A petition to add another lane to Lakes Boulevard in South Morang has gained more than 500 signatures in less than 24 hours.
South Morang resident Helen Georgiou created the petition on Change.org last Thursday afternoon, calling for Whittlesea council to ease traffic congestion by adding another lane to Lakes Boulevard, which runs between Plenty and Findon roads.
Ms Georgiou said she was encouraged to start the petition after a member of the South Morang Community Notice Page Facebook group posted a photo of peak-hour gridlock in Lakes Boulevard.
“I commented on the photo that I’d like to do something about this and someone suggested I start a petition. So I did,” she said.
Within two hours more than 200 drivers had signed the petition.
Ms Georgiou moved from Lalor into Hawkstowe Parade six years ago.
The commute to her business in Thomastown, about 12 kilometres away, takes “well over an hour” each day.
“Being five minutes late can cause me a half-hour delay,” she said.
“This petition is driven by pure frustration. I’ve been here six years and I’ve had enough.”
The 39-year-old said infrastructure hadn’t kept pace with the influx of residential housing in the area.
Whittlesea council’s acting director of infrastructure and technology, Griff Davis, said traffic congestion was an ongoing issue.
He said the duplication of Lakes Boulevard was one of several road improvement projects the council would like to carry out in South Morang to accommodate increasing traffic.
“Almost $5 million will be spent in the 2014-15 financial year on improvements to local roads,” Mr Davis said.
“Although funds have yet to be set aside for the duplication of Lakes Boulevard, it has been identified by council as a future road improvement project.”
Ms Georgiou said she would lodge her petition with the council before its next meeting on February 24.
