Community looking to duplicate Barton Highway

Weatherman said :

Wouldn’t sealing and improving the road to Tumut, or building a south western road link out to Albury would ease traffic going to Yass. It would save hours, as well as shave hundreds of kilometres off the trip to Melbourne, the often intended route along the national highway in that direction.

The shortest or quickest route to Melbourne is through all the way north out past Yass. Barton Highway is overused, so you get the bad tailgater trying to rush those in front, poor overtaking decisions and speeding from trying to get home to overcome tiredness, which leads to accidents, because it would seem so inefficient to go so far north to then go south again.

A brilliant idea! The citizens of Yass and Murrumbateman and north would be the only users of this horror higway.

m00nee said :

You could learn how to obey the road rules, or
you could learn how to drive to the conditions, or
you could learn how to have some patience, or
you could learn that getting home 5 minutes later won’t kill you, or
you could whinge and whine to try and get billions of dollars poured into a perfectly acceptable piece of road that does not have the volume of traffic to warrant the horrendous expense of being duplicated.

Find a way to make this happen and you’ll save the government billions. Because it doesn’t matter how much enforcement of the rules you try, there will always be one jerk that takes the life of someone else who was following the rules. However if you can reduce the chances of that happening via design, then to me i’d rather have the money spent, because ultimately its also less people in hospitals as well.

Also I find the idea of wasting my time to cover for the fact someone else in incapable of driving to the conditions and resorts to driving slowly an insult. I generally get to most places about 5 minutes earlier than I need to be, but sometimes there are people who for whatever reason feel that they either should drive extra slow because they are scared, or play traffic cop and deliberately stop vehicles from overtaking.

I used to drive the Barton many, many times in the past.

It’s not the average driver cruising along at 100 kph and observing the speed limit that is the problem.

It’s suicidal f*cknuckles that come barrelling along at 140 clicks trying to overtake anything in their way.

Time to duplicate the road.

And while we’re at it, do the King’s Highway as well.

You might get the Barton done, but I can’t imagine the King’s getting done anytime soon, however much it needs it.

As for who’s responsible for carnage, I’d say they come in all shapes, sizes, and speeds. While I agree that suicidal fkwits travelling at 140 clicks need to be stomped on, there is a slight chance that they are engaged with their immediate environment. It’s the drivers who are texting, or with the passenger pointing out the pretty scenery away from the road, or falling asleep, that I worry about.

davo101 said :

By the same logic we don’t need: speed limits, line markings, speed advisory signs on curves, guide posts, or guard rails.

Think of the money we could save if we didn’t bother with asphalt or concrete !

m00nee said :

You could learn how to obey the road rules, or
you could learn how to drive to the conditions, or
you could learn how to have some patience, or
you could learn that getting home 5 minutes later won’t kill you, or
you could whinge and whine to try and get billions of dollars poured into a perfectly acceptable piece of road that does not have the volume of traffic to warrant the horrendous expense of being duplicated.

I’m glad you’re not a road engineer. That’s pretty much an argument you can use against any form of road safety improvement. By the same logic we don’t need: speed limits, line markings, speed advisory signs on curves, guide posts, or guard rails.

Deref said :

caf said :

Deref said :

Not a bad idea – I’ll join. Mind you, the Barton’s perfectly safe, if frustratingly slow sometimes, if you drive to the conditions.

How do you force the goose coming the other way to drive to the conditions?

You can’t. That’s the problem.

Deref said :

Not a bad idea – I’ll join. Mind you, the Barton’s perfectly safe, if frustratingly slow sometimes, if you drive to the conditions.

Right. Nevertheless, the volume of traffic it carries warrants its duplication and perhaps the bypass of Murrumbateman.

If engineering can resolve a safety issue, it should be explored.

I fixed that for you.

A sad little man who has to change peoples words to believe that he is right.

m00nee said :

…I rarely use it nowadays but every time I do, I’m caught up doing 80 on average for pretty much the entire stretch to the Yass turnoff….Perhaps the person who …is causing a traffic convoy of a dozen vehicles behind them whilst they dawdle along at 70km/h in a 100 zone. Then when they get to an overtaking lane they magically realize [sic] they can do 100km/h, thus preventing anyone from overtaking, then they slow down again to a ridiculously slow pace, further irritating the person behind…

That’s what they call a “Barton Highway Special” – you get that type of driver anywhere, but they seem to be particularly prevalent on the Barton Highway for some reason.

m00nee said :

…who is already late for work.

And, whose fault is it that you couldn’t get yourself out of bed in time?

It’s amazing how many of the rebuttals to what I said fall within the scope of what I said. “but what about this person, and what about the other guy etc.” If they also followed the road rules, drove to the conditions and has some patience the instances of accidents causing injury would be reduced.

Why is it that the only reference given here, the RTA’s Barton Highway safety review does not use the word duplicate in it, at all. I agree with the recommendations of the report, but if someone can supply any information that proves the claim that the volume of traffic supports duplicating this road i’m happy to read it. But claiming the volume exists because your trip home takes you 7.5 minutes more of an evening doesn’t prove anything.

I will note that the main causes of accidents in the report (and I do agree the information supplied is subjective) are:

Speed – 42% (Obey road rules)
Wet road – 40% (Drive to the conditions)
Fatigue – 26% – (Patience)

wildturkeycanoe, as an ex-resident of Merryville I feel that I am confident to be able to comment on this issue.

caf said :

Deref said :

Not a bad idea – I’ll join. Mind you, the Barton’s perfectly safe, if frustratingly slow sometimes, if you drive to the conditions.

How do you force the goose coming the other way to drive to the conditions?

You can’t. That’s the problem.

Deref said :

Not a bad idea – I’ll join. Mind you, the Barton’s perfectly safe, if frustratingly slow sometimes, if you drive to the conditions.

Right. Nevertheless, the volume of traffic it carries warrants its duplication and perhaps the bypass of Murrumbateman.

If engineering can resolve a safety issue, it should be explored.

I fixed that for you.

m00nee said :

You could learn how to obey the road rules, or
you could learn how to drive to the conditions, or
you could learn how to have some patience, or
you could learn that getting home 5 minutes later won’t kill you, or
you could whinge and whine to try and get billions of dollars poured into a perfectly acceptable piece of road that does not have the volume of traffic to warrant the horrendous expense of being duplicated.

it does have the volume of traffic to warrant being duplicated.

the lack of duplication is the major cause of the accidents that do occur on the road.

on the two recent occasions I have travelled on the road, I have behind a vehicle who’s speed varied anywhere from 90kmh to 110kmh due to driver inattention.

on the same journeys, there were very long lines of cars going in the opposite direction and if any one of them couldn’t keep a constant speed, then imagine the frustration felt by the cars behind them.

the road surface and layout may be ok, but as one of two major roads in and out of the nation’s capital, the road is a disgrace.