20 January 2014

Drakeford Drive as according to Territory and Municipal Services

| Skidbladnir
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drakeford drive

It’s not simply your mind playing tricks on you, Drakeford Drive is intentionally awful to cars running against peak traffic flow, by design.

(Ie: catch one red and you’ll probably catch them all)

http://www.tams.act.gov.au/roads-transport/traffic/trafficsignals/drakeford_drive

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Woody Mann-Caruso12:10 pm 22 Jan 14

magiccar9 said :

what are they doing to correct this?

You’re suggesting that it’s broken, rather than, oh, I don’t know, carefully and deliberately engineered that way by qualified people for good reasons.

belowra said :

Surely that facet could be fixed without too much trouble.

I’m sure it’s trivial. Engineering always is. The problems are simple and the consequences are tiny. That’s why they let just anybody be an engineer. I mean, you’re one, aren’t you? Hollywood Upstairs Engineering College?

There is nothing wrong with Drakeford. In the morning thew peak traffic generally flows well. The people who get stopped at lights driving north are the ones who speed and thus get to the next set of lights before they have gone green.

If you are driving against the peak hour traffic, I’m sorry you will have to be inconvenienced. Same for the afternoon traffic, if flows quite well.

Good traffic management means getting the majority of the cars to their destination sooner, not clogging up the roads for longer, because the much smaller number people driving in the opposite direction have to stop too often.

magiccar9 said :

So TAMS shows this data, tells us that the lights don’t match up, and yet what are they doing to correct this? They carry on about the environment and how we should be doing our part, but they can’t even line up the lights on one of Canberra’s busiest corridors.

I think alot of people would like to know what they are going to do about it.

Its probably my imagination (and happy to be corrected) but it seems that the north has received a substantial amount of attention form the council over the last 10-15 years with the south not getting much at all. I appreciate there are new suburbs in gunghalin that need infrastructure development as they are growing, but apart from the duplication of tharwa drive I cant think of much recently. perhaps now they have sold off the land opposite bunnings with a view to make more money out of multi-dwelling units there, some more money will finally flow south?

The traffic lights in question, as I understand it, communicate with each other, and will co-ordinate to let the ‘pack’ get through. If you are not in ‘the pack’ then you will more than likely hit red lights all the way (and at least double your travel time across that stretch of road).

switch said :

Just why are there so many intersections with traffic lights along there?

Ahh, to let the suburbenites out of the monolith suburb that is Kambah without getting cleaned up!

+1 for wildturkeycanoe re my observations of who gets through the lights cleanly. the graph just confirms my experience and frustration at any time of the day going north – even outside of peak hour.

Just why are there so many intersections with traffic lights along there?

Solidarity said :

Someone work out what speed you need to do against peak flow in order to get all greens…

howeph said :

You have to go fast enough to make time go backwards – like Superman.

This.
I’ve tried it myself.
#1. Like a bat shit out of the cave accelerated like crazy, then got the red at the next intersection.
#2. Like an old retired phart in a Volvo, traveled at 60Km/h (left-hand lane). Still got the red.

Conclusion: Go fast enough such that the blueshift effect occurs where red lights look blue. You just have to go stupidly fast.

weeziepops said :

Kind of related to this… What are the best/worst times for the morning commute along the Tuggeranong parkway? I live in Tuggeranong and will be working in Belconnen and am wondering when I should be leaving if I want to minimise driving time. Any advice?

It’s a pretty easy drive regardless of the time you leave. About 20 minutes. If you leave much after 8, unfortunately you get stuck behind queues of cars driven by idiots who think the speed cameras require you to slow down to about 85 in the fast lane, adding another 5 minutes to your drive.

davo101 said :

Traffic light bitching always remind me of this.

+100 🙂

HiddenDragon1:04 am 21 Jan 14

“It’s not simply your mind playing tricks on you, Drakeford Drive is intentionally awful to cars running against peak traffic flow, by design.” – just Drakeford Drive? – this sounds like standard operating procedure.

Soo instead of making use of sensors they just go on time. I can imagine it now they should increase the speeds of some sections and slow down others. Please travel at 88km/h.

The only solution is light rail.

weeziepops said :

Kind of related to this… What are the best/worst times for the morning commute along the Tuggeranong parkway? I live in Tuggeranong and will be working in Belconnen and am wondering when I should be leaving if I want to minimise driving time. Any advice?

Before 8am is your best bet, I leave from Kambah. Later than 8ish and that’s when i find “everyone” else is on the road.

Muchas Gracias, señor Skid.

¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba! ¡Epa! Yeeha!

magiccar9 said :

So TAMS shows this data, tells us that the lights don’t match up, and yet what are they doing to correct this? They carry on about the environment and how we should be doing our part, but they can’t even line up the lights on one of Canberra’s busiest corridors.

Ah, they do line up. For the direction with the majority of traffic.

magiccar9 said :

So TAMS shows this data, tells us that the lights don’t match up, and yet what are they doing to correct this? They carry on about the environment and how we should be doing our part, but they can’t even line up the lights on one of Canberra’s busiest corridors.

Hmmmmm. Really??

So TAMS shows this data, tells us that the lights don’t match up, and yet what are they doing to correct this? They carry on about the environment and how we should be doing our part, but they can’t even line up the lights on one of Canberra’s busiest corridors.

Kind of related to this… What are the best/worst times for the morning commute along the Tuggeranong parkway? I live in Tuggeranong and will be working in Belconnen and am wondering when I should be leaving if I want to minimise driving time. Any advice?

It is not peak time lights on Drakeford that worry me so much, it is the pointless stupidity of a system where when you are travelling southward during quiet times and want to turn right, whilst the main lights are green the turning light is always red until such time as traffic travelling north arrive and then they are stopped so that we may turn across them. Surely that facet could be fixed without too much trouble.

wildturkeycanoe6:28 pm 20 Jan 14

Solidarity said :

Someone work out what speed you need to do against peak flow in order to get all greens…

I have already worked it out, approx. 90+km/h. That’s an approximation of the speed of cars in front of me that made it through before the red that I got stuck behind at every intersection whilst doing 80.

Solidarity said :

Someone work out what speed you need to do against peak flow in order to get all greens…

You have to go fast enough to make time go backwards – like Superman.

Look at the chart.

If going right to left (Sulwood to Erindale) there is no slope that isn’t downward ( i.e. time running backwards) that gets consecutive greens. Not even going at the speed of light will do it.

Traffic light bitching always remind me of this.

Someone work out what speed you need to do against peak flow in order to get all greens…

RandomPoster said :

So the word from TAMS is that if you are heading north in the morning you walnt to accelerate REALLY fast from the lights at Erindale drive to make sure you get to the next set in time….

Switch “north” for “south” and you’re on the money. Their paper is showing that Drakeford Drive is all smooth sailing headed North in the AM.
When they’re in Coordinated Mode, the unfortunate implied answer is just “floor it (except at the speed camera) if you want to make good time when traveling against peak hour”.

PS: RiotACT encourages safe driving.

RandomPoster4:29 pm 20 Jan 14

So the word from TAMS is that if you are heading north in the morning you want to accelerate REALLY fast from the lights at Erindale drive to make sure you get to the next set in time….

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