CLEM7

On a raining night, I got confused and ended up on the Clem 7 instead of the ICB. Thanks so much torrential rain! Much to my disappointment my little tag beeped as I entered and it was an extremely boring trip.
I’ve been on the Clem 7 a few times before, once just for the novelty of driving through it for the first time and once when I was running late. Both times, prior to my accidental trip, proved to be a little useless. It wasn’t exciting (I guess they’re not meant to be) and it didn’t save me time. Oh well.
On all 3 trips I observed only a really small number of cars use it. Usually up to only 3 cars in my vision at any one time. I was extremely surprised at that, I expected more people to be using it.
I guess it may not be making its shareholders money yet, but give it time and in true Brisbane fashion, it will catch up to the rest.

The CLEM7 is pretty awesome in terms of being able to stick your arms out the window and pretend you’re in a Star Wars starfighter chase scene. I’ve had better tunnels (CLEM7 is kind of too spacious for a proper sense of narrowly escaping a tractor beam) but this one does the trick.
Running essentially from Woolloongabba to Lutwyche, the CLEM7 cuts out the city and saves you a decent amount of time, usually at least 15 minutes. The tunnel is a 6.8km tolled motorway linking five major Brisbane roads, including the Pacific Motorway, Ipswich Road, Lutwyche Road, Inner City Bypass and Shafston Avenue at Kangaroo Point.
The CLEM7 forms the first part of Brisbane’s new M7 motorway, to be completed in 2012 when the Airport Link tunnel opens. At present it’s just a snazzy new and rather long tunnel that has a hidden speed camera and flashing overhead signs telling you to «Turn on your radio now». I know this probably means «turn on your radio now for a traffic update to see if there’s any accidents around», but it seems weird to be told by a flashing sign that I have to listen to the radio. Maybe they just want me to start grooving then and there in the tunnel. Assuming I have reception in the tunnel.
The tunnel was initially unpopular with Brisbanites owing to the high toll, and perhaps this sentiment remains because the CLEM7 still doesn’t draw in the crowds you’d expect. The price was dropped dramatically for a while, but now seems quite higher: unless you get a FLOWtag the tunnels costs $ 0.47 per trip (image processing fee) and $ 6.50 as an unpaid toll. That’s about $ 7 per trip for lazy people who don’t bother getting the fee paid within three days. *coughs*
In any case, it seems like the CLEM7 is still going through teething pains in terms of being accepted by the public. Maybe Brisbanites just can’t stand paying tolls.
Oh, and as to the tunnel’s name: «As Brisbane’s longest serving Lord Mayor, Clem Jones oversaw the city’s growth from a sleepy country town to a vibrant sub-​tropical metropolis during his time in office from 1961 to 1975»… or so claims the website. I do remember a bit of uproar over the name at the time, but this is par for the course in terms of Brisbane infrastructure developments. (For more information on this subject, see The Go Between Bridge.)

My only problem with the Clem 7 is that I don’t often need to go on it’s route. Oh and I’m a cheap skate. Plus I’m a bit claustrophobic.
Saying that, if I lived further down from the RBH I would use it all the time, but for some reason every time I get near an entrance in my mind I think it would be easier to just use the Story Bridge. I always forget about that awful bottleneck around Water St in Spring Hill though. Maybe if my memory was better I’d use it more often.

Much to the disappointment of shareholders and the City Council, Brisbanites didn’t take to the Clem7 when it first opened, preferring to waste their time than money on commuting.
I think the decision to lower the toll to $ 0.47 per trip attracted many more users in 2011. For that price, I was more than willing to shave fifteen minutes on my work commute from the SE freeway to Hamilton and vice versa.
I was pretty nervous about navigation in the tunnel, mainly what to do if my car broke down in the middle of the lanes. The first time I drove through it, I got confused about the exits and ended up somewhere near Stones Corner instead of the South East Freeway. This is probably my fault as the tunnel is reasonably well signed.
Be sure to get a FLOWtag account even if you’re not going to be a regular user of CLEM7. It’s easy to sign up for online and it applies to all toll bridges in Australia including the Gateway Bridge and Logan Motorway.