Behold the Draft City Plan

steveu said :

thebrownstreak69 said :

Some good ideas here that could be explored further. We could also investigate putting in some overpass pedestrian crossings to reduce the need to stop traffic for pedestrians. This would also allow for the possibility of additional lanes down the middle, perhaps a bus lane and dedicated cycle lane (separated from cars and buses).

For sure – however they would have to be pretty large, and tasteful as to not ruin the asthetic whilst also having barriers up the side etc. Someone with style and smarts would have to be brought it to design such a structure I would think.

At least one pedestrian overpass on Northborne between Barry Dr and London Cct would be great – substituting for one set of traffic lights (probably Alinga St) where you’d make it only left turn on and off Northborne. Buses could take an alternative route instead of heading down Alinga St. In fact, the ridiculous amount of space we dedicate for the bus interchange should be reduced and East Row opened up for general traffic to flow more freely and as an alternative route to Northborne.

A pedestrian and bike overpass/underpass would also be really beneficial on Barry Dr at the entrance of ANU – heaps of car/bike collisions happen there, mainly because there are so many bikes and so much traffic congestion.

All these things would be quick and inexpensive to implement before heading down the path of huge and costly infrastructure projects that won’t benefit the majority of Canberrans.

thebrownstreak69 said :

Some good ideas here that could be explored further. We could also investigate putting in some overpass pedestrian crossings to reduce the need to stop traffic for pedestrians. This would also allow for the possibility of additional lanes down the middle, perhaps a bus lane and dedicated cycle lane (separated from cars and buses).

For sure – however they would have to be pretty large, and tasteful as to not ruin the asthetic whilst also having barriers up the side etc. Someone with style and smarts would have to be brought it to design such a structure I would think.

chilli said :

Agree a tunnel under the city bit of Northborne would be very convenient – but also a rather over-engineered (and expensive ++++++) solution to what should be a fairly minor problem for the size of Canberra’s population.

What about having a left-turn only rule on to and off Northborne that operates from Macarthur Ave onwards to London Cct (with the exception of the Barry Drive/Cooyong St intersection) in force between 8am and 9am in the morning, and 5pm and 6pm in the evening? Traffic lights would only operate for pedestrians who want to cross Northborne. I reckon most of the car congestion would evaporate with a system that allowed better traffic flow.

And maybe look at having a two way bus lane down the middle of Northborne so that navigating the bike lane (and the curb-side traffic lane) is easier. Or else narrow the median area down Northborne so that the road can be 4 lanes each way, with the curb-side lane being dedicated to buses and bikes.

Then once Northborne is solved, we can look at Barry Dr (between ANU and Northborne) and Cooyong St (yes, it is possible to have a safe driving and pedestrian environment without traffic lights every 100 metres!).

As for planner’s and politician’s obsession with ‘making available’ the little park on City Hill – really?? We have no shortage of parks! Leave it alone in it’s splendid isolation ! Maybe send in the evolutionary scientists every 100 years or so to see if anything interesting is happening.

Some good ideas here that could be explored further. We could also investigate putting in some overpass pedestrian crossings to reduce the need to stop traffic for pedestrians. This would also allow for the possibility of additional lanes down the middle, perhaps a bus lane and dedicated cycle lane (separated from cars and buses).

steveu said :

Took them 7 years to build a stretch of road (GDE) so somehow I don’t think we would ever see a tunnel successfully completed in the next 20 years. I have no confidence in the local council being able to manage such a program of work.

No, infrastructure and services seem to be less important to them than political grandstanding.

There would still be big costs relocating underground services and managing traffic during roadworks but a lot of the costs from supporting overhead structures, lighting and ventilation would be avoided.
.

Do you know how many services run down and across Northbourne avenue? Expensive would be an understatement.

You’d be talking in the hundreds of millions just for that part of the project without even starting to build the tunnel. Unless you made the tunnel extremely deep of course, which would then have it’s own massive cost implications.

Took them 7 years to build a stretch of road (GDE) so somehow I don’t think we would ever see a tunnel successfully completed in the next 20 years. I have no confidence in the local council being able to manage such a program of work.

Agree a tunnel under the city bit of Northborne would be very convenient – but also a rather over-engineered (and expensive ++++++) solution to what should be a fairly minor problem for the size of Canberra’s population.

What about having a left-turn only rule on to and off Northborne that operates from Macarthur Ave onwards to London Cct (with the exception of the Barry Drive/Cooyong St intersection) in force between 8am and 9am in the morning, and 5pm and 6pm in the evening? Traffic lights would only operate for pedestrians who want to cross Northborne. I reckon most of the car congestion would evaporate with a system that allowed better traffic flow.

And maybe look at having a two way bus lane down the middle of Northborne so that navigating the bike lane (and the curb-side traffic lane) is easier. Or else narrow the median area down Northborne so that the road can be 4 lanes each way, with the curb-side lane being dedicated to buses and bikes.

Then once Northborne is solved, we can look at Barry Dr (between ANU and Northborne) and Cooyong St (yes, it is possible to have a safe driving and pedestrian environment without traffic lights every 100 metres!).

As for planner’s and politician’s obsession with ‘making available’ the little park on City Hill – really?? We have no shortage of parks! Leave it alone in it’s splendid isolation ! Maybe send in the evolutionary scientists every 100 years or so to see if anything interesting is happening.

Primal said :

enrique said :

Potentially quite costly

That’s putting it mildly.

🙂 True.

Back to the idea though, imagine Northbourne Ave, City Hill, and the rest of civic only having local traffic, how much quieter would it be! It would be so much easier and peaceful getting around the town centre. And imagine not having to stop at any city traffic lights if you were just passing through.

Many cities eventually find that as they grow they need a tunnel system or major bypass road system for cross city traffic… why not start planning now for an elegant and well designed long term solution rather than implementing a series of ridiculous half measure solutions that together cost more overall (Gunghalin Drive single lane for instance, the Molonglo River bridge additional lane for instance, Glenloch Interchange anyone…).

This government has a poor record when it comes to designing and building road systems. Once again, they are putting out an idea so ridiculous it’s almost laughable…”Let’s divert all cross city traffic from Northbourne around to City West and then back to Commonwealth Avenue. That way people will have less cars to deal with when they want to use City Hill”. Think about how ridiculous that sounds… imagine what that will do to city traffic congestion. You only need to look at what happens already around Cooyong Street to get an idea.

Canberra CBD appears to be On Message.

This is so inaccessible to a screenreader that the Wave Tool won’t even analyse it for errors. Yet another accessibility fail, ACT Government!