Antill street mess this morning.

KB1971 said :

00davist said :

KB1971 said :

Ride your bike……..

I’m so sick of this “Because I do it, everyone should” attitude.

Not everyone can ride to work, so get over it, that is simply not the answer to all of life’s problems, you over-inflated, self righteous, little martyr.

This particular issue is a big one, For its size, Canberra has a huge amount of roadwork’s going on at any one time, and many of them concern major roads, there is often little or no effort to take into account traffic, especially around peak hour, not does there seem to be any rhyme or reason to the way signage is used around roadwork’s.

I understand allot of this work needs to be done, but why does it need to be so disorganised and poorly executed?

Yep & I am completely sick of people whinging about the traffic (which compared to our larger cities is a pretty minor issue).

Yep we rely on a car too as we ferry kids to school & my wife works out of town but I don’t pesonally.

Grails has some extremely good points in his posts, take them on board ;).

So it really is to much to ask that we get a couple of days notice when someone whats to knock out a few lanes in peak hour?

Seriously, Get of your soap box, i don’t care if you walk, drive, ride, or f&%$^%g surf to work, a line like “Ride your bike……..” is both stupid, and a bloody waste of full stops!

As for being sick of people whinging about traffic, wow, I both envy you, and feel sorry for you, I envy the spare time you must have in order to read and comment on something you are don’t want to read, and i feel sorry for you, your life must be boring!

I stand by my point, there is too much construction and roadwork interfering unnecessarily with traffic in Canberra, and situations like the one in the OP need to be adequately advertised in advanced. Sure, we are not as bad a Sydney for traffic, but hey, why don’t we all sit back, and do nothing untill we are and it’s too late, that sounds like a great idea!

icantbelieveitsnotbutter said :

FFS… I live in Downer, came out onto Antill Street this morning at about 9:00am. Realised that it would be time consuming to try and go through the intersection toward Belconnen, so what did I do? I took a left, went through Dickson, past the College, down the back road and onto Northbourne, took no more than two minutes longer than usual?

People, it’s called awareness… use it. Believe it or not, in the middle of Canberra (which is where this ‘event’ happened) there are multiple routes one can take… why not try one?

Because by the time I got to that turn-off, probably only about 10 mins later, the line of cars waiting to turn off was longer than the line going straight maybe?

I am very happy for those who had alternatives such as bicycles, their own cars so they could detour out of the way and for Grail who is clearly more superior to the rest of us.

I however, was on a bus. I was on that bus and it took about 15 minutes getting from Dickson, around the corner to Northbourne – a distance of about 100m. I travel that route every day and there has been little or no warning that the road would be changed due to roadworks.

I can see no conceivable reason why this could not happen after 9.00am and I think everyone is getting thoroughly sick of the arbitrary way construction companies seem to be able to close off roads at will. I am all for protecting the safety of workers and for this reason I think more night time work should be carried out and a bit more consideration given to the general public by not obstructing major intersections at peak hour. It’s not rocket science.

FFS… I live in Downer, came out onto Antill Street this morning at about 9:00am. Realised that it would be time consuming to try and go through the intersection toward Belconnen, so what did I do? I took a left, went through Dickson, past the College, down the back road and onto Northbourne, took no more than two minutes longer than usual?

People, it’s called awareness… use it. Believe it or not, in the middle of Canberra (which is where this ‘event’ happened) there are multiple routes one can take… why not try one?

Grail said :

00davist said :

agree that there are many people with alternatives, and that they need to be considered, however, if I’m reading what you are saying right, you want people to make adjustments for the road-works specifically.

I have no problem with this, but it comes back again to warning, if you are un aware they will be slowing it down, you wont find out till you get there, and then it’s to late, you are now in traffic.

It’s a construction site. To proceed on the assumption that it will not impact on traffic is foolhardy at the very least. The signs were up there for six months before construction started. Multi-storey construction implies earthworks, cranes and tonnes of concrete. I would have adjusted my daily commute from the first time there was any sign of construction work happening (which in this instance is when the fences went up at the beginning of demolitions.

But in relation to my comment – the entire city is going to become more congested once the GDE duplication is finished. Better roads means more people commuting by car. Where people used to car pool, they’ll start using their own cars. Build a better road, you get more traffic. It’s Boyle’s Law all over again.

Once these apartments are finished, do you think the traffic problem will get better or worse? Shortly after the apartments go in, there will be pressure to put traffic lights on that intersection between the existing traffic lights on Northbourne and the pedestrian crossing just before the creek. Then there will be more apartments being built as older blocks in North Canberra come up for sale, with more people trying to commute the 5km to work in Civic by car.

If you’re one of the “but I have to drop my kids at school” crowd, consider the options: perhaps your kids are old enough to ride to school by themselves, or catch a bus. My brother and I were riding to school with our own posse from about year 5. We had two boys next door, and the occasional extra. We rode to school from Higgins to Florey – for us at the time it was a 4-5km ride. Of course at the time we had no idea just how much freedom we had.

Later on we would ride 10km or catch the bus to high school (from Kambah to Pearce), the only duty our parents had to us was pushing us out the door at the appropriate time in the morning.

The situation is not going to get any better – there is only so much room for roads and car parks.

So perhaps my opinion reeks of “blame the victim”, but when you know that there is a major construction project happening on your usual route to work, it’s time to change your route to work or mode of transport before the traffic jams occur.

Good. On. You!

Lecture people much?

00davist said :

KB1971 said :

Ride your bike……..

I’m so sick of this “Because I do it, everyone should” attitude.

Not everyone can ride to work, so get over it, that is simply not the answer to all of life’s problems, you over-inflated, self righteous, little martyr.

This particular issue is a big one, For its size, Canberra has a huge amount of roadwork’s going on at any one time, and many of them concern major roads, there is often little or no effort to take into account traffic, especially around peak hour, not does there seem to be any rhyme or reason to the way signage is used around roadwork’s.

I understand allot of this work needs to be done, but why does it need to be so disorganised and poorly executed?

Yep & I am completely sick of people whinging about the traffic (which compared to our larger cities is a pretty minor issue).

Yep we rely on a car too as we ferry kids to school & my wife works out of town but I don’t pesonally.

Grails has some extremely good points in his posts, take them on board ;).

Grail said :

00davist said :

agree that there are many people with alternatives, and that they need to be considered, however, if I’m reading what you are saying right, you want people to make adjustments for the road-works specifically.

I have no problem with this, but it comes back again to warning, if you are un aware they will be slowing it down, you wont find out till you get there, and then it’s to late, you are now in traffic.

It’s a construction site. To proceed on the assumption that it will not impact on traffic is foolhardy at the very least. The signs were up there for six months before construction started. Multi-storey construction implies earthworks, cranes and tonnes of concrete. I would have adjusted my daily commute from the first time there was any sign of construction work happening (which in this instance is when the fences went up at the beginning of demolitions.

But in relation to my comment – the entire city is going to become more congested once the GDE duplication is finished. Better roads means more people commuting by car. Where people used to car pool, they’ll start using their own cars. Build a better road, you get more traffic. It’s Boyle’s Law all over again.

Once these apartments are finished, do you think the traffic problem will get better or worse? Shortly after the apartments go in, there will be pressure to put traffic lights on that intersection between the existing traffic lights on Northbourne and the pedestrian crossing just before the creek. Then there will be more apartments being built as older blocks in North Canberra come up for sale, with more people trying to commute the 5km to work in Civic by car.

If you’re one of the “but I have to drop my kids at school” crowd, consider the options: perhaps your kids are old enough to ride to school by themselves, or catch a bus. My brother and I were riding to school with our own posse from about year 5. We had two boys next door, and the occasional extra. We rode to school from Higgins to Florey – for us at the time it was a 4-5km ride. Of course at the time we had no idea just how much freedom we had.

Later on we would ride 10km or catch the bus to high school (from Kambah to Pearce), the only duty our parents had to us was pushing us out the door at the appropriate time in the morning.

The situation is not going to get any better – there is only so much room for roads and car parks.

So perhaps my opinion reeks of “blame the victim”, but when you know that there is a major construction project happening on your usual route to work, it’s time to change your route to work or mode of transport before the traffic jams occur.

Grail, I’m not trying to argue with you here, I agree construction as such is something we can expect to cause disturbance, HOWEVER, i read above, that there were lanes closed.

They could have given a couple of days notice about the lane closeures at peak hour, as this gives people greater opportunity to be prepared, for exaple, while there may be many people as you say, who could find a more long term alternative, there will also be some that cant, but can still do so on a once off occasion.

so for some people who can not reguarly make alternative arrangments, advanced warning of peak hour lane closures would allow them to make alternative plans for that day. This is especially important to those with meeting etc.

One may adjust (as you suggest) when the fences go up, but they may only adjust 20 minutes, which seems adequate under normal construction delays, but a lane closure as the one above will require even more adjustments to be made on the specific delay, the delay mentioned i beleve was 45 minutes, thats quite an adjustment to make, just becase you see a construction fence.

As fot the dropping kids off argument, for those to who this applies (not me) definatly consider it, but PLEASE think carefully about what rout your kids will take, there are parts (many) of this city i consider dangerous to drive in for an army tank, let alone a child on a bike.

It’s something to consider, sure, but please dont kill your kids to prove a point!

00davist said :

agree that there are many people with alternatives, and that they need to be considered, however, if I’m reading what you are saying right, you want people to make adjustments for the road-works specifically.

I have no problem with this, but it comes back again to warning, if you are un aware they will be slowing it down, you wont find out till you get there, and then it’s to late, you are now in traffic.

It’s a construction site. To proceed on the assumption that it will not impact on traffic is foolhardy at the very least. The signs were up there for six months before construction started. Multi-storey construction implies earthworks, cranes and tonnes of concrete. I would have adjusted my daily commute from the first time there was any sign of construction work happening (which in this instance is when the fences went up at the beginning of demolitions.

But in relation to my comment – the entire city is going to become more congested once the GDE duplication is finished. Better roads means more people commuting by car. Where people used to car pool, they’ll start using their own cars. Build a better road, you get more traffic. It’s Boyle’s Law all over again.

Once these apartments are finished, do you think the traffic problem will get better or worse? Shortly after the apartments go in, there will be pressure to put traffic lights on that intersection between the existing traffic lights on Northbourne and the pedestrian crossing just before the creek. Then there will be more apartments being built as older blocks in North Canberra come up for sale, with more people trying to commute the 5km to work in Civic by car.

If you’re one of the “but I have to drop my kids at school” crowd, consider the options: perhaps your kids are old enough to ride to school by themselves, or catch a bus. My brother and I were riding to school with our own posse from about year 5. We had two boys next door, and the occasional extra. We rode to school from Higgins to Florey – for us at the time it was a 4-5km ride. Of course at the time we had no idea just how much freedom we had.

Later on we would ride 10km or catch the bus to high school (from Kambah to Pearce), the only duty our parents had to us was pushing us out the door at the appropriate time in the morning.

The situation is not going to get any better – there is only so much room for roads and car parks.

So perhaps my opinion reeks of “blame the victim”, but when you know that there is a major construction project happening on your usual route to work, it’s time to change your route to work or mode of transport before the traffic jams occur.

My issue was the apparent lack of planning at a strategic intersection in Canberra. It didn’t appear to be well handled.

As to the argument ‘ride my bike’ – that is a throw away argument. There are plenty of people that can’t just walk or ride bikes.
I am an avid rider when I am allowed too (I even wear lycra!) but with a heart condition it is not always possible or advisable to put me on a bike. Many fall into this situation for numerous reasons and I am not complaining about that.

I just think traffic management at road works is not managed very well here in Canberra. We are not a big city and it seemed nuts to let meltdown happen just so they can lay concrete at a building site during peak hour. Just saying!

00davist said :

Holden Caulfield said :

Any regular users of GDE or Glenloch want to pipe up and swap stories?

Umm, mate, it’s only 11.45, they’re still in traffic.

Yeah, don’t have a cow man. Or a baby, either.