Kenmore and Moggill Road
One road does most of the work
Moggill Road runs 20.6 km from High Street in Toowong out to the Moggill Ferry, and it averaged 39,305 vehicles a day in the second half of 2014. Kenmore's shopping roundabout, where Brookfield Road joins, sits 6.2 km along it.
The bypass that never came
A Kenmore Bypass was meant to ease peak-hour congestion on Moggill Road, and the Centenary Motorway was duplicated towards it in 1984. It was never built, and residents widely opposed it, so the morning queue is still part of life here.
Creek on one side, river on the other
Moggill Creek runs through the suburb and the Brisbane River forms its southern edge. In the 2011 floods Moggill Road went under at Chapel Hill and again near Pullen Pullen Creek, either side of Kenmore, cutting off Bellbowrie, Moggill and Karana Downs. Never drive into floodwater, and don't try to start a car that's been sitting in it.
What peak hour does to a car
Creeping along in a queue on a hot morning is hard work for an automatic. Heavy city traffic in hot weather is one of the severe-service conditions for automatic transmission fluid, and the maker's interval is the surest guide to when it's due. If the gearbox slips, flares between gears or is slow to take drive, see transmission repairs in Brisbane.
Brakes take the same punishment. RACV lists heavy stop-start traffic as a reason to service a car more often, and RAC WA says brakes wear more quickly the harder they're used, so pads that do the roundabout twice a day go sooner than you'd think. Squealing, grinding or a pulsing pedal is the time to get them looked at.
If it were our car
We'd tell the mechanic the car does Moggill Road in peak hour, and ask for the transmission fluid and brake pads to be checked at each service. If the manual has a severe-use schedule, that's the one we'd follow.