Although EastLink became one of the busiest stretches of road in Victoria, with over 50 million trips being made during its first year of operation (Southern and Eastern Integrated Transport Authority: 2009b: p.18), it is considered to be under-used (Hutton 2009: p.46) as estimated traffic flows have fallen well short of original predictions. Lower than expected usage may be due, at least in part, to an apparent upward trend in the use of public transport (Kirby 2008) and a large volume of commercial (and presumably private) vehicles bypassing the tollways, with drivers instead choosing to use local roads (Lucas 2009) to avoid paying toll costs.
It was expected that the development of the new $6.5 million connection between Heatherton Road and the Princes Highway in Mulgrave would not only reduce travelling times for users whilst improving access to EastLink, but the project would directly impact upon drivers' "need" to rat run through local streets (Minister for Roads and Ports 2009). However, the Victorian State Government's intended outcomes for the new connection appear to have had a minor effect on users' behaviour. For example, figures released in the first half of 2010 by ConnectEast indicated that traffic numbers improved marginally, rising from 168,859 average daily trips in April to 177,227 in May (ConnectEast 2010a; 2010b) and then to 190,284 in May 2011 (ConnectEast 2011). These user patterns (at least over the short-term) suggest that the risk of failing to achieve the original traffic volume forecast is high.