18 June 2009

Belconnen Way gets narrower for cars

| johnboy
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Of all the very many complaints one hears about ACTION the time it takes to get from Belconnen to Civic is one that never comes up.

And yet it remains a fascination for the Stanhope Government.

Long term followers of the Legislative Assembly still giggle at plans for the magical time travel busway which promised to cut 15 minutes off the 14 minute trip.

Jon Stanhope is now trying to put a positive spin on his “new bus lane” on Belconnen Way.

Regular users of that arterial road have until now been using this “new” lane as the left hand lane of an already congested road.

But heck, we’re doing it for the planet kids!

    “The ACT Government will continue to invest in enhancing the ACT’s bus services to encourage more Canberrans to make the switch and leave the car at home,” Mr Stanhope said.

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“The bus lane, constructed at a cost of $500,000, has been coloured a distinctive red and signs have been installed to advise motorists of the new traffic arrangements.”

Back in my day you could build an entire house for $500,000.

Kirk, you should have died with your father on the Enterpise.

grumble grumble

😉

James-T-Kirk8:08 am 19 Jun 09

Doesn’t worry those of us who live in the southside – where the streets are wider anyway

🙂

Pandy, I’d love that if the cycle lanes remain. The times I could easily leave the bike lane to pass the stopped bus except doofus in car has just passed me and is now stuck close behind the bus, leaving no space to work with, for them or for me.

Hoorah!!!!

Now to paint red lanes on Northbourne Ave

I hardly think the 5 seconds head start at traffic lights make the buses any quicker.

I think Stanhopeless’ grand bus lane plan just involves taking a chuck out of the median strip to widen the road for 500m.

Oh shit, didn’t read the bottom part of the press release, they are going to extend the bus lane over the mountain, but one way only. Top work Mr Stanhope.

Johnboy, the bus currently takes 20 minutes. A few years back it was 15, until they decided to redirect the intertown past the uni and CIT and hospital. So maybe this magical busway will work and we can do Belco to Civic in 6 minutes flat! On a 250km/h ACTION bus.

But all crap aside your melodromatic post would make anyone think this new bus lane was on the whole of Belconnen Drive. Conisdering where it is it makes a whole heap of sense and just replicates the bus lane that has been on the other side of Black Mountain near the ANU for years. As others have said it will also make the cars better organise themselves before the intersection hence they won’t have to merge 100m up the road.

The best option of course would be to grade sperate the Belconnen Way/Barry Drive, McAuthur Drive intersection and add an extra lane over black mountain, but don’t see that happening.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy3:45 pm 18 Jun 09

This sort of thing has been done to death.

caf said :

It is actually the Glenloch Interchange which needs additional lanes, before the GDE does. Gungahlin Drive could be twenty lanes wide and you’d still have queues up Caswell Drive because Glenloch can’t handle the amount of traffic trying to go south, from all three other directions.

It cannot handle it going south because the parkway is only two lanes and Canberra drivers have no idea how to merge safely. But yes do agree Glenloch needs fixing at the same time as GDE.

If the bus lane is restricted to that little part by the lights, what’s the problem? It’s not far, and cars have to merge anyway.

I think a more significant improvement in bus travel times in that part of town (which I don’t think are that bad) could be gained by buses skipping Belconnen town centre.

It would be nice to have some of those routes servicing Weetangera, Hawker, Page, Scullin, Higgins, and Holt heading straight up Belconnen Way. It would cut at least 5 or 10 minutes from the trip to or from Civic (plus the time for a connecting 300, which can vary from a minute or two to ten).

I can see this improving traffic flow. At the moment all the idiots who cram themselves in at the form one lane actually slow everyone down, including themselves. Giving people several hundred meters to get their shit together might actually be a good thing.

Now they just need to fix the “1 lane – 2 lanes – 1 lane” thing on William Hovell Dr.

The plan is to add a “B” light to that lane so that buses can get ahead. But what I would like to see the bus lane start just before Eastern Valley Way lights & continue right through to where Barry Drive merges into 2 lanes past the Uni & for the left lane there to have a “B” light.

I’ve never once seen a bus get stuck at that intersection

I saw Shane Rattenbury on an Action bus going to the footy a couple of months ago.

I would still be delighted to hear how many MLA’s or their staff have been encouraged onto any ACTION Bus over the past year or two.

I understand that MLAs (and their staff) are stupendously important and busy people and so bussing every day would just be crazy, but surely they are tangibly supporting their public transport aspirations occasionally?

Anyone ever seen an MLA on a bus?

Nice whinge, but absurd given that the lane is only there for 100m up to the lights, after which the three lanes have to merge into two anyway. It should make buses slightly faster (a good thing) but have very minor impact on total congestion.

I don’t think the Belconnen Way thing is worth worrying about. It’s about 30 metres long, where the citybound carriageway briefly goes from 2 lanes to 3… I don’t think it’s going to make much of a difference to either cars or buses, good or bad.

There’s nothing bad about encouraging people to use buses.

Instead of making the bus network more efficient, they reduce the efficiency of using your own car. I suppose that makes busses more attractive, but come on.

Still about the standard I’ve come to expect from ACT government and public service bureaucracy. Hopeless.

It is actually the Glenloch Interchange which needs additional lanes, before the GDE does. Gungahlin Drive could be twenty lanes wide and you’d still have queues up Caswell Drive because Glenloch can’t handle the amount of traffic trying to go south, from all three other directions.

do you think they could move this ‘new’ lane the the GDE? They are short a lane there…

If the 15 minutes is true, this technology is worth more than $2.5 million. The ACT government should patent it and license the use for $ hundred of millions around the world.

A sound investment, I would say.

Johnboy,
I couldn’t agree more. It seems to me that we are paying $2.5 million to fix a problem that doesn’t exist. Have you contacted Jess Wurf, the media contact, to see how much travel times will be reduced?

As an aside, does anyone else think it is weird that there is now a red lane that you can’t drive in, and a green lane…that you also can’t drive in?

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