2 March 2012

GDE gets 90kmph

| johnboy
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GDE

The long wait is over people, Chief Minister Gallagher has announced that speed limits on the Gungahlin Drive Extension are going up to 90kmph.

“A review has considered the road design and road safety characteristics of the GDE as well as the outcome of noise surveys at various sites along the GDE corridor. This report recommended that the speed limit be revised to 90 km/h,” the Chief Minister said.

“The 90km/h speed limit will come into effect from 10th March 2012. It will cover the section between the Barton Highway interchange through to the Glenloch interchange. To ensure consistency it will also include the connection ramps from Tuggeranong Parkway to William Hovell Drive; the City bound connection ramps and the William Hovell City bound ramp.

“A letter will be sent to Aranda residents informing them of the outcome of the review and the noise studies over the coming days and variable message boards will also be erected on approaches to the GDE to help inform motorists of the change,” the Chief Minister said.

UPDATE 02/03/12 11:40: The TAMS reports on noise and speed are now available


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90? you kidding me? what about the rest of the tuggers parkway that is 100 – the ENTIRE corridor should be 110!

HenryBG said :

Jethro said :

I find it interesting that on one thread you are arguing forecfully that climate change is real and we need to do something about it, and on this thread you are denigrating cyclists, who are using the lowest emissions form of transport available.

I don’t think it really counts as “transport” when it doesn’t actually involve people making trips. All they do is go out and gratuitously clog the roads up for a couple of hours. And then moan about how “somebody should do something” about the debris piled up in the cycling lanes.

I’ve ridden to work (and back) along a section of the GDE tons of times. Never seen any gravel or ‘debris’ piled up, never complained about it…. For mine, all good! 🙂

Jethro said :

I find it interesting that on one thread you are arguing forecfully that climate change is real and we need to do something about it, and on this thread you are denigrating cyclists, who are using the lowest emissions form of transport available.

I don’t think it really counts as “transport” when it doesn’t actually involve people making trips. All they do is go out and gratuitously clog the roads up for a couple of hours. And then moan about how “somebody should do something” about the debris piled up in the cycling lanes.

JC said :

Deref said :

Solidarity said :

I can’t belive these Aranda people actually complained that 90 would be louder than 80. As if it’s going to make a difference with all the trucks and Harleys that use that road. What a pack of whingers.

The report in today’s Crimes says that noise volumes in Aranda will increase by “only 2dB”.

That doesn’t sound like much but IIRC, the decibel scale is logarithmic, with an increase of 3dB indicating a doubling of the perceived volume. If that’s right (and I’m happy to be corrected), 2dB would represent close to a doubling of the perceived noise level.

You said it the dB sclae is logaritmic, so based on that clearly 3dB is a doubling, so 2dB is actually 50% extra, and 1dB 25% extra.

Also this is relative based on an increase on the existing noise levels. So if the current noise level is low, an increase of 50% is not actually going to be all that much. So would love to know what the absolute noise figures are and how far away they are meassured. I seriously doubt that anyone except maybe those right night to the road would hear any noise above the normal background noise from living in the city.

🙂 Yes! Thanks!

Without reference to the existing level, talk of an increase is meaningless.

HenryBG said :

Aeek said :

Grail said :

Apart from the extremely coarse gravel used to “seal” the road, and the gravel that is swept onto the bike lane by the street sweeper, the bike lane is perfectly fine. As long as you have a bike with very thick rubber tyres to cope with the debris.

When Glenoch was finally reopened, I rode north and the gravel on the bike lane was insane – inches deep, unrideable with any bike, had to take the lane.
Now, for some reason, there is a gravel dump on the middle on-ramp – forces me right, less than ideal.

I’ve got an idea then – instead of spending next weekend doing the lycra-clad clogging-up-the-roads thing, how about all the cyclists and cycling clubs get togather and keep fit by manually sweeping all the cycling lanes clean?

Go for it.

I find it interesting that on one thread you are arguing forecfully that climate change is real and we need to do something about it, and on this thread you are denigrating cyclists, who are using the lowest emissions form of transport available.

Aeek said :

Grail said :

Apart from the extremely coarse gravel used to “seal” the road, and the gravel that is swept onto the bike lane by the street sweeper, the bike lane is perfectly fine. As long as you have a bike with very thick rubber tyres to cope with the debris.

When Glenoch was finally reopened, I rode north and the gravel on the bike lane was insane – inches deep, unrideable with any bike, had to take the lane.
Now, for some reason, there is a gravel dump on the middle on-ramp – forces me right, less than ideal.

I’ve got an idea then – instead of spending next weekend doing the lycra-clad clogging-up-the-roads thing, how about all the cyclists and cycling clubs get togather and keep fit by manually sweeping all the cycling lanes clean?

Go for it.

Grail said :

Apart from the extremely coarse gravel used to “seal” the road, and the gravel that is swept onto the bike lane by the street sweeper, the bike lane is perfectly fine. As long as you have a bike with very thick rubber tyres to cope with the debris.

When Glenoch was finally reopened, I rode north and the gravel on the bike lane was insane – inches deep, unrideable with any bike, had to take the lane.
Now, for some reason, there is a gravel dump on the middle on-ramp – forces me right, less than ideal.

HenryBG said :

HenryBG said :

metres of bike track per cyclist.

Canberra = 3.5m of bike track per cyclist

Copenhagen = 0.4m of bike track per cyclist

I guess, per head of population would be surer data:

Canberra = 0.83m/person

Copenhagen = 0.16m/person

HenryBG said :

metres of bike track per cyclist.

Canberra = 3.5m of bike track per cyclist

Copenhagen = 0.4m of bike track per cyclist

So it seems we here in Canberra provide, proportionately, 9 times more dedicated bike paths to cyclists than they do in Copenhagen.

** I should add – I have a problem with the data, in that all I could find is that we have 80,000 Canberrans who supposedly “cycle annually”, whereas in Copenhagen, they have 860,000 people who “cycle to work or school, daily”, so in fact, I’ve used a very generous figure when the reality is clearly going to be probably only about 20% of that, meaning that Canberrans fund bike paths 40 times more generously than Copenhageners do, for daily cyclists.

As it happens, Canberra has an almost identical amount of km of bike paths as Copenhagen, even thought Copenhagen has almost 10 times our population.

thy_dungeonman said :

dpm said :

BicycleCanberra said :

All we need now is for the Government to physically separate the cycle infrastructure. http://vimeo.com/6271307. Come on Chief Minister you have been to Copenhagen.

Do you mean like bike paths? 😉

Yeah except if you look at bike network map the path system covers less than a quarter of Canberra compared to the roads. Also they are way less direct than the roads and it is virtually impossible to get between any two destinations staying strictly on bike paths. Even the bike path map is misleading since I know that some of those paths are actually just gravel.

OK, but here is the relevant metric you should provide, to truly see how Canberra is providing for its lycra-cladded pixie population compared with Copenhagen?

metres of bike track per cyclist.

“Ridiculous – the proper speed for this stretch of road is 340 kph at the very least. Until the gummint stops scamming the people of Canberra by these stupid revenue raising rorts and lying to us all that speeding has anything to do with accidents, then we will continue to engage in justified civil disobedience, driving through school zones at 200kph with our eyes shut while throwing CRT televisions out of the window and blowing smoke in children’s faces the whole time.”

Utter nonsense!

Speed kills!

40kph should be the listed speed.

With speed cameras!

And a speed hump every 100m all along its length, just to make sure nobody gets up too much speed. Or some chicanes every 50m, now wouldn’t that be fun?

Deref said :

Solidarity said :

I can’t belive these Aranda people actually complained that 90 would be louder than 80. As if it’s going to make a difference with all the trucks and Harleys that use that road. What a pack of whingers.

The report in today’s Crimes says that noise volumes in Aranda will increase by “only 2dB”.

That doesn’t sound like much but IIRC, the decibel scale is logarithmic, with an increase of 3dB indicating a doubling of the perceived volume. If that’s right (and I’m happy to be corrected), 2dB would represent close to a doubling of the perceived noise level.

You said it the dB sclae is logaritmic, so based on that clearly 3dB is a doubling, so 2dB is actually 50% extra, and 1dB 25% extra.

Also this is relative based on an increase on the existing noise levels. So if the current noise level is low, an increase of 50% is not actually going to be all that much. So would love to know what the absolute noise figures are and how far away they are meassured. I seriously doubt that anyone except maybe those right night to the road would hear any noise above the normal background noise from living in the city.

gooterz said :

Something looks awefully wrong about the single lane in the picture.

Apart from the extremely coarse gravel used to “seal” the road, and the gravel that is swept onto the bike lane by the street sweeper, the bike lane is perfectly fine. As long as you have a bike with very thick rubber tyres to cope with the debris.

In the meantime, pack a gel pack for the seat and enjoy the deep vibration massage you will receive for the 20-odd minutes you’ll be riding over this stretch of road 🙂

spinact said :

You’d have lots to whine about, like -10 degrees temperatures, rain, snow, ice, constant head winds

What’s not to like about having snow to play in? Amsterdam was a great place to visit. I reckon everyone should go visit Budapest and Amsterdam at least once in their lives. If you’re on a tight budget, stay at a backpacker hotel (“Maverick” in Budapest is awesome, as is “Hotel Old Quarter” in Amsterdam). Just don’t go swimming in the canals. Don’t ask.

Jim Jones said :

Ridiculous – the proper speed for this stretch of road is 340 kph at the very least. Until the gummint stops scamming the people of Canberra by these stupid revenue raising rorts and lying to us all that speeding has anything to do with accidents, then we will continue to engage in justified civil disobedience, driving through school zones at 200kph with our eyes shut while throwing CRT televisions out of the window and blowing smoke in children’s faces the whole time.

When the election comes, the only issue that anyone will ever think about will be the speed limit on this stretch of road and the lefty communist Greenie childhating wifebeaters will be turfed on their asses and a glorious new era of freedom and prosperity will be ushered in by a coalition of the Liberals and the Australian Motorists Party – this coalition will destroy ‘political correctness’, pave the streets with gold and premixed bourbon and coke will flow freely from public fountains (these will replace the stupid ‘art’ projects that the gay marriage industry has forced the government to put up everywhere).

😀

Gold.

BicycleCanberra said :

Solidarity said :

BC, I think you should just move to Copenhagen.

Why would I move there I would have nothing to whine about. Ahhhhhhhh ‘cycle tracks’ and ‘no mandatory helmet laws’….sounds tempting!

You’d have lots to whine about, like -10 degrees temperatures, rain, snow, ice, constant head winds

MJay said :

Police out with their radar this afternoon on the GDE.

Theyll no doubt catch a few who heard the news reports of the speed change, and would have assumed if it was on the news its a current event, failing to realise the change doesnt take effect for 7 days.

Something looks awefully wrong about the single lane in the picture.

Also does anyone (sane) actually use the bike lane?

and in terms of noise.. its constant so you’d get used to it. More to worry about the overflying planes that are not!

shadow boxer6:36 pm 02 Mar 12

aaah Jimbo, nobody does a ridiculous, passive agressive analogy quite like him.

Mr Gillespie6:35 pm 02 Mar 12

Oh, so the reduced speed limit was about NOISE, not safety this time?

10km/h is a SMALL compromise I spose…..

I don’t have any personal stake in this – but this morning Katie Gallagher was on 666, and said that the residents were either experiencing reduced noise due to noise mollifying steps, and that for any residents experiencing increased noise, the noise was “found to be from other roads, not the GDE”. Is this actually true?

Jim Jones said :

Ridiculous – the proper speed for this stretch of road is 340 kph at the very least. Until the gummint stops scamming the people of Canberra by these stupid revenue raising rorts and lying to us all that speeding has anything to do with accidents, then we will continue to engage in justified civil disobedience, driving through school zones at 200kph with our eyes shut while throwing CRT televisions out of the window and blowing smoke in children’s faces the whole time.

When the election comes, the only issue that anyone will ever think about will be the speed limit on this stretch of road and the lefty communist Greenie childhating wifebeaters will be turfed on their asses and a glorious new era of freedom and prosperity will be ushered in by a coalition of the Liberals and the Australian Motorists Party – this coalition will destroy ‘political correctness’, pave the streets with gold and premixed bourbon and coke will flow freely from public fountains (these will replace the stupid ‘art’ projects that the gay marriage industry has forced the government to put up everywhere).

Very good, but I am afraid I cannot commit to support you until I know your position on the most pressing issue of the day – I speak, of course, of plastic bags.

BicycleCanberra4:18 pm 02 Mar 12

Solidarity said :

BC, I think you should just move to Copenhagen.

Why would I move there I would have nothing to whine about. Ahhhhhhhh ‘cycle tracks’ and ‘no mandatory helmet laws’….sounds tempting!

thy_dungeonman3:56 pm 02 Mar 12

dpm said :

BicycleCanberra said :

All we need now is for the Government to physically separate the cycle infrastructure. http://vimeo.com/6271307. Come on Chief Minister you have been to Copenhagen.

Do you mean like bike paths? 😉

Yeah except if you look at bike network map the path system covers less than a quarter of Canberra compared to the roads. Also they are way less direct than the roads and it is virtually impossible to get between any two destinations staying strictly on bike paths. Even the bike path map is misleading since I know that some of those paths are actually just gravel.

BC, I think you should just move to Copenhagen.

BicycleCanberra3:21 pm 02 Mar 12

Holden Caulfield said :

BicycleCanberra said :

They don’t wear lycra in Copenhagen, nor do the many of thousands of cyclists around the world. Racing cyclists do- racing car drivers and motorcyclists wear leather.

http://youtu.be/swqaAIkGtpA

Racing drivers wear leathers do they?

I think the closest you might get to that being correct is former FIA President Max Mosley, haha.

Oh sorry! drivers suits are Proban or the same Nomex

Police out with their radar this afternoon on the GDE. As well as an extremely enthusiastic light flasherer letting every god damn motorist know that a radar is just down the road.

VYBerlinaV8_is_back3:01 pm 02 Mar 12

Jim Jones said :

Ridiculous – the proper speed for this stretch of road is 340 kph at the very least. Until the gummint stops scamming the people of Canberra by these stupid revenue raising rorts and lying to us all that speeding has anything to do with accidents, then we will continue to engage in justified civil disobedience, driving through school zones at 200kph with our eyes shut while throwing CRT televisions out of the window and blowing smoke in children’s faces the whole time.

When the election comes, the only issue that anyone will ever think about will be the speed limit on this stretch of road and the lefty communist Greenie childhating wifebeaters will be turfed on their asses and a glorious new era of freedom and prosperity will be ushered in by a coalition of the Liberals and the Australian Motorists Party – this coalition will destroy ‘political correctness’, pave the streets with gold and premixed bourbon and coke will flow freely from public fountains (these will replace the stupid ‘art’ projects that the gay marriage industry has forced the government to put up everywhere).

I only believe in gay marriage when both chicks are hot.

Holden Caulfield2:58 pm 02 Mar 12

BicycleCanberra said :

They don’t wear lycra in Copenhagen, nor do the many of thousands of cyclists around the world. Racing cyclists do- racing car drivers and motorcyclists wear leather.

http://youtu.be/swqaAIkGtpA

Racing drivers wear leathers do they?

I think the closest you might get to that being correct is former FIA President Max Mosley, haha.

Jim Jones said :

Ridiculous – the proper speed for this stretch of road is 340 kph at the very least. ….

If the speed limit on that stretch of road was raised to 340km/h, people would still die doing it. Although very few, as not many people have vehicles capable of that speed.

If the speed limit was raised to 450km/h, then we wouldn’t see a single speeding related death ever again.

devils_advocate2:48 pm 02 Mar 12

Jim Jones said :

Ridiculous – the proper speed for this stretch of road is 340 kph at the very least.

Challenge.

Accepted.

Bluey said :

Jim Jones said :

Ridiculous – the proper speed for this stretch of road is 340 kph at the very least. Until the gummint stops scamming the people of Canberra by these stupid revenue raising rorts and lying to us all that speeding has anything to do with accidents, then we will continue to engage in justified civil disobedience, driving through school zones at 200kph with our eyes shut while throwing CRT televisions out of the window and blowing smoke in children’s faces the whole time.

When the election comes, the only issue that anyone will ever think about will be the speed limit on this stretch of road and the lefty communist Greenie childhating wifebeaters will be turfed on their asses and a glorious new era of freedom and prosperity will be ushered in by a coalition of the Liberals and the Australian Motorists Party – this coalition will destroy ‘political correctness’, pave the streets with gold and premixed bourbon and coke will flow freely from public fountains (these will replace the stupid ‘art’ projects that the gay marriage industry has forced the government to put up everywhere).

I am interested in your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

http://www.ipa.org.au/

Jim Jones said :

Ridiculous – the proper speed for this stretch of road is 340 kph at the very least. Until the gummint stops scamming the people of Canberra by these stupid revenue raising rorts and lying to us all that speeding has anything to do with accidents, then we will continue to engage in justified civil disobedience, driving through school zones at 200kph with our eyes shut while throwing CRT televisions out of the window and blowing smoke in children’s faces the whole time.

When the election comes, the only issue that anyone will ever think about will be the speed limit on this stretch of road and the lefty communist Greenie childhating wifebeaters will be turfed on their asses and a glorious new era of freedom and prosperity will be ushered in by a coalition of the Liberals and the Australian Motorists Party – this coalition will destroy ‘political correctness’, pave the streets with gold and premixed bourbon and coke will flow freely from public fountains (these will replace the stupid ‘art’ projects that the gay marriage industry has forced the government to put up everywhere).

I am interested in your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Ridiculous – the proper speed for this stretch of road is 340 kph at the very least. Until the gummint stops scamming the people of Canberra by these stupid revenue raising rorts and lying to us all that speeding has anything to do with accidents, then we will continue to engage in justified civil disobedience, driving through school zones at 200kph with our eyes shut while throwing CRT televisions out of the window and blowing smoke in children’s faces the whole time.

When the election comes, the only issue that anyone will ever think about will be the speed limit on this stretch of road and the lefty communist Greenie childhating wifebeaters will be turfed on their asses and a glorious new era of freedom and prosperity will be ushered in by a coalition of the Liberals and the Australian Motorists Party – this coalition will destroy ‘political correctness’, pave the streets with gold and premixed bourbon and coke will flow freely from public fountains (these will replace the stupid ‘art’ projects that the gay marriage industry has forced the government to put up everywhere).

caf said :

Deref said :

Solidarity said :

I can’t belive these Aranda people actually complained that 90 would be louder than 80. As if it’s going to make a difference with all the trucks and Harleys that use that road. What a pack of whingers.

The report in today’s Crimes says that noise volumes in Aranda will increase by “only 2dB”.

That doesn’t sound like much but IIRC, the decibel scale is logarithmic, with an increase of 3dB indicating a doubling of the perceived volume. If that’s right (and I’m happy to be corrected), 2dB would represent close to a doubling of the perceived noise level.

No. 6dB is a doubling of the sound power, but your ears respond logarithmically to sound power, so a doubling is only perceived as a small linear increase in volume. That’s why the scale used is logarithmic – because it matches our perception.

Thanks. 🙂

I knew that there was a difference between the energy and the perceived volume, which is why I used “perceived noise level”. So if a 6dB increase doubles the energy, how many dB doubles the perception of the noise level? Not 3?

Yeah – off-topic, I know, but relevant.

Deref said :

Solidarity said :

I can’t belive these Aranda people actually complained that 90 would be louder than 80. As if it’s going to make a difference with all the trucks and Harleys that use that road. What a pack of whingers.

The report in today’s Crimes says that noise volumes in Aranda will increase by “only 2dB”.

That doesn’t sound like much but IIRC, the decibel scale is logarithmic, with an increase of 3dB indicating a doubling of the perceived volume. If that’s right (and I’m happy to be corrected), 2dB would represent close to a doubling of the perceived noise level.

No. 6dB is a doubling of the sound power, but your ears respond logarithmically to sound power, so a doubling is only perceived as a small linear increase in volume. That’s why the scale used is logarithmic – because it matches our perception.

It’s a start but I stand firm in my belief that the GDE speed limit should be 100klm like the rest of the Parkway.

Solidarity said :

I can’t belive these Aranda people actually complained that 90 would be louder than 80. As if it’s going to make a difference with all the trucks and Harleys that use that road. What a pack of whingers.

The report in today’s Crimes says that noise volumes in Aranda will increase by “only 2dB”.

That doesn’t sound like much but IIRC, the decibel scale is logarithmic, with an increase of 3dB indicating a doubling of the perceived volume. If that’s right (and I’m happy to be corrected), 2dB would represent close to a doubling of the perceived noise level.

90 is still too slow. for those who want to make sarcastic comments about saving a few seconds it is nothing to do with that. The road can support a higher speed, so its just inefficient to set a slower speed. I have no issues with slow speed limits where required, but slow speed limits on roads like the GDE is just plain inefficient.

however living in a city full of inefficiency in the public service, its no surprise really.

BicycleCanberra12:37 pm 02 Mar 12

FD10 said :

BicycleCanberra said :

All we need now is for the Government to physically separate the cycle infrastructure. http://vimeo.com/6271307. Come on Chief Minister you have been to Copenhagen.

If you like Copenhagen so much, why don’t you go and live there. And don’t let the door hit your lyrca-cladded arse on the way out!

They don’t wear lycra in Copenhagen, nor do the many of thousands of cyclists around the world. Racing cyclists do- racing car drivers and motorcyclists wear leather.

http://youtu.be/swqaAIkGtpA

I can’t belive these Aranda people actually complained that 90 would be louder than 80. As if it’s going to make a difference with all the trucks and Harleys that use that road. What a pack of whingers.

BicycleCanberra said :

All we need now is for the Government to physically separate the cycle infrastructure. http://vimeo.com/6271307. Come on Chief Minister you have been to Copenhagen.

If you like Copenhagen so much, why don’t you go and live there. And don’t let the door hit your lyrca-cladded arse on the way out!

So ill eventually just get fined for 10kph over not 20kph like before?

Its still too slow. Better then nothing though.

“A letter will be sent to Aranda residents informing them of the outcome of the review and the noise studies over the coming days…”

Ruh roh… this will not end well.

BicycleCanberra11:53 am 02 Mar 12

KambahUtd said :

Finally some good news for ‘we’ in Gungahlin!!

you are getting a lot of good news these days, dare I say. Pool, Offices, Expensive schools, expensive roads………..

devils_advocate11:39 am 02 Mar 12

KambahUtd said :

Finally some good news for ‘we’ in Gungahlin!!

And more generally a win for common sense.

Sure it’s just before an election but if that’s what it takes good on them

WIN!

KambahUtd said :

Finally some good news for ‘we’ in Gungahlin!!

Yep, we’ll get to the traffic jam at [name any GDE offramp] 15 secs quicker now! WooHoo! hahahah!
Besides, aren’t you in Kambah?

Finally some good news for ‘we’ in Gungahlin!!

FYI as well the posted speed limit of 100 along Canberra Avenue from Queanbeyan – heading towards Fyshwick (outside of Harmen) has now been changed to 80. Not that it makes much of a difference in peak hours because you end up going 60 but keep in mind for quiet/weekend etc.

Holden Caulfield10:48 am 02 Mar 12

BicycleCanberra said :

…So we can ignore safety for cyclists?

Sounds fair, plenty of cyclists choose to get around without helmets, or lights at night time. GovCo is just giving the punters what they want. 😛

BicycleCanberra10:34 am 02 Mar 12

dpm said :

BicycleCanberra said :

All we need now is for the Government to physically separate the cycle infrastructure. http://vimeo.com/6271307. Come on Chief Minister you have been to Copenhagen.

Do you mean like bike paths? 😉

Yes, technically a bike path and cycle track is physically separated from motorised traffic particularly on ‘high speed high volume roads’ like this. ACT Roads has ignored this saying that ‘Canberra is a planned city so separation charts do not apply here’. So we can ignore safety for cyclists?

BicycleCanberra said :

All we need now is for the Government to physically separate the cycle infrastructure. http://vimeo.com/6271307. Come on Chief Minister you have been to Copenhagen.

Do you mean like bike paths? 😉

Now the fine will be less when I eventually get caught driving at 100km/h like everyone else.

BicycleCanberra9:57 am 02 Mar 12

All we need now is for the Government to physically separate the cycle infrastructure. http://vimeo.com/6271307. Come on Chief Minister you have been to Copenhagen.

Yay for starters, but me thinks that they’ve made some decent coin in traffic infringements since October!

Now, everyone will drive 100kph+ 🙂

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