31 July 2013

Barton Highway makes worst roads list

| johnboy
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The NRMA’s user voted list of the worst roads in NSW/ACT has been released and one local road is in at number 8!

    The top 10 most flagged roads in NSW/ACT were:

    1. Pacific Highway at Urunga
    2. Parramatta Road at Concord
    3. Pennant Hills Road at Pennant Hills
    4. Princes Highway at Albion Park
    5. Bells Line of Road at Bilpin
    6. Kings Highway at Braidwood
    7. M4 Western Motorway at Granville
    8. Barton Highway at Murrumbateman
    9. Bucketts Way at Krambach
    10. Mount Hay Road at Leura

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Get our Mayor onto it! I see ample space for speed cushions, a chicane or two, and heck – while the credit card is out – throw in a point to point speed camera for a bit of added safety. Never mind the quality of the road, the mindset of drivers, or any other factor. These are the only implements that work… right?

The highways are fine, the idiots who can’t drive are the problem.

If you look at the list, I suspect none of them are inherently bad roads. But of the ones I know, they are all high volume roads and many have specific peak times. Basically they are roads that are poorly designed for the amount of traffic on them at least in their peak periods. The reality is that impatient drivers will always exist so roads need to be designed to keep the rest of us safe from them and that means dual (or more on those Sydney ones) separated carriageway and good visibility as minimum standard on roads that are this busy. Now I wonder how they are going to do that on the Kings highway? 🙂

Holden Caulfield4:11 pm 01 Aug 13

goggles13 said :

not sure everyone has lost the craft of driving on single lane highways, but both highways do not have sufficient areas for overtaking given the volumes on each road.

but the biggest problem is that there are a number of drivers who can’t keep to a steady speed on both roads. this creates frustration and causes some drivers to take stupid risks to overtake these incompetent drivers.

So it’s impatience that’s at fault, not the road? I can’t talk, I get impatient too, but as I get older I understand more that getting a bit jacked off at numpty driver is probably better than doing something potentially stupid.

The other thing that has changed a lot since I commuted along the Barton regularly is the size of roadside trees etc. Where you used to be able to see through/around many corners, now you can’t. It looks nicer, but makes it more difficult to scan the road ahead.

Holden Caulfield said :

I think the Barton is worse now, with the addition of overtaking lanes, than it was when I used to commute daily in the early 90s.

I’m not sure why it’s considered bad though, as far as country highways go I would have thought it was perfectly acceptable.

I concede there is a lot more traffic compared with 20 years ago, but I think we have become too used to dual carriageway and lost the craft of driving on single lane highways.

not sure everyone has lost the craft of driving on single lane highways, but both highways do not have sufficient areas for overtaking given the volumes on each road.

but the biggest problem is that there are a number of drivers who can’t keep to a steady speed on both roads. this creates frustration and causes some drivers to take stupid risks to overtake these incompetent drivers.

troll-sniffer said :

goggles13 said :

the whole of the Kings and Barton Highways are bad, not just one section of them!

Wow… the Canberra viewpoint is a weird thing sometimes. I dunno, maybe goggles is blinkered by them goggles or just has seriously flawed vision anyway. Any driver worthy of holding a licence to drive a motor vehicle should be able to attest to the simple fact that neither highway is actually a bad road. They may be less than ideally placed to handle shite drivers, over-eager bogans and other assorted incapables, but even a moderately sub-standard driver will realise, as they maneuver their vehicle along the ample space between the verge and the middle line, around nice wide corners and mostly excellent visibility, that the roads are in fact of good standard.

yes I did mean that both highways are bad because they are not suited to carry the large volumes of traffic that they carry and also do not allow decent drivers to avoid crap drivers.

agree that both highways have generally good visibility and the kings highway is a joy to drive from beginning to end if there are no other cars, especially in a V8 Commodore.

goggles13 said :

the whole of the Kings and Barton Highways are bad, not just one section of them!

Bulls*** the roads fine impatient pubes are the problem

Holden Caulfield8:21 pm 31 Jul 13

I think the Barton is worse now, with the addition of overtaking lanes, than it was when I used to commute daily in the early 90s.

I’m not sure why it’s considered bad though, as far as country highways go I would have thought it was perfectly acceptable.

I concede there is a lot more traffic compared with 20 years ago, but I think we have become too used to dual carriageway and lost the craft of driving on single lane highways.

troll-sniffer8:04 pm 31 Jul 13

goggles13 said :

the whole of the Kings and Barton Highways are bad, not just one section of them!

Wow… the Canberra viewpoint is a weird thing sometimes. I dunno, maybe goggles is blinkered by them goggles or just has seriously flawed vision anyway. Any driver worthy of holding a licence to drive a motor vehicle should be able to attest to the simple fact that neither highway is actually a bad road. They may be less than ideally placed to handle shite drivers, over-eager bogans and other assorted incapables, but even a moderately sub-standard driver will realise, as they maneuver their vehicle along the ample space between the verge and the middle line, around nice wide corners and mostly excellent visibility, that the roads are in fact of good standard.

the whole of the Kings and Barton Highways are bad, not just one section of them!

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