Victory declared over the Holt raceway

The evaluation report has been posted on the Time to Talk website.
http://timetotalk.act.gov.au/storage/Evaluation%20Report%20-%20Spofforth%20Street.pdf

TAMS original investigation of traffic on Spofforth Street was a “response to residents’ complaints about speeding and the potential increase in traffic volume as a result of the new development in West Macgregor. As a result, speed cushions were installed on Spofforth Street in December 2011.”

The stated objectives of the speed cushions were to:
– Reduce travel speeds on Spofforth Street.
– Reduce traffic volumes on Spofforth Street, and minimise its use as a short cut for traffic from West Macgregor.
– Improve road safety on Spofforth Street.

It found that prior to installing the speed cushions, traffic volumes on Spofforth St ranged from 889-1085 per day on weekdays, and decreased to 217-283 post-installation, giving reductions of 631-832 cars.

The report concludes: “Reductions in average weekday and weekend traffic volumes are quite high, and range from 498 vehicles per day to a maximum of 832 vehicles per day. This is most likely because motorists who had previously used Spofforth Street as a short cut have now intentionally avoided using it as a result of the newly installed speed cushions.”

Moving on to Beaurepaire Cres and Trickett St on p12 … outbound weekday traffic on Beaurepaire went from 1080 to 1668 (+588), and inbound from 1298 to 1673 (+375). Trickett went from 899/927 to 1385/1363 (+486/436).

The comment was: “The traffic volumes on the above streets have all increased. However, the new traffic volumes are still within their environmental capacity and the acceptable limit of 3000 vehicles per day for minor collector roads (Beaurepaire Crescent and Trickett Street) and 1000 vehicles per day for local access roads (Messenger Street and Britten?Jones Drive).

… so, why did 1000 cars per day on Spofforth St merit 13 speed cushions to divert them elsewhere, but 1700 cars on another minor road is fine?

They *have* said they will do further traffic assessment on Beaurepaire and Trickett St in consultation with residents. Hopefully *after* the traffic lights on Southern Cross Dr are working.

I don’t understand the logic that seems to be used where they say that going at a faster speed is more dangerous, so they must just slow people down and that makes everything safer. That may sound fine by itself, but then when they start suggesting that they should make roads deliberately dangerous so that people slow down on them and then somehow think this makes it safer, I worry. If you have a nice wide straight road, and you have no trees or poles for people to hit if they go off the road, it’s quite safe and unlikely to cause accidents, so you can safely drive faster on that road. This is an ideal circumstance where traffic can flow quickly and safely. I don’t understand why sometimes they seem to think that, despite there being no accidents on such a road, some people are going faster than some other people think they should (not by much generally) and therefore they should build in something like a chicane to destabilise the vehicles and drastically reduce their grip and increase the likelihood of crashing into another car or barrier or pole etc. I just don’t see how this is an actual improvement in safety. It will slow people down, but that is because they are seeing that the road is more dangerous to drive on, it isn’t altering what speed they think is appropriate for a given condition, it’s just making the condition worse. I would think that they should be making roads as safe as possible in all circumstances and then dealing with sections that are having accidents and working out why. Often these accidents can be minimised by altering the roads or adding barriers or islands between incoming lanes etc so that people can’t crash head on.

Of course it is a different thing if people are complaining about noise on their road and they want people to be driving more slowly past their house, but realistically there isn’t too much you can do about that in some cases, unless you plan on routing traffic elsewhere and spending some money increasing the capacity of the other route.

Knowing the street, it is fairly obvious that it was being used by people not simply as a thoroughfare, but a full on dragway…. people hooning down it at 120-130kmh+, using it for burnouts, etc.

If I lived on it I sure as hell would want something done. Speed camera probably wouldn’t stop the worst offenders because they would likely be doing it in stolen cars.

However, putting speed bumps the whole way along as they have done has effectively removed a road that was designed to be used for through traffic. Have a look at the map above, the street is shaded in yellow, highlighting the fact it has arterial purposes. With the West Macgregor extensions there is only going to be more and more traffic heading out from that direction, and with Spofforth out of the picture, that means more cars on Southern Cross and going through its notorious intersections.

I’m not sure what the solution is. Perhaps a few chicanes placed at far enough distance that they don’t become a nightmare, but still limit the ability of hoons to get up too much speed? Or perhaps, I don’ know, policing and actual harsh penalties for people caught hooning?

Ex Warrior said :

Sandman said :

Skidd Marx said :

I made the mistake of driving the length of this street the other day with a takeaway coffee in my hand. At the max allowable speed of 25 kph or so I thought it would never end. Needless to say the coffee cup was empty by the end of it without a single drop having graced my tongue.

Everyone loses with speedhumps… sorry – speedcushions.

Oh the humanity! So not only did you loose 20 seconds of your life by having to travel at or below the speed limit but you were also robbed of your mobile caffeine intake by the obviously chai drinking beauracracy that is the ACT government?
If hospital wait times weren’t so inconveniently long I’d get this bleeding heart of mine looked at.

I think somebodies missing the point!!!

If the Chief is bragging about the zero level of accidents on this horror mil or 2, it may be that a young fella lost his life on Southern Cross due to the increased volume of traffic as a result of this mindless decision to divert traffic away from wide & straight roads which to me seem ideal to ease pressure on Southern Cross.

Was the young fella who lost his life on southern cross hit by someone DRIVING WITH A TAKEAWAY COFFEE IN THEIR HAND? (intentionally shouted so you don’t miss the point)

I took a empty trailer down that road and it was a nightmare.

Even at 20kph the trailer was bouncing up dangerously. It’s not an ideal solution.

Sandman said :

Skidd Marx said :

I made the mistake of driving the length of this street the other day with a takeaway coffee in my hand. At the max allowable speed of 25 kph or so I thought it would never end. Needless to say the coffee cup was empty by the end of it without a single drop having graced my tongue.

Everyone loses with speedhumps… sorry – speedcushions.

Oh the humanity! So not only did you loose 20 seconds of your life by having to travel at or below the speed limit but you were also robbed of your mobile caffeine intake by the obviously chai drinking beauracracy that is the ACT government?
If hospital wait times weren’t so inconveniently long I’d get this bleeding heart of mine looked at.

I think somebodies missing the point!!!

If the Chief is bragging about the zero level of accidents on this horror mil or 2, it may be that a young fella lost his life on Southern Cross due to the increased volume of traffic as a result of this mindless decision to divert traffic away from wide & straight roads which to me seem ideal to ease pressure on Southern Cross.

As a resident of a nice quiet back street in Holt, but who uses most of the large suburban roads at during the average month, I am also a little concerned and annoyed at the apparent inequity of this approach.

Sure, sucks that your previously quiet street is now noisier. People speed (especially on straight, quiet roads with limited intersections and houses only on one side). But those cars haven’t disappeared. They are now going along another, similar street, which doesn’t have cushions.

Essentially, this road has been treated as one which should only be used for “local traffic”. But exactly how has the determination been reached? It is a suburb boundary road. It connects at both ends to suburb boundary roads. In the normal Canberra way of looking at things, that makes it perfect for through traffic. ACTION obviously thinks so it is part of a bus route.

Why didn’t they just block the road off at about the middle point? It would have instantly solved the problem and been much cheaper.

Seriously, running a barrier, such as found beside highways, along the entire residential side of the street and upping the speed limit to 100km/h would have been a better option (although I concede the locals might be grumpy that they driveways were blocked.

smont said :

A comment from ‘the other’ perspective. As somebody who lives on one of those 60km/h residential streets that also happens to be an arterial running through a Weston Creek suburb, I’d estimate that well over 30-40 per cent of cars travel over 70km/h; and a good chunk of them up around 75-80km/h. I find that pretty bloody selfish and self-centred that safety of me, my family and my neighbours is somehow less important than you getting home 30 seconds quicker. And police enforcement of speed limits? In Weston Creek? What a joke! So before you go mouthing off about ‘speed calming’ measures such as these ladies and gents, pause for a second and think about why they have been introduced before giving me your coffee-spilling sob stories.

I understand that speeding in a suburban area is a safety issue, thank you for your ranting clarification though.

My gripe is against the morons who put these things in. Who’s the genius who calculated that these s should be spaced so close together that you can barely get out of 2nd gear? It’s overkill. Drive down Spofforth st in Holt or Flinders ave in Red Hill and you’ll see what I mean.

Skidd Marx said :

I made the mistake of driving the length of this street the other day with a takeaway coffee in my hand. At the max allowable speed of 25 kph or so I thought it would never end. Needless to say the coffee cup was empty by the end of it without a single drop having graced my tongue.

Everyone loses with speedhumps… sorry – speedcushions.

Oh the humanity! So not only did you loose 20 seconds of your life by having to travel at or below the speed limit but you were also robbed of your mobile caffeine intake by the obviously chai drinking beauracracy that is the ACT government?
If hospital wait times weren’t so inconveniently long I’d get this bleeding heart of mine looked at.

thatsnotme said :

I responded to their call for comments, after purely by accident noticing it on the TAMS website. I’m sure the people living along Spofforth would have been all directly invited to comment though – much like the consultation the preceded the installation of these ‘calming’ measures in the first place.

I’m also sure that the people living along Southern Cross Drive, Trickett St / Beaurepaire Cres, and Macnaughton St / Starke St who now have to live with increased traffic as people avoid the mess that Spofforth St has become wouldn’t have been afforded the same personalised invitation.

I live in a side street off one of the streets you mentioned and I received an invitation to comment in the mail. So I imagine everyone else in the vicinity did as well.

The letter specifically raised the issue of the Spofforth St changes causing more traffic on other streets.They offered the option of filling out a short form or emailing/writing more substantial comments. The form did seem to encourage the requesting of more speed humps on other roads …

I opted for emailing, and discussed the increased traffic passing through Holt, as well as the difficulty for residents in turning right onto Southern Cross Drive during busy periods. I hope others responded as well.

smont said :

A comment from ‘the other’ perspective. As somebody who lives on one of those 60km/h residential streets that also happens to be an arterial running through a Weston Creek suburb, I’d estimate that well over 30-40 per cent of cars travel over 70km/h; and a good chunk of them up around 75-80km/h. I find that pretty bloody selfish and self-centred that safety of me, my family and my neighbours is somehow less important than you getting home 30 seconds quicker. And police enforcement of speed limits? In Weston Creek? What a joke! So before you go mouthing off about ‘speed calming’ measures such as these ladies and gents, pause for a second and think about why they have been introduced before giving me your coffee-spilling sob stories.

I don’t know what street you’re talking about in Weston Creek, and I’m guessing you’d rather not give away that information on a forum like this, but consider this. Spofforth St has houses on one side only. The other side is a golf club. All the houses are well set back from the road, with wide nature strips separating the houses from the road. The speed limit has been reduced to 50 km/h, despite the fact that if you were to drive less than 1km from Spofforth, you would find streets with houses closer to the road, on both sides of the street, with more turns, bends and cross streets, which still have 60 km/h speed limits. Heavy vehicles have been banned from Spofforth.

Now I can’t claim to have driven enough around the rest of Canberra to have a good overview of whether measures like this are typical or not, but from where I’m sitting it seems like our government is paying particular attention to one street at the arse end of Belconnen when I’m sure there are dozens of other streets across the city that are in more urgent need of some help.

I’m not aware of a single accident or injury on Spofforth St (please correct me if I’m wrong), yet there’s no budget to fix the Southern Cross / Starke St intersection just around the corner, where accidents are a common occurrence. Pity we don’t have any ex pollies *cough* Wayne *cough* living near that intersection.

Katy Gallagher didn’t have anything to say when the Government quietly shelved plans to build roundabouts at the Southern Cross and Florey Drive / Starke St intersections, yet is more than happy to issue a press release trumpeting the success of effectively f&$^ing a decent stretch of road.

To really cap it off though, this paragraph is a pearler…

“While it is too early to assess the long term impacts on safety, there have been no crashes since the installation of the speed cushions and it appears the traffic safety measures have been effective in improving road safety,” the Chief Minister concluded.

How many accidents were there before the magic cushions were introduced Katy? Also, would you like to buy my tiger repellent rock?

Skidd Marx said :

I made the mistake of driving the length of this street the other day with a takeaway coffee in my hand. At the max allowable speed of 25 kph or so I thought it would never end. Needless to say the coffee cup was empty by the end of it without a single drop having graced my tongue.

Everyone loses with speedhumps… sorry – speedcushions.

Why didn’t you just leave the bloody lid on it?

A comment from ‘the other’ perspective. As somebody who lives on one of those 60km/h residential streets that also happens to be an arterial running through a Weston Creek suburb, I’d estimate that well over 30-40 per cent of cars travel over 70km/h; and a good chunk of them up around 75-80km/h. I find that pretty bloody selfish and self-centred that safety of me, my family and my neighbours is somehow less important than you getting home 30 seconds quicker. And police enforcement of speed limits? In Weston Creek? What a joke! So before you go mouthing off about ‘speed calming’ measures such as these ladies and gents, pause for a second and think about why they have been introduced before giving me your coffee-spilling sob stories.

I made the mistake of driving the length of this street the other day with a takeaway coffee in my hand. At the max allowable speed of 25 kph or so I thought it would never end. Needless to say the coffee cup was empty by the end of it without a single drop having graced my tongue.

Everyone loses with speedhumps… sorry – speedcushions.

buzz819 said :

johnboy said :

speed cushions bolt into the road to much easier to move around as needed rather than poured concrete

Ahh the ones that a normal sedan can fit over without slowing down… I see…

If you line yourself up on the “cushion” with the second white line in from the right , you can absolutley hammer over them. Just saying…….

johnboy said :

speed cushions bolt into the road to much easier to move around as needed rather than poured concrete

Ahh the ones that a normal sedan can fit over without slowing down… I see…

I’m sure this ‘community comment’ was set up to achieve the answer they wanted, just like the first time around.

I responded to their call for comments, after purely by accident noticing it on the TAMS website. I’m sure the people living along Spofforth would have been all directly invited to comment though – much like the consultation the preceded the installation of these ‘calming’ measures in the first place.

I’m also sure that the people living along Southern Cross Drive, Trickett St / Beaurepaire Cres, and Macnaughton St / Starke St who now have to live with increased traffic as people avoid the mess that Spofforth St has become wouldn’t have been afforded the same personalised invitation.

So give yourself a pat on the back Katie – your community consultation facade ended up with exactly the answer you were after.

shirty_bear said :

I find it amusing that, when ACTGovCo hits a scenario where they actually want to slow traffic down, they don’t use speed cameras.

No, not amusing … the other thing. Galling. And infuriating.

Straight up, this is their concession that cameras are no deterrent to speeding. Seems no-one’s actually called them on it, though.

‘

I think it’s more likely to be that the govt. want to take preventative measures rather than punitive measures in residential areas. I mean, you’d still get people complaining if they put speed cameras in. “Oh it’s just revenue raising they don’t care about safety blahblahblah”

i think they should split the difference and put both speed cameras and traffic calming measures in.

p.s- I just now thought that maybe this area experiences a lot of hooning in the form of joy-riding, and a speed camera is not much use if the car being driven is stolen.

shirty_bear said :

I find it amusing that, when ACTGovCo hits a scenario where they actually want to slow traffic down, they don’t use speed cameras.

No, not amusing … the other thing. Galling. And infuriating.

Straight up, this is their concession that cameras are no deterrent to speeding. Seems no-one’s actually called them on it, though.

Well, yes, I would say that speed cushions would probably be more effective at reducing speeding on Tuggeranong Parkway than the fixed speed cameras on that road. But arguably there are some subtle differences between the Tuggeranong Parkway and Spofforth St in Holt that mean different solutions might be called for in the different circumstances…?

But then, it’s probably not worth bothering to reply to someone who thinks that using the term “ACTGovCo” bolsters their point…

PBO said :

I propose sounding car horns when driving all the way down that patch to celebrate Katies and Waynes success.

I 2nd this. Im off to the Golfie for a meeting this arvo so there and back I’ll let em know.

PBO said :

I propose sounding car horns when driving all the way down that patch to celebrate Katies and Waynes success.

To maximise your display of appreciation, install a set of ‘Dixie’ air horns and approach the speed cushions with the fervour of the Duke boys.

I find it amusing that, when ACTGovCo hits a scenario where they actually want to slow traffic down, they don’t use speed cameras.

No, not amusing … the other thing. Galling. And infuriating.

Straight up, this is their concession that cameras are no deterrent to speeding. Seems no-one’s actually called them on it, though.

PBO said :

I propose sounding car horns when driving all the way down that patch to celebrate Katies and Waynes success.

I’ll be sure to do that while weaving between the traffic cushions at high speed on my motorbike.

I propose sounding car horns when driving all the way down that patch to celebrate Katies and Waynes success.

While at the same time forcing hundreds more cars and trucks onto a much narrower laned road with busier intersections and many more driveways on both sides of the road.Very stupid decision to say the least.

But we have looked after our mate Wayne yeh…..

Are speed cushions like speed bumps?