Extra lane of Parkes Way opens today

Ha ha ha ha – the Minister for Urban Services, Shane Rattenbury, is happy to pump out the cycling path media stuff, and instructions to cyclists to please tinkle their bells, but has passed on this one, although it is on his watch! Cowardly departmental media release. What does the Greens party minister think of this carbon-guzzling lane?

thatsnotme said :

Rioteer said :

I think you have misnderstood my question/suggestion. I was not suggesting an EXTRA merge.

I am suggesting that the bottleneck that forms where traffic from the south joins at Glenloch be eliminated (it is a very low speed merge given the way it is configured as it is temporary) by moving it further along and thereby moving it away from the other merge in the interchange where southbound traffic comes off the GDE. These two compound presently.

What I suggest is going to happen anyway as the new lane will be for the traffic from Tuggeranong once it is all complete, and there willbe no merge point there. I am just suggesting get rid of that low speed merge now, move it closer to the bridgeworks, and it will be a slightly higher speed and more orderly merge with neither of the two right lanes having priority.

By this time the traffic will have sorted itself out a bit more post Glenloch.

Ahh you’re right, I did misunderstand, and that makes sense.

Although looking at the behaviour of some drivers heading into the city this morning, it probably wouldn’t matter where the merge is…they’ll still make a mess of it and screw it up for everyone else.

So they have done as I suggested. The third lane is open partially eastbound. True test comes Monday morning.

Rioteer said :

I think you have misnderstood my question/suggestion. I was not suggesting an EXTRA merge.

I am suggesting that the bottleneck that forms where traffic from the south joins at Glenloch be eliminated (it is a very low speed merge given the way it is configured as it is temporary) by moving it further along and thereby moving it away from the other merge in the interchange where southbound traffic comes off the GDE. These two compound presently.

What I suggest is going to happen anyway as the new lane will be for the traffic from Tuggeranong once it is all complete, and there willbe no merge point there. I am just suggesting get rid of that low speed merge now, move it closer to the bridgeworks, and it will be a slightly higher speed and more orderly merge with neither of the two right lanes having priority.

By this time the traffic will have sorted itself out a bit more post Glenloch.

Ahh you’re right, I did misunderstand, and that makes sense.

Although looking at the behaviour of some drivers heading into the city this morning, it probably wouldn’t matter where the merge is…they’ll still make a mess of it and screw it up for everyone else.

Terra said :

Read the Media Release.

Look around.

Oh the humanity of reading (and comprehending) a press release.

Yeah, sorry about that. In between brushing the teeth and making lunch, I simply forgot to log on to the web and dig out the press release to confirm what Ross Solly had just told me. What a fool me for just blindly riushing off in the mistaken knowledge that I can believe what was said.

Maybe we should have ACT Gov send every household a Press Release for everything so none of us can be confused by mistimed media reports.

agent_clone said :

Honestly, I’m not sure how much off the morning Parkes Way car park the widening will actually fix (or if it will create more of a problem). The one time I have driven from Belconnen in peak hour along Parkes Way most of the cars were going further than Edinburgh Avenue (where I happened to turn off). I suspect most of the traffic is going to the Russell/Barton/Kingston area in which case given the rest of the road is still two lanes there will still be major issues.
Given that I do not drive down Parkes Way in the morning normally I cannot tell you where the build up may be however I suspect its either people trying to get on to Kings Avenue Bridge, or it is in attempting to cross the round abouts. No idea how to fix the first, but the second could potentially be fixed with morning peak hour traffic lights (Traffic is not to bad going towards russell in the evening, but it can build up going towards Belconnen in the evening however there are lanes to move traffic through to the other side of the round abouts going towards Belconnen).

Yep, as I mentioned in these posts a while back:
http://the-riotact.com/greens-want-induced-traffic-to-be-scrutinised/47339 (#20)
and
http://the-riotact.com/just-how-bad-is-william-hovell-drive/66177 (#3)
eastbound on Parkes way in the AM will still be an issue, IMO. People will still be sitting in a traffic jam, but it will be a bit shorter and three lanes wide instead of a longer 2-lane traffic jam! 🙂 It’ll still take basically the same time to get to your car park…

agent_clone said :

Honestly, I’m not sure how much off the morning Parkes Way car park the widening will actually fix (or if it will create more of a problem). The one time I have driven from Belconnen in peak hour along Parkes Way most of the cars were going further than Edinburgh Avenue (where I happened to turn off). I suspect most of the traffic is going to the Russell/Barton/Kingston area in which case given the rest of the road is still two lanes there will still be major issues.
Given that I do not drive down Parkes Way in the morning normally I cannot tell you where the build up may be however I suspect its either people trying to get on to Kings Avenue Bridge, or it is in attempting to cross the round abouts. No idea how to fix the first, but the second could potentially be fixed with morning peak hour traffic lights (Traffic is not to bad going towards russell in the evening, but it can build up going towards Belconnen in the evening however there are lanes to move traffic through to the other side of the round abouts going towards Belconnen).

There were a couple of bottle necks. One was where William Hovell meet with Caswell Drive (AKA GDE) and meet with Tuggeranong Parkway. Due to peoples difficulty in merging this always caused issues. Having 3 lanes will help somewhat. But yes a bigger problem is the roundabout next to the pool, think they call it Rond Pond. Traffic banks up there back to past the Commonwealth Ave turn.

Though having said that they are also widening on that side of the tunnel to Commonwealth Ave, presumably to provide those turning off onto Commonwealth Ave to have their own lane from much further back, which will help a little too.

But yeah ideally 3 lanes to Rond Pond with 2 over the roundabout would be the way to go.

thatsnotme said :

Rioteer said :

This is great and has been a long time coming.

What I would like to know however, is why they cannot now open at least some of the eastbound as it looks similarly complete along much of its length.

While you would still have to merge before the bridge debacle, the merge point of three into two,could be moved away from the interchange where the Parkway currently joins.

This would allow the northbound Parkway traffice to flow better and then the merge point could happen somewhere along Black Mtn prior to where the bridge is being constructed, that is, the traffic. could merge more normally at a slightly higher speed.

Seems to be no safety or other impediment to this change to me.

It would be a disaster… The only reason traffic is so bad around Glenloch is the merging that has to happen, and the fact that so many people completely fail at it. Adding another merge further up would just add another bottleneck. At least at the moment once you’re on Parkes Way you keep moving, even if slowly. Extra merges would be a nightmare.

I think you have misnderstood my question/suggestion. I was not suggesting an EXTRA merge.

I am suggesting that the bottleneck that forms where traffic from the south joins at Glenloch be eliminated (it is a very low speed merge given the way it is configured as it is temporary) by moving it further along and thereby moving it away from the other merge in the interchange where southbound traffic comes off the GDE. These two compound presently.

What I suggest is going to happen anyway as the new lane will be for the traffic from Tuggeranong once it is all complete, and there willbe no merge point there. I am just suggesting get rid of that low speed merge now, move it closer to the bridgeworks, and it will be a slightly higher speed and more orderly merge with neither of the two right lanes having priority.

By this time the traffic will have sorted itself out a bit more post Glenloch.

No change. The traffic still bottlenecks before the tunnel. Still 60km/h all the way through so there is absolutely no benefit at all in opening the third lane, as the traffic moves at exactly the same pace [except for some who enjoy the freedom of going 30km/h faster than the limit on the new section].

Rioteer said :

the merge point of three into two

its more like 6 into 2 – Tuggers + thingey + GDE all feeding into the parkway

Honestly, I’m not sure how much off the morning Parkes Way car park the widening will actually fix (or if it will create more of a problem). The one time I have driven from Belconnen in peak hour along Parkes Way most of the cars were going further than Edinburgh Avenue (where I happened to turn off). I suspect most of the traffic is going to the Russell/Barton/Kingston area in which case given the rest of the road is still two lanes there will still be major issues.
Given that I do not drive down Parkes Way in the morning normally I cannot tell you where the build up may be however I suspect its either people trying to get on to Kings Avenue Bridge, or it is in attempting to cross the round abouts. No idea how to fix the first, but the second could potentially be fixed with morning peak hour traffic lights (Traffic is not to bad going towards russell in the evening, but it can build up going towards Belconnen in the evening however there are lanes to move traffic through to the other side of the round abouts going towards Belconnen).