Chatswood / Mosman / name any other LNS suburb by accident because of that confusing tangle of asphalt spaghetti.
Warringah Freeway? It's fine for me but I grew up here so that's probably why. Come to think of it, I just realised that I've never taken the exit I'm "supposed" to according to the signs and always take a different one...
Shout out to Google maps for not knowing the Euston Road exit sign isn't visible from the main tunnel, and can only be seen after you take the exit for Euston road.
The most hilarious part was that a few weeks earlier, I'd taken the tunnel for the first time since it was extended, was aiming for the city, and ended up in Concord. When I got home, I tried to explain to my husband what happened and he was very confused because he didn't know the tunnel has changed.
The day we were looking for the Euston Road exit, he was driving. And then suddenly he understood my misadventure.
To get to the Euston Rd exit, you gotta take the Gardeners Rd exit... You know, the exact opposite of where you want to go.... Otherwise your suddenly in Parramatta.
Jokes on them. I'm too poor to go on any of the paid motorways and so I never get lost. Just get stuck on Parramatta Rd traffic like the rest of us poors! /s
My friend was trying to pick me up around town hall, and so told her to pick me up at the kfc on Bathurst. Google maps kept taking her to Cross City Tunnel and she ended up in Randwick.
Seriously, if you search up KFC on Bathurst Street, the instructions stop after you enter Cross City Tunnel lmao.
I moved out of Sydney in 2004. Came home for Christmas and didn’t recognise where I was going in the Uber from the Airport If I was thirty years younger I’d have thought he was kidnapping me.
Hah this! My sister wanted to get from St Leonard's to Wahroonga. She grew up in the area and knows it well - just straight up the pacific highway, right? But things have changed a bit with freeways, diversions etc since then, so she stupidly used google maps to be sure. Somehow ended up on the LCT and northconnex motorway and ended up in Mt Colah. Tried to get back, took another hour going via who tf knows where. 🩷 google.
The other day I didn’t make a wrong turn coming out of Broadway shopping centre for the second time in my life and I felt like I should win some kind of award.
Also, if you live in the inner west, you have tolerated the sounds of a panzer invasion for 3 years so these fuckers can bank up cars on the westconnex as a traffic battery. It hasn't fixed anything, it just made more lanes of traffic backed up trying to get into the city.
I respect Transurbans hussle. I still hate their guts though.
They were given a money printer by both previous governments. Given the opportunity, I reckon most people would do the same if they were gifted control of a monopoly.
When I first came here to visit my now husband in ‘89 he had to go away for 2 days for work and thought it would be good for me to have the car. We drove together to the airport with him pointing out landmarks to help navigate home.
I was 22 and had been in Sydney for a week. It took me 3 hours to get back from the airport to Gladesville. It was peak hour and there were clear ways, no stopping and no right turn signs everywhere. I couldn’t pull over to look at the damn map book. Oh, and it was the first time that I had ever driven on the ‘wrong’ side of the road.
For the trip to go get him, you can be sure I brought that map book into the house, plotted my route and studied it before I left.
It kind of traumatized me. LOL
Glad it's not just me. It's not enough to be on the right road these days. You have to be in the exact right *lane* well beforehand and the only way to find out is aversion therapy.
when i used to be invited to the city, i'd never go. expensive rat-maze, constant 'construction' and detours used to annoy the shit out of me too.
nextminute, anzac bridge and screw this heading home.
Happens to the best of us. This is exactly why I hated doing bus charters and having no idea where I was going in the days before GPS was even a thing. You cant just turn around where ever you want in a heavy vehicle. The worst one I remember was having to get off the freeway on a slip lane at Daring Harbour and if you missed it you were going over the Harbour Bridge and all the way to North Sydney before being able to turn around with a bus full of kids and teachers screaming "where are we going?".
I hate that when I select the non tolled route on Google Maps, just before I pass the motorway it decides to to 'sike! Your going on the motorway anyway' and changes my route because 'traffic conditions have changed and it is quicker'. Ofc its quicker, but I obviously selected the free, longer route for another reason!
Yes I could select 'avoid toll roads', but sometimes I DO want to use toll roads, ya know?
So f Google Maps - I much prefer Apple and Waze. (Ironically waze is owned by Google - but I love the feature that it tells you how much the toll will cost before you start your journey).
Drove from Brisbane to Sydney. My maps in my car isn’t updated. Told me to take next exit. So I did, instead of heading to northern beaches I ended up near parramatta. Maps got lost in the new tunnel and couldn’t work out where I was and I had no idea. Spent more money in tolls in that 20 mins than coffee on the whole trip down.
Yeah. Had to go to Sylvania from where I live in Parra a couple weeks ago. I have a rough idea of where it is and how to get there, but no worries. I'll use Waze.
Everything is going beautifully until I go into the new tunnel on the M4. Alright, this is new. Check Waze to see whats up. Nothing happening. At this point I realise that signal has died once I enter the tunnel so I got no GPS. Farrrk. Gambled an exit and added an extra 45 minutes to my trip. Fuck Sydney.
It is by design. The roads have been designed to be confusing. The individuals responsible for constructing the motorways would have openly discussed tricking drivers into incurring tolls, probably using a phrase like "unintentionally diverted overflow revenue".
Yes it is the utter lack of support for good design systems and implementation and the arrogant assumption that random scale and lack of works to standard is orright mate. Nearly all the new way finding is often missing cues and a great deal of it very misleading in where it’s locating and directing the user. Plus it’s incoherent and fragmented in style - which is extremely poor user design, some displayed on the cheapest leds, and even red and green leds, or oversized but way too late or just plain wrong, to be helpful. Some of it appears to have been influenced by lobbyists in terms of where it says the user is or is going, when the actual locations are not what’s sign posted, amongst many other matters.
The sheer arrogance, ignorance, lack of cohesiveness, and variability and unpredictability of if, and how it has been designed to mislead by omission and misdirection.
The user cannot tell where and how they might locate signage most of the time and expect to see it. When, if and how they appear, is it legible or seen too late, or maybe the scale is overpowering but unhelpful, with a single word, that is not where you arrive and is confusing and misdirects. Imagine a GUI like this!
As no proper signage orientation system has been used consistently throughout that complies with decent spatial, way finding principles and basic standards. Hence it’s seems not led by design but an appalling, amateur project manager mess, that it does not meet accessibility and design standards, and seems both arrogant, boorish, and downright cynical and exploitative for toll collection purposes, and vast waste of money.
All the new infrastructure works demonstrate the leadership teams cynical lack of regard for the public plus lack of professionalism, understanding or support for cohesive, applied wayfinding systems.
I went to buy a mirror last week off gumtree and must have paid like five tolls in the process, it was ridiculous. I paid to get both on and off the motorway, wtf?
You still only pay once per direction - sometimes they toll per kilometre rather than a flat rate. The M7 and M5 east do this. It records where you enter and exit.
I decided recently after a 5 hour + drive from up around Port Macquarie to take the Northconnex just to get home on the lower north shore a bit sooner. All of a sudden I am hitting the M5. I thought damn wasn't concentrating, but no worries i'll get off and get back on and head back into the M2. Let's just say I'll take the Pacific hwy from now on no matter what.
This is one of the few things that Melbourne does better than us. Every highway is numbered and every exit on each highway has a number.
So waze or google maps will tell you “take exit 12 to state highway 4” and it is super easy to follow and not screw up.
Comforting to hear that it is not only me. Immigrated and got my license here 4 yrs ago. I just lost hope today going to Marsden Park. Failed to go to Anzac road, failed to go to M1, exited wrongly to Chatswood. Stopped there at Chatswood/Roseville, I just texted my friend that I am super late I will not come anymore😂 One time I wrongly entered M1 going north and in city, GPS signal is lost.
GPS in Sydney is generally just terrible. Mainly from the buildings fucking around with the signal.
I fondly remember getting off at pyrmont bridge road:
On approach, take the left slip lane and then turn left
On the slip lane, use the right hand land to turn right
Closer to the lights, use the left hand lane to turn left
Me: fuck ooooooooffffff!
I remember going to a hockey game and missed an exit or some shit and ended up in parramatta for like 40 fucking minutes driving through 600 million roundabouts it was horrible
At one point I would always accidentally end up in Hurstville. Later, I would always end up accidentally taking the Lane Cove Tunnel. I'm pretty sure Sydney is just Hurstville and the Lane Cove Tunnel and nothing else but a bunch of roads leading to both.
When I was about 3 or 4, my mum drove us from Windsor to Balmain Leagues to see either The Wiggles or the Hooley Dooleys. She took a wrong turn and we ended up in the CBD.
This is the same for any city and not unique to Sydney. After a while, you become extremely familiar with your particular "patch" but the remainder of the city remains unfamiliar.
I'll never forget ending up going down a one-way street that sort of just led me onto the motorway that turned into a 20 minute detour around the city and back. Awful place to drive
Took a wrong exit at Anzac Bridge / the roundabouts around Pyrmont. We were going to eat lunch at the Fish Markets, but ended up in Ashfield. We had dumplings instead though, still pretty good.
This was me in the first week of the WestConnex M8-M4 link opened - something I was completely oblivious to. Here I am on the M8 trying to get my niece to the airport when I’m suddenly in some new lane that appears to descend into the depths of Hades and has no exits but very alarming signs pointing me to Parramatta. We emerged in Ashfield - to my horror. It’s like being slingshot back to where you came from just before hitting the target.
Luckily we left in plenty of time for the flight & it wasn’t rush hour but I’ve never felt so trapped & duped into taking a road I didn’t want to be on.
See this is why I hate driving in the city! Plus the tolls! I think getting a good park can be as rare as winning lotto. (Oh, and anxiety, don’t forget the anxiety!)
The worst part is that waze or google maps will tell you to “take the Cahill expressway” and the huge sign will say nothing of the sort
The current one is getting stuck in the new bit of the M4 westconex when you want to go to the city and not being able to turn off until the airport
This happened to me today! I was so bamboozled and GPS didn't work in the tunnel! Lucky I ended up near where I needed to be but only by luck.
Only by luck is the new default on Sydney roads - applies whether you reach you intended destination or get home alive and unharmed.
Literally happened to me the other day. Was driving along for so long just asking “where are the fucking exits?”
So frustrating! It's almost like they've intentionally designed it poorly...
Off to Victoria with you!
Off to... denpasar?
Would it be too conspiratorial to suggest it's been designed to collect as many tolls as possible? 😆
Oh glad this isn't just me. this happened to me a couple weeks ago. Just wanted to get into the city. The signs to Parramatta and the Blue Mountains felt like a threat.
I just hug the left lane as soon as Homebush Bay Drive hits and stay there. That lane doing 60km and the other two lanes are doing 80km? Yeah I'm not changing lanes; I've been burnt before
That has happened to me twice!
[удалено]
All over Sydney, even just ordinary street signs! IF the intersection even has them, there's a good chance they'll be in a position that you can only see once you're in the intersection. Then there are the signs to "City" or "Hospital" that just stop showing up as you get closer to where you need to be. It's insane.
I really thought it was just me Also the fact that your lane can end anytime is distressing. And you don't know what lane you have to be to turn next. Thankfully most Sydney drivers understand the situation and let you in.
I moved to Sydney from Melbourne a couple years ago and I have not stopped complaining about the lack of adequate road signage here since. No wonder people in Sydney drive like lunatics, we’re all too busy trying to figure out where the hell we are to pay attention to the cars around us.
this is so true!! I left Sydney 4 years ago with my primary reason being the terrible roads and traffic. I lived there for 18 years and didn't like leaving my local suburbs because of the stress factor of getting lost. I live in Adelaide now. No chance of getting lost here.
This happened to me the other day! Trying to get to inner west coming over the bridge and it sends me on bloody Cahill expressway. Next thing I know I’m stuck in traffic near pit street mall with pedestrians all over the place
My therapist is in the inner west and that got me the first few times. You have to be in the right lane before you get to the bridge. Once you're across, if you're in the far left you have ONE opportunity to get onto the western distributor but if you don't know it's there boom, it's fucking Cahill Expressway Hell for you! The signs coming down the Warringah Freeway are good. Don't wait until you're on or near the bridge to start looking at them, you want to watch them miles before that point. Pretty much as soon as you get on the freeway, watch the signs and get into the right lane. Do that, you'll be fine.
What surprises me is that there aren’t more accidents while people fuck around trying to work this out.
Drive like a country driver. I always let someone in if they are trying to get across. It’s good Sydney karma. But they need to wave thank you, stupid city people.
Everyone's driving too slowly to avoid getting done for going 1km/hr over the limit via a speed camera lol
I was coming from Kirribilli and I all I remember was turning left to get on to the bridge and I was stuck forever!
Oof, yes, that's much too late to do anything than the last minute lane change right before the distributor. For next time - you know that median strip you can't cross? When it disappears cross into the bus lane. I know it's a bus lane but outside peak hour (IIRC) you can drive in it. Then when the median strip on the right of the bus lane ends, you can immediately change lanes to get on the western distributor. Otherwise you end up near Wynyard. If it's inside bus lane hours, change lanes just before you get onto the Cahill Expressway and that'll be just before the part where you can change again onto the western distributor. This took me about three trips to hammer down lmao
This is making me anxious, but thank you, yes, I’ll try and remember your wise words.
I realise this is no consolation at all but your anxiety is not misplaced lol. Don't worry, once you've done it a couple of times you'll get the hang of it!
Driving back from Gosford a few months ago, accidentally went into the westconnex tunnel. Exorbitant toll aside, we couldn’t even get off it until a ridiculous amount of distance later
Blimey I keep doing this and ending up near ACT looking for the non existent exit on Maps.
Do you know how many times o ended up in the freaking bus lane there? 🫠
Lately my Google Maps experience is "turn right at the next street" which turns out to be a busy 4 lane road.
This. When I moved to Sydney the Navi always said shit like “continue on Bradfield Highway” when going over the bridge, which has multiple lanes, each of which takes you off in a different direction. I have never seen a sign for Bradfield Highway, but when you bring this up, people who have lived in Sydney since the Second World War will start waxing poetic about the old Bradfield Highway.
Worth writing feedback on the app?
Tried.. and the Apple Maps “no tolls route” to the IW takes u into tolls
It's a struggle and I spent a lot of time thinking on why it could be, in comparison of other places and I pin down to signage. Most cities will have clear indications on where to go - here it's a wild guessing game. One prime example is the NO RIGHT TURN ^(except you actually can)
There’s a T junction in St Peters, I think it’s Mary’s street that says NO LEFT TURN. Then underneath it says NO RIGHT TURN IF OVER 6 METRES To make things even more ridiculous it’s a one way street so you can’t back up or turn around. So I guess if you are over 6 metres you have to just live there now
There is this ONE lane in the inner city that takes you on a very horrifically surprise trip down the harbour tunnel to north Sydney…. EdIT … I think I’m mistaken .. it’s that one unmarked slip lane on Bridge road that takes you over the Harbour Bridge in a heartbeat …
THIS IS THE ONE RIGHT HERE. This is the one that has got me before. I needed to be one lane over, and I would have arrived at my destination in 5 minutes. It was about $30.00 and 40 minutes later that I got back.
Don't you just love seeing your maps go from a green 5 minutes to a red 35 minutes 😂
Also from $5 toll to $35 in as many minutes as a result! Oh please, No more tolls as the taxpayers pays repeatedly, firstly our taxes get spent on the Transport NSW men projects teams who handed over the billions in dubious contracts to private international companies and the Lib pollies family investments, to give them the right… to charge the taxpayer again? It is wrong. Stop the road toll contracts, improve and invest in hospitals, free public roadways, science, innovation and housing.
This shit is terrifying. I’ve never driven in a big city. I didn’t realize some had toll roads through the city that you needed to pay to use? Wtf are taxes for?
Toll roads are privately owned 🥲
Started in the mid 90s. Never forget Howard's quite that "Govts shouldn't be in the business of providing services"
Is this Sir John Young Crescent at the roundabout where it forks and the right side goes to the tunnel and the left side to the city?
I may be misremembering the details as it was a fair few years ago, but there's one that screwed me once north-south and one that screwed me south-north.
Ugh I’ve missed a turn in the city and you have to do a lap of the whole city to get back because of the one way streets
Which route is this??
I have no idea. There's a few big lane changes coming either way and I hadn't been in the city for years, might have been north-south into the city before the tunnel instead of the opposite direction. The lane I wanted to get into went from a dashed line, to a solid line, to a small, raised section with those little lane control pegs faster than I realised I needed to be in it. And I was stuck in the tunnel. By the time I got GPS again it was a long way back.
And, it being Sydney, you are not going to get to be that one lane over. No way. No how.
There's also a tiny lane with no signage that will take you onto the bridge. Found it when I was looking for parking for a friend's birthday gathering
Ah yes. My dad directed me onto that lane one of my first drives when I got my L plates. I nearly had a heart attack when I realised I was going onto the bridge.
I think I’ve done this one at least three times … each time latw at night adding a bonus hour to my 10 minute commîute
missed my appointment at opsm cause of this
Shoulda gone to Specsavers
I’m absolutely disgusted that you haven’t received more upvotes for this perfectly timed comment.
Underrated comment right here. I applaud you, gentlefolk
Lol, lmao even
its that fucking road next to fish market innit
I think you mean John Young Crescent at the domain carpark, it forks off and one lane takes you back up to the State Library, the other goes down to Woolloomooloo, or Tunnel/Cahill expressway. It's actually pretty well signposted. I guess it's the mistake you only make once!
And if you want to get from the Gore Hill Fwy onto the Harbour Bridge, there's only one lane you can take and it's a weird slip way into lanes coming from the Warringah Fwy. Not even the cost of the Eastern Distributor and Harbour Tunnel were enough to plant in my memory the exact way to go until I'd made the mistake several times.
And for some god unknown fucking reason the split to north Sydney and crows nest and chatswood and gordon fucking merges past the stupid tolled ramp anyway!!! What's the fucking point????
I'm imagining some final design meeting where someone finally notices this fuck up and a department head is like "leave it, no one will notice" and they all agree cause they're already behind schedule and over budget and the caterers had just announced lunch was ready. See also: the exit onto James Ruse Drive from the M4 westbound
and the GPS has no fucking clue for some reason
When visiting Sydney we had an uber eats driver make this mistake 😔
I made that mistake yesterday or the other day 🥴 went across the bridge to city when needing to go take A8 rip
I have anxiety whenever in on the city west link and the bridge
I have become adept at the route required to do a U turn.
I've made that mistake trying to get to Wynyard and had to drive back across the bridge,
Which one is that? I have no idea how you get stuck from an inner city route into the tunnel
Lol exactly. Posting my comment again, cos that lane bites many… My poor American husband went to pick up our rental car in the CBD a few months back and then come back and pick me up in Paddington. Couldn’t do it - he made it to North Sydney before he could rectify the turn he missed in the city.
Few months back I wasn’t paying attention and went into the m4 tunnel hoping to exit at Ashfield ended up at the airport.
There should at least be a sign that says ‘last exit til airport’ I can’t imagine Transurban would though, since they make money from every customer who makes the mistake
How exciting to be present at the birth of a new conspiracy
Its no conspiracy, its just a poorly designed exit. They actually changed the original lane layout when they opened up the tunnel extension to alexandria/airport. Previously 2 lanes exit the tunnel at ashfield onto parra rd. Now its only the left most lane that exits the tunnel, but the signage implies its the left 2 lanes that exit. It gets everyone on their first pass.
This 100%!!!
I did exactly the same thing! How long is that bloody tunnel?
At least a quarter of the people on the Harbour Bridge at any given time don't mean to be there.
100% truth!
Never forget an elderly aunt of mine who was revisiting the city after a long absence. She got ensnared in the new motorway network, and in her own words “the next thing I knew I was caught up in a night race round the Parramatta Speedway”
Lol. At least there’s good Indian food nearby.
Did she win?
As I will soon be considered the elderly aunt, and I haven't been to Sydney in many, many years, I can see this happening to me. Mind you, I used to be a paramedic in Sydney, and tend to still drive like I have lights and sirens, so I may even manage a place! But honestly, reading all this is making me think that if we ever do decide to go back to Syd for a visit, driving is NOT going to be fun, but may, at least, provide a few good stories!
😂😂😂
I'm coming down for the weekend. My friend offers me the use of her car. I decline.
I visit from regional and have never lived in Sydney, every trip’s an absolute minefield driving in. Using google maps or waze seems to make things worse, not better. I swear sometimes it’ll tell you to take the next exit but actually means the 2nd exit (that may be user error though).
I run into this problem constantly. I don’t think it’s Google’s fault, I just think that whoever manages the road signs has no clue what they’re doing.
I get into this agrument every now and then with a friend. I have a bachelor's in visual communication... and he still doesn't believe me when I say that there are probably 1 in 10,000 dumb users who will not understand signage but if 1 in 10 users make the same mistake the first time using something, the designer is dumb. Or corrupt.
NSW transport made life such a bureaucratic nightmare of justification and policy writing for it’s designers, and undermined the team who led who the new systems planning and implementation B bus F ferry T train and deployment, they have not replaced them with a team who is as good, knowledgeable or committed. as heaven forbid NSw transport spend on expertise that is not another project manger without specialist knowledge, or do things properly in terms of user centric design, legibility as well as using the appropriate technical approach, so whilst there has been this void you can see the utter horror of ignorant, bloody minded, inaccessible wide and squashed incompatible fonts, on big cheap dodgy green and red led signs (colour blind anyone?) for the bridge exits and elsewhere for tunnels and west connex design designed to bamboozle for toll collection. Hope it becomes professional again but has been greatly destructive to a system that was being so well rolled out and then completely undermined by amateur, ignorant, arrogant and emergency measures as no longer had the respect or understanding for planning or talent, after that team got forced out.
I find that I have to not use the nav if I want to learn how to get somewhere, I think because I am constantly checking the nav, I'm not actually retaining what the route is, whereas if I check the route first and then drive without the nav on, I have it completely memorised in a couple of tries and then it's easy. The road signs generally make sense, but if you're trying to find signs that agree with your nav, it can get confusing.
Apple maps leads me astray all the time. When it fucks up the lanes, I'm in trouble. And it often does.
Getting confused by the signage and ending up on a toll road isn't a bug, it's a feature. They absolutely know what they're doing
Google Maps redirects me onto toll roads mid journey - even after I selected the non tolled route.
I agree, but I did not specify toll roads. This is a problem endemic across all of Sydney.
Yeh, I've been thinking this down through the thread. I own shares in TCL yet always go around the tolls. I rely on google maps and know it will take a while for complex new roads to include a word used on the road sign. Heaps of spots on non-toll roads where google maps and giant signs don't match, especially when they're new or changed.
Yeah it’s hard not to feel bitter when you’re not use to toll roads, and get forced onto one accidentally only to immediately go through another to fix the mistake. I’m still not confident enough to go without a map and it definitely makes me want to visit Sydney less. If within-state airfare wasn’t so pricy I’d just fly every time.
It depends on who's paying for the tolls...
On holidays in town, borrowed my aunt's car to drive to Canberra. No idea how much I'm going to owe her in tolls and this thread is making me think I may need a bank loan.
Going to Canberra is fine, most of that trip is free. It depends on how many trips in and out of the City/CBD you do. Or if you are crossing over from North/South Sydney to another section.
Bankruptcy is the most likely path.
Live dangerously 😁
Smart.
Even though I know the route I recently fell victim to a Google Maps lag and missed the airport turnoff on the M5, nearly ended up at La Perouse. On the flip side, recently reached a milestone where for the first time in 8 years I didn't get utterly confused when trying to exit Town Hall station.
It took me a year of going to Central twice a week for me to figure out the layout. And then they went and renovated the damn thing.
Central really threw me recently when they took away all the false walls. WTH!
Eurgh I once got lost in Central station and it took me almost an hour to manage to exit to the street. This was over ten years ago and they had lots of hoardings/false walls up, and maybe some missing signage. The platform my train put me down at needed to exit the station via other platforms, it didn’t have any direct exit itself. But it also didn’t have any signage about that either, so I just walked around, up and down a very long tunnel in confusion for a long time…… Not my brightest moment but I also blame Central station haha
I dread every time I have to drive to North Sydney from the Inner West. Idk even know what it’s called, but that section of like bajillion different exits towards different suburbs of North Sydney is absolutely awful.
It's the Warringah Freeway and it's an absolute free for all. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I've ended up going to Chatswood / Mosman / name any other LNS suburb by accident because of that confusing tangle of asphalt spaghetti.
Whenever I'm on that freeway, or pretty much any Sydney freeway, I feel like I'm on a Mario Kart track.
Remind me to bring banana peels next time
I know its immature, but I sometimes like to do the Star powerup music when I'm on one of the freeways.
Warringah Freeway? It's fine for me but I grew up here so that's probably why. Come to think of it, I just realised that I've never taken the exit I'm "supposed" to according to the signs and always take a different one...
Yep, its a lesson you learn once and never do it again 😂
Everyone who accidentally ended up in St Peters instead of Haberfield or Ashfield when the M4-M8 link first opened 🫠
Shout out to Google maps for not knowing the Euston Road exit sign isn't visible from the main tunnel, and can only be seen after you take the exit for Euston road.
Good to know I'm not the only one who got seriously confused taking that exit for the first time.
The most hilarious part was that a few weeks earlier, I'd taken the tunnel for the first time since it was extended, was aiming for the city, and ended up in Concord. When I got home, I tried to explain to my husband what happened and he was very confused because he didn't know the tunnel has changed. The day we were looking for the Euston Road exit, he was driving. And then suddenly he understood my misadventure.
That's a serious design flaw
To get to the Euston Rd exit, you gotta take the Gardeners Rd exit... You know, the exact opposite of where you want to go.... Otherwise your suddenly in Parramatta.
Or Homebush coming the other way, because google maps tells you to get off at Wattle St but none of the exits use the words Wattle St.
Same issue getting off at Liverpool from M2 You need to take the M7 exit and then another exit halfway down the ramp
Navigating that bit requires two people - one on google maps, and one driving.
I feel so validated.
Haha yeah... once...
Jokes on them. I'm too poor to go on any of the paid motorways and so I never get lost. Just get stuck on Parramatta Rd traffic like the rest of us poors! /s
20% of the traffic in Sydney is this.
I accidentally went in the westconnex tunnel once. Was a traumatising experience. I cried.
I did the same and ended up broke
If it makes you feel any better it costs me 80 dollars in parking and tolls to go see a show at the Opera house
My friend was trying to pick me up around town hall, and so told her to pick me up at the kfc on Bathurst. Google maps kept taking her to Cross City Tunnel and she ended up in Randwick. Seriously, if you search up KFC on Bathurst Street, the instructions stop after you enter Cross City Tunnel lmao.
The roads change more often than the staircases at Hogwarts.
/r/unexpectedhogwarts
I moved out of Sydney in 2004. Came home for Christmas and didn’t recognise where I was going in the Uber from the Airport If I was thirty years younger I’d have thought he was kidnapping me.
Hah this! My sister wanted to get from St Leonard's to Wahroonga. She grew up in the area and knows it well - just straight up the pacific highway, right? But things have changed a bit with freeways, diversions etc since then, so she stupidly used google maps to be sure. Somehow ended up on the LCT and northconnex motorway and ended up in Mt Colah. Tried to get back, took another hour going via who tf knows where. 🩷 google.
Sweet summer child for thinking a trip on the pacific highway is easy. I find driving on it just as stressful as driving in the city!
The other day I didn’t make a wrong turn coming out of Broadway shopping centre for the second time in my life and I felt like I should win some kind of award.
Who hasn't accidentally taken the West connex and ended up in Parramatta at this point?
Also, if you live in the inner west, you have tolerated the sounds of a panzer invasion for 3 years so these fuckers can bank up cars on the westconnex as a traffic battery. It hasn't fixed anything, it just made more lanes of traffic backed up trying to get into the city.
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The blame is fairly with Transurban
And the governments that sold us out to them
I respect Transurbans hussle. I still hate their guts though. They were given a money printer by both previous governments. Given the opportunity, I reckon most people would do the same if they were gifted control of a monopoly.
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When I first came here to visit my now husband in ‘89 he had to go away for 2 days for work and thought it would be good for me to have the car. We drove together to the airport with him pointing out landmarks to help navigate home. I was 22 and had been in Sydney for a week. It took me 3 hours to get back from the airport to Gladesville. It was peak hour and there were clear ways, no stopping and no right turn signs everywhere. I couldn’t pull over to look at the damn map book. Oh, and it was the first time that I had ever driven on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. For the trip to go get him, you can be sure I brought that map book into the house, plotted my route and studied it before I left. It kind of traumatized me. LOL
Glad it's not just me. It's not enough to be on the right road these days. You have to be in the exact right *lane* well beforehand and the only way to find out is aversion therapy.
when i used to be invited to the city, i'd never go. expensive rat-maze, constant 'construction' and detours used to annoy the shit out of me too. nextminute, anzac bridge and screw this heading home.
Maybe don’t drive in the city
I don't 👍
Happens to the best of us. This is exactly why I hated doing bus charters and having no idea where I was going in the days before GPS was even a thing. You cant just turn around where ever you want in a heavy vehicle. The worst one I remember was having to get off the freeway on a slip lane at Daring Harbour and if you missed it you were going over the Harbour Bridge and all the way to North Sydney before being able to turn around with a bus full of kids and teachers screaming "where are we going?".
The fact is, no-one makes it to Mosman on the first try.
Funny, I also did not exit correctly to Mosman at first try 😂
I hate that when I select the non tolled route on Google Maps, just before I pass the motorway it decides to to 'sike! Your going on the motorway anyway' and changes my route because 'traffic conditions have changed and it is quicker'. Ofc its quicker, but I obviously selected the free, longer route for another reason! Yes I could select 'avoid toll roads', but sometimes I DO want to use toll roads, ya know? So f Google Maps - I much prefer Apple and Waze. (Ironically waze is owned by Google - but I love the feature that it tells you how much the toll will cost before you start your journey).
Drove from Brisbane to Sydney. My maps in my car isn’t updated. Told me to take next exit. So I did, instead of heading to northern beaches I ended up near parramatta. Maps got lost in the new tunnel and couldn’t work out where I was and I had no idea. Spent more money in tolls in that 20 mins than coffee on the whole trip down.
One of the good things about not driving
Yeah. Had to go to Sylvania from where I live in Parra a couple weeks ago. I have a rough idea of where it is and how to get there, but no worries. I'll use Waze. Everything is going beautifully until I go into the new tunnel on the M4. Alright, this is new. Check Waze to see whats up. Nothing happening. At this point I realise that signal has died once I enter the tunnel so I got no GPS. Farrrk. Gambled an exit and added an extra 45 minutes to my trip. Fuck Sydney.
It is by design. The roads have been designed to be confusing. The individuals responsible for constructing the motorways would have openly discussed tricking drivers into incurring tolls, probably using a phrase like "unintentionally diverted overflow revenue".
Road designer here... No chance. It's just that it's a compounding noodle bowl of trying to make things better.
There should be clear signage at all the new entryways to tollroads but they just dont exist, not at westconnex, not the northconnex thing either.
Completely agree. Way finding is key to good road design.
Yes it is the utter lack of support for good design systems and implementation and the arrogant assumption that random scale and lack of works to standard is orright mate. Nearly all the new way finding is often missing cues and a great deal of it very misleading in where it’s locating and directing the user. Plus it’s incoherent and fragmented in style - which is extremely poor user design, some displayed on the cheapest leds, and even red and green leds, or oversized but way too late or just plain wrong, to be helpful. Some of it appears to have been influenced by lobbyists in terms of where it says the user is or is going, when the actual locations are not what’s sign posted, amongst many other matters. The sheer arrogance, ignorance, lack of cohesiveness, and variability and unpredictability of if, and how it has been designed to mislead by omission and misdirection. The user cannot tell where and how they might locate signage most of the time and expect to see it. When, if and how they appear, is it legible or seen too late, or maybe the scale is overpowering but unhelpful, with a single word, that is not where you arrive and is confusing and misdirects. Imagine a GUI like this! As no proper signage orientation system has been used consistently throughout that complies with decent spatial, way finding principles and basic standards. Hence it’s seems not led by design but an appalling, amateur project manager mess, that it does not meet accessibility and design standards, and seems both arrogant, boorish, and downright cynical and exploitative for toll collection purposes, and vast waste of money. All the new infrastructure works demonstrate the leadership teams cynical lack of regard for the public plus lack of professionalism, understanding or support for cohesive, applied wayfinding systems.
Urban motorways [were a mistake](https://youtu.be/vI5pbDFDZyI) — and one that [can be reversed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeway_removal).
I did this when I was in Melbourne. Oops.
I did this and ended up in Melbourne.
I went to buy a mirror last week off gumtree and must have paid like five tolls in the process, it was ridiculous. I paid to get both on and off the motorway, wtf?
You still only pay once per direction - sometimes they toll per kilometre rather than a flat rate. The M7 and M5 east do this. It records where you enter and exit.
The area around darling quarter is the worst. So many wrong turn possibilities involving tolls and crossing waterways.
Laughs in WA. Whats a toll road?
The price paid to not live in WA.
🚑
🔥
Went there recently for a funeral at Halekulani. Should’ve been easy. Wasn’t.
I’m sure u will get confused as fuck once the rozelle interchange opens
I decided recently after a 5 hour + drive from up around Port Macquarie to take the Northconnex just to get home on the lower north shore a bit sooner. All of a sudden I am hitting the M5. I thought damn wasn't concentrating, but no worries i'll get off and get back on and head back into the M2. Let's just say I'll take the Pacific hwy from now on no matter what.
This is one of the few things that Melbourne does better than us. Every highway is numbered and every exit on each highway has a number. So waze or google maps will tell you “take exit 12 to state highway 4” and it is super easy to follow and not screw up.
Comforting to hear that it is not only me. Immigrated and got my license here 4 yrs ago. I just lost hope today going to Marsden Park. Failed to go to Anzac road, failed to go to M1, exited wrongly to Chatswood. Stopped there at Chatswood/Roseville, I just texted my friend that I am super late I will not come anymore😂 One time I wrongly entered M1 going north and in city, GPS signal is lost.
A few weeks back I was trying to get home without my gps on just for "fun" and ended up going in the WestConnex, no exits nothing for 5kms 🫠
GPS in Sydney is generally just terrible. Mainly from the buildings fucking around with the signal. I fondly remember getting off at pyrmont bridge road: On approach, take the left slip lane and then turn left On the slip lane, use the right hand land to turn right Closer to the lights, use the left hand lane to turn left Me: fuck ooooooooffffff!
Laughs in Melbourne grid. Cries in Hookturnistan
I remember going to a hockey game and missed an exit or some shit and ended up in parramatta for like 40 fucking minutes driving through 600 million roundabouts it was horrible
At one point I would always accidentally end up in Hurstville. Later, I would always end up accidentally taking the Lane Cove Tunnel. I'm pretty sure Sydney is just Hurstville and the Lane Cove Tunnel and nothing else but a bunch of roads leading to both.
Learn to drive not to panic imo
They have changed the Victoria road / Anzac bridge entrance 100000 times. Please make it stop.
Harbour bridge Northbound. The moment you cross, it's a free for all of confusing lanes. The warringah fwy is such a confusing mess.
lane 3 best lane
When I was about 3 or 4, my mum drove us from Windsor to Balmain Leagues to see either The Wiggles or the Hooley Dooleys. She took a wrong turn and we ended up in the CBD.
This is the same for any city and not unique to Sydney. After a while, you become extremely familiar with your particular "patch" but the remainder of the city remains unfamiliar.
So true. I know how to get to my mum's place, work and Dan Murphys. Anywhere else, it's google maps.
I'll never forget ending up going down a one-way street that sort of just led me onto the motorway that turned into a 20 minute detour around the city and back. Awful place to drive
This happened today maps told my mum to exit, then we end up on the m7 and it added 15m to the drive (would have taken 3m if we didnt exit)
I'm suddenly thankful I don't drive....
I mean, it doesn't hit home. It hits Parramatta. It's like you weren't even pay attention.
Took a wrong exit at Anzac Bridge / the roundabouts around Pyrmont. We were going to eat lunch at the Fish Markets, but ended up in Ashfield. We had dumplings instead though, still pretty good.
Ooh look kids, Olympic Stadium
Once I tried to drive to chatswood, ended up in Liverpool. Had a complete meltdown in the car.
As a Sydney driver, I cannot believe how validated this entire post is making me feel.
This was me in the first week of the WestConnex M8-M4 link opened - something I was completely oblivious to. Here I am on the M8 trying to get my niece to the airport when I’m suddenly in some new lane that appears to descend into the depths of Hades and has no exits but very alarming signs pointing me to Parramatta. We emerged in Ashfield - to my horror. It’s like being slingshot back to where you came from just before hitting the target. Luckily we left in plenty of time for the flight & it wasn’t rush hour but I’ve never felt so trapped & duped into taking a road I didn’t want to be on.
Working as intended.
See this is why I hate driving in the city! Plus the tolls! I think getting a good park can be as rare as winning lotto. (Oh, and anxiety, don’t forget the anxiety!)
As a sydney-sider, the roads here do suck big time. Any wrong turn and the trip will turn into an expensive one.