The ACT Government has announced new traffic lights at the intersection of Wakefield Avenue and Dooring Street in Dickson at a cost of $822,000 (adjacent to the ABC’s Canberra Studio), with reports of 74 crashes at the intersection between 2003 and 2007.
I drive past this intersection most days and it is certainly dangerous – the view lines are atrocious.
But can someone tell me why anyone needs to travel down Dooring St? There is nothing there, it’s just houses. Why are people turning right from Wakefield into Dooring St, or staying on Dooring by crossing right over Wakefield (when driving in the direction of Dickson to Civic)?
From what I can tell, 90%+ of the people doing this are just rat running, avoiding Northbourne Ave (or Limestone) by going through the suburbs. Sure there are a few residents, but not many.
Further, we now have 4 sets of traffic lights within about 200m (Macarthur/Wattle; Macarthur/Northbourne; Wakefield/Dooring and Wakefield/Limestone). Traffic already backs because the lights are not in sync, so you end up sitting through 2 sets of green lights because the lights in front of you are still red.
Why haven’t they simply installed either a ‘no right turn’ into Dooring, or a ‘no right turn during peak hours’? Would that have seriously affected anyone, apart from costing the rat runners an extra 2 minutes?
Am I wrong?