Ask RiotACT: Slowing down the Hoons on Heysen Street

As a Canberra historian I would like to point out that Heysen St/Devonport St was never meant to be an arterial link between Woden and Weston Creek.

Devonport St was supposed to proceed north and link with Cotter Rd, however it stopped at a dead end when the streets in Lyons were built. Shortly after that, the suburb of Weston was planned and built, and Heysen St was supposed to link with Tuggeranong Parkway when it was built. But construction of the Parkway was delayed by the 1973-75 oil shock recession, so Heysen St was extended to link with the Devonport St dead end.

When Tuggeranong Parkway was finally built it was decided not to build an interchange linking Heysen St, and instead a bridge over Heysen St with no links was built.

You are right regarding the road rules at a roundabout. A driver must give way to any vehicle already in the roundabout, so in this case the bus driver legally must give way if you had entered the roundabout first.

If you had entered in front of the bus, you could have been killed, or the bus driver would have had to brake suddenly sending passengers through the windscreen. I would have taken down the rego number of the bus and reported the driver to ACTION and/or the police. I’ve got a dash cam in my car, so if it had been me, I would have sent the video to the police.

Having said all that, all drivers have a responsibility to drive defensively to avoid a collision, and self preservation is the paramount concern. If you had a collision with the bus and it ever went to court, you could still be deemed to have contributed to the accident, by not taking appropriate evasive action….luckily for you, you did 🙂

I’ve found that most drivers at roundabouts actually apply the GIVE WAY TO THE RIGHT RULE, which in some ways is common sense. There are pros and cons with both the road rule as it stands and the give way to the right rule. Personally, I’d prefer to see the law change to the latter……particularly when there is so much danger in a SMALLER roundabout, with both vehicles very close to each other!

I am confused by this, surely if you are turning left and faced with a situation where you cannot turn on safely then it is not “give way to vehicles on roundabouts” but failing to give way to your right that is the element of concern. That is the overarching rule of intersections especially as you are both faced with a give way sign for entering the roundabout. If you are going to enter a small roundabout but see a car on your right and deem it unsafe to enter, you give way to your right you dont jump out then claim to have right of way as this would be entering unsafely. Feel free to clarify if i have something wrong with this scenario.

I use this road most days (Molonglo to Woden) i find the chicane(downhill direction from roundabout) causes more issues than it helps. I have often caught the bus which often stops just down from the roundabout so is definitely not carrying speed at the point you mean most of the time.

I use the full length of Heysen St a few times each week. While I have seen far worse than the example you gave, such as overtaking on the blind crest, I share your concerns.

I didn’t realise I’d be inundated with opinions! 🙂