4 November 2011

The bus lane is returning on Adelaide Avenue

4 November 2011 | johnboy

Territory And Municipal Services inform us that the completion of the GDE means they are going to put the bus lane back on Adelaide Avenue:

With the Gungahlin Drive Extension (GDE) now fully open to traffic, the T2 transit lane on Adelaide Avenue between Melrose Drive and State Circle will be returned for use as a bus lane, Director, Roads ACT, Tony Gill has announced.

The change will become effective from Monday 14 November 2011.

“The T2 transit lane was introduced in 2009 as a temporary measure to help alleviate increased congestion on Adelaide Avenue associated with construction work on the GDE by encouraging people to car pool or travel together,” Mr Gill said.

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Pollymaree3:05 pm 10 Nov 11

Encouraging buses and bikes is great but so is encouraging people to carry more than one person in the car (funnily enough taking the bus to work is not a great option when you have to ferry small children around to multiple locations). Yes, they can all coexist and have happily done so on Adelaide Ave for some time now. Frankly I’m mystified about the suggestion that the opening of GDE will magically lighten the load on Adelaide Ave – perhaps, at the very least, the T2 lane should remain open until there is some evidence to prove it’s no longer needed?

Bussie4:07 pm 09 Nov 11

yellowsnow said :

I catch the bus down Adelaide Ave regularly and – seriously – T2 traffic is never a problem. Why penalise carpoolers, who should be encouraged, when it’s rare for more than two buses to travel down the lane per minute. If the road capacity is there, use it.

I don’t currently drive on Adelaide Avenue but I did on my previous shift and the T2 traffic was a problem. At least once a fortnight there was some clown doing 70 in the T2 even though the other lanes were moving quickly too. No amount of driving 1m behind them, honking the horn and flashing the high beams ever seemed to get these idiots to speed up or change lanes.

Erg03:41 pm 09 Nov 11

Might just be confirmation bias, but I feel like Adelaide Ave has been a lot quieter for the last week or so at my usual time (8:45ish). As was suggested above, I’m thinking that the people coming from the south who were using Adelaide Ave to avoid the Glenloch Interchange were the source of the “increased congestion”.

rainmaker8:34 pm 08 Nov 11

Personally I think this is a giant dick move. I’m still trying to figure out how the GDE fits in with this exactly. They say now it’s finished that traffic along Adelaide Ave has improved… uhhhh have they actually tried driving in peak hour to Civic via Adelaide Ave in the past week or two? It’s a car park! I was one of the folks who actually had two people in my car and used the T2 regularly to fly past this traffic standstill; such an awesome feeling. Well, no more, I guess I’ll be stuck with the rest of the poor buggers while there is a perfectly usable lane next to me which will be empty for about 90% of the time. Stupid, stupid decision.

caf5:03 pm 05 Nov 11

Eppo said :

As a motorcyclist, I approve of this!

At 7.45 on the way to work each morning, I’d rarely see a bus in the T2 lane, but I DO see plenty of cagers slowing me down.

This will essentially give me my own private lane into work each day. Win!

Obviously you are new to the two-wheeling lifestyle, because the veteran motorcyclist knows that there are narrow unmarked motorcycle-only lanes located between each of the usual traffic lanes.

Jono1:46 pm 05 Nov 11

Spykler said :

Help me with this one, I am still trying to come up with a link between traffic coming from this direction and the GDE..

The roadworks aren’t just on the GDE, they affect all traffic coming through the Glenloch interchange, including traffic from the south. That may well have affected the decisions made by people living in, say, Waramanga or Fisher or similar suburbs, some of who might well have decided that Adelaide Avenue became a better choice with the slowdown due to the roadworks.

We all knew that they were planning to do this once the Glenloch interchange roadworks stopped (yes, if you moved to Canberra in the last couple of years, I’m not talking about you) . If it’s such a big issue for you, why didn’t you put forward a suggestion through the appropriate channels that they leave the transit lane in place ages ago, instead on having a whinge once they’ve make the announcement. So many whingers; but so few people willing to actually get off their backside about issues that they believe to be important.

Road_Monkey7:34 am 05 Nov 11

Chilli, the traffic lights for Floriade come out at the end of next week. I don’t understand Mr.Gill. The alternative to Adelaide Avenue is to use the Tuggeranong Parkway. That’s acceptable when it is flowing. But then you then need to go onto Parkes Way to the City. Whoops!!! It’s a parking lot in the mornings. We will only add to the problems there and make it worse. And leaving Civic to go south means joining queues to get onto Parkes Way to the Tuggeranong Parkway. Thats adding many extra kilometers to the trip and wasting our resources. What are they thinking??? If they do this then they should rename Parkes Way to Parking Lot Way. It appears TAMS is not in touch with what the traffic situation is in Canberra.

creative_canberran2:10 am 05 Nov 11

I honestly wonder whether the folks at RoadsACT ever spend much time on ACT roads. And if they don’t, what do they spend all their time on? Certainly not memorising the Australian Standards for road signage or data on road usage if recent examples are anything to go by.

yellowsnow12:39 am 05 Nov 11

Wow. And here I was thinking I’ve seen everything. Government decision making (and communication) has just stooped to new lows

I catch the bus down Adelaide Ave regularly and – seriously – T2 traffic is never a problem. Why penalise carpoolers, who should be encouraged, when it’s rare for more than two buses to travel down the lane per minute. If the road capacity is there, use it.

As for interaction between GDE and Adelaide traffic – if anything traffic has INCREASED since the GDE was completed. This is because many folks from Gungahlin now use GDE-Tugg Parkway-Lady Denman Drive – Cotter Rd – Adelaide Ave route to get into the Parliamentary Triangle, Deakin, Kingston etc. Previously many would have gone via Northbourne and Cmth Ave Bridge, which tends to be slower

It’s amazing that the road planning ‘professionals’ over at Roads ACT can get basic things like this so wrong. It’s like when they for years resisted duplicating Cotter Rd east of the Pkw ‘until 2036’ (yes, their forecast was that specific) because they didn’t think traffic there was a problem, when anyone who saw the road at peak times would have told them otherwise. Similarly, it was always obvious traffic on Cotter Rd would only increase with GDE completion, followed by Molonglo ramping up – but no, the govt knew better. Luckily they’ve finally come to their senses following actual analysis of traffic flow, and are due to commence duplication this financial year (on the downside – two years of construction delays, simultaneous to Parkes Way roadworks. Interesting times)

Spykler11:02 pm 04 Nov 11

“The T2 transit lane was introduced in 2009 as a temporary measure to help alleviate increased congestion on Adelaide Avenue associated with construction work on the GDE by encouraging people to car pool or travel together,” Mr Gill said.
Help me with this one, I am still trying to come up with a link between traffic coming from this direction and the GDE..

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