21 May 2013

Gungahlin Drive holdups?

| Tim Kelly
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Anyone know what the deal is with Gungahlin Drive between Well Station Drive and Sandford Street citybound? There’s been a few mornings this week where its gotten to be like there is a bottleneck like there was when the GDE was one lane – only once you crawl to the lights at Sandford Street, there’s nothing.

Are those two sets of lights out of phase, or is there just that much traffic from Harrison/Franklin now flowing in at Well Station Drive that the lights at Sandford are just going to cause the morning bank-up either way?

Mothy

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bd84 said :

Another well planned intersection with no thought to future traffic levels when building it. They either need to lengthen the turning lane and double the lanes on Sandford st (removing the form 1 lane after the intersection) or add capacity on the GDE with a third lane from Well Station until the Barton Hwy.

Wouldn’t that mean taking the bike lane?

Watson said :

I will have to travel from Casey to Watson every day soon.

Does anyone know what the schedule is for the Horse Park Drive works? I would much rather drive that way…

At the April meeting of the Gungahlin Community Council, it was indicated that the link of Horse Park Drive from the back of Ngunnawal to Amaroo/Jacka would be completed in the next 12-18 months.

I will have to travel from Casey to Watson every day soon.

Does anyone know what the schedule is for the Horse Park Drive works? I would much rather drive that way…

Growling Ferret said :

My fellow cyclists of Gungahlin would love a pedestrian and cycle friendly overpass similar to the recently installed Drakeford Drive bridge. The 3 or 4 minute wait for the lights annoys the cyclists as much as the cars.

The fact that Gungahlin Drive was built without either an overpass or underpass for cyclists and pedestrians between Palmerston and the Barton Highway still bewilders me.

It seems to me that all of Gungahlin was “designed” for one purpose, and that was to put as much coin into the pockets of sleazy developers as possible, with no regard for amenities such as cycle access, green space, roads wide enough for vehicles to pass, access to and from the region that matches the population etc etc etc.

You wouldn’t gather this from reading the giant signs that advertise idyllic lifestyles in the new suburbs, but that’s the way it is.

There are some some scum out there in shiny suits who are living high off the hog, because they have reduced the daily quality of life of thousands of their fellow citizens. They have also caused significant economic loss while lining their pockets. How much fuel is wasted by people waiting through 5 changes of traffic lights? What is the economic cost of possibly productive working hours (or leisure hours) being spent on excessive commute times…etc etc….

Albert Jacka is one of the most inspirational figures in Australian military history, and his feats at Gallipoli and with the 14th Battalion on the Western front will never be surpassed. I suspect that if he saw what was being done in his name, he would cry, but only for a little bit. Then he’d go and find a few of these mongrels and sort them out.

the bottle necks are in place so the stats to fund light rail look better

Growling Ferret said :

My fellow cyclists of Gungahlin would love a pedestrian and cycle friendly overpass similar to the recently installed Drakeford Drive bridge. The 3 or 4 minute wait for the lights annoys the cyclists as much as the cars.

I had thought I thought of the perfect spot – where the raised section is on the East side of the road, between Sandford and Well Station – of course, I did just raise all the cyclists a little closer to the overhead powerlines on the west side, and you’d still have to cross Sandford Street.

Maybe at the Bellenden Street hole instead? i.e. where the new overhead variable traffic sign is.

Growling Ferret4:02 pm 22 May 13

My fellow cyclists of Gungahlin would love a pedestrian and cycle friendly overpass similar to the recently installed Drakeford Drive bridge. The 3 or 4 minute wait for the lights annoys the cyclists as much as the cars.

The fact that Gungahlin Drive was built without either an overpass or underpass for cyclists and pedestrians between Palmerston and the Barton Highway still bewilders me.

You poor things! I feel bad, the guy at my work lives in gungahlin near that paddock and every day, hold ups. So glad that I get to walk to work!

This ought to stir the hornet’s nest.

AmarooStu said :

Can I please make a suggestion…..pick up the phone, via CanberraConnect, and speak with the Roads ACT Team. They are a good bunch and are happy to hear your concerns.

I did this and they are somewhat restricted with the lights @ Sandford St. That is, how do you force people down to the next intersection at Wells Station Drive if they wish to get into Mitchell?

Ideally, they want the pedestrian crossing to be on the northern side of the intersection but civil engineering plans failed them (drainage). They can’t change it.

I did Stu – not by phone, but a compliant via the fix my street site, which they responded to with a phone call this morning. Fellow was happy to explain this has been an issue for a couple of years now and…

Bosworth said :

Surely the cyclists are to blame somehow?

… he blamed the cyclists! Specifically the fact that cyclists using the bike path on the Western Side of the road as they head city bound, who of course need to cross the GDE where the cycle path crosses the road at Sandford Street. As you identified, because the pedestrian crossing is on the South side of the intersection, not the north side, the green light for them to cross is synched with the green turning arrow out of Mitchell onto Gungahlin Drive Northbound – i.e. a light that would otherwise not otherwise, or at least infrequently, be used. While that light is on, both Northbound, Northbound Turning, and Southbound (me) are halted.

So that’s a whole other issue before you get into what you were talking about rossco;

rosscoact said :

I went through there this morning and it too five light changes to get through the intersection. For the last two changes I was close enough to see that a couple of cars would come from the south and want to turn into Sandford Street. This would trip the lights and the two cars would cross almost immediately while 500* were waiting to go south.

Easy fix, hold the cars turning into mitchell for longer, when the flow of traffic is in the opposite direction. Not rocket science.

He agreed that it was an issue, advised lights could only do so much as the road was “at capacity”, and then we devolved into a discussion of how it would only get worse with Casey filling in and Moncrief and Jacka to come on line – with the hopes being for the Gundaroo Drive duplication, Horse Park Drive completion (of the link between Amaroo and behind Ngunnawal) and eventual signalization of the Gundaroo and Barton Highway roundabout hopefully making those routes more viable and taking some of the pressure off Gungahlin Drive.

A third lane for Gungahlin Drive between Wells Station and the Barton Highway (therefore letting more traffic through on each cycle) seemed a pipe-dream.

Overall, a good chat and excellent to have the feedback quickly, but ultimately little will change in the short term.

Though interesting to note today, with forecast rain, it wasn’t an issue – cyclists jumped in their cars instead and it flowed smoother? 🙂

TP 3000 said :

But while sitting at those lights & from my work, I see cars turning left from Well Station Drive onto Gungahlin Drive taking risks & forcing Gungahlin Drive traffic to come to a sudden stop.

Yeah have had to dodge a couple doing that. Been appreciative of a space in the right hand lane more than once.

Holden Caulfield9:43 pm 21 May 13

Surely increased Police presence would reduce the holdups?

OMG, I had to drop my daughter at Belco one morning recently and nearly died when I experienced the traffic northsiders put up with getting to Barton. I ended up backtracking to Woden on the Parkway, and I reckon it was quicker than if I had got stuck in the carpark that was Parkes Way. And the stress!

Makes me appreciate Southside and my usual halfhour bus ride to work even more than usual.

arescarti42 said :

I don’t recall the Mitchell bound traffic backing up at all, but the city bound traffic was backing up for about 1km, so they may need to adjust the lights (or maybe they don’t, I’m not a traffic engineer).

When I was starting work in Mitchell at 9am. I would get caught with the right lane on Gungahlin Drive banking up. I would normally head up to the Well Station Drive lights as those two lanes were almost empty.
But while sitting at those lights & from my work, I see cars turning left from Well Station Drive onto Gungahlin Drive taking risks & forcing Gungahlin Drive traffic to come to a sudden stop.

chewy14 said :

rosscoact said :

I went through there this morning and it too five light changes to get through the intersection. For the last two changes I was close enough to see that a couple of cars would come from the south and want to turn into Sandford Street. This would trip the lights and the two cars would cross almost immediately while 500* were waiting to go south.

Easy fix, hold the cars turning into mitchell for longer, when the flow of traffic is in the opposite direction. Not rocket science.

* made up number, not sure how many cars could fit in two lanes for a kilometre or so.

I can tell you that the turners into Mitchell must have simply got lucky, because they’re usually waiting for a couple of minutes.
And there’s also usually a hundred metres or so of cars trying to turn into Mitchell. Changing the lights even more would simply back up traffic further and create another dangerous situation for North bound traffic. Easy fix is to suck it up because the lights are as good as they’re going to get.

Easiest fix is to go a different way

rosscoact said :

I went through there this morning and it too five light changes to get through the intersection. For the last two changes I was close enough to see that a couple of cars would come from the south and want to turn into Sandford Street. This would trip the lights and the two cars would cross almost immediately while 500* were waiting to go south.

Easy fix, hold the cars turning into mitchell for longer, when the flow of traffic is in the opposite direction. Not rocket science.

* made up number, not sure how many cars could fit in two lanes for a kilometre or so.

I can tell you that the turners into Mitchell must have simply got lucky, because they’re usually waiting for a couple of minutes.
And there’s also usually a hundred metres or so of cars trying to turn into Mitchell. Changing the lights even more would simply back up traffic further and create another dangerous situation for North bound traffic. Easy fix is to suck it up because the lights are as good as they’re going to get.

I went through there this morning and it too five light changes to get through the intersection. For the last two changes I was close enough to see that a couple of cars would come from the south and want to turn into Sandford Street. This would trip the lights and the two cars would cross almost immediately while 500* were waiting to go south.

Easy fix, hold the cars turning into mitchell for longer, when the flow of traffic is in the opposite direction. Not rocket science.

* made up number, not sure how many cars could fit in two lanes for a kilometre or so.

Mothy said :

MangaGal said :

Perhaps we all should consider car-pooling? It’ll reduce the amount of traffic.

Considering the car contained me on the way to work in Bruce, my two year old going to daycare in Belconnen, and my wife and 8 month old going to Physi-kids at Jamison, unless you know a contortionist heading from Amaroo to the Belconnen area that doesn’t mind squeezing in between two car seats, I think we’re shit out of luck on that count.

Am wondering whether there are people doing the rat run of Well Station/Hoskins/Sandford when they see the bank up….

Yep, i used to live in Palmerston, I would cut across Well Station, turn right into Hoskins, left down Lysaght right at Flemington, left across the back of EPIC, turn right at the intersection near the youth detention centre, then right at the federal highway. Then I have the left, right, right, left manouvere through Watson and come out on Phillip Ave at the lights near the Information Technology place. Then at the end of Phillip Ave, at the round about it gets backed up, so right into Downer off Phillip, left, left and right onto Antill then left into Dickson.

Glad I didn’t have to go further

Bosworth said :

Surely the cyclists are to blame somehow?

+1

Can I please make a suggestion…..pick up the phone, via CanberraConnect, and speak with the Roads ACT Team. They are a good bunch and are happy to hear your concerns.

I did this and they are somewhat restricted with the lights @ Sandford St. That is, how do you force people down to the next intersection at Wells Station Drive if they wish to get into Mitchell?

Ideally, they want the pedestrian crossing to be on the northern side of the intersection but civil engineering plans failed them (drainage). They can’t change it.

Agreed, roads in Gungahlin are hopeless and it’s only going to get worse with the increase in population.

MangaGal said :

Perhaps we all should consider car-pooling? It’ll reduce the amount of traffic.

Considering the car contained me on the way to work in Bruce, my two year old going to daycare in Belconnen, and my wife and 8 month old going to Physi-kids at Jamison, unless you know a contortionist heading from Amaroo to the Belconnen area that doesn’t mind squeezing in between two car seats, I think we’re shit out of luck on that count.

Am wondering whether there are people doing the rat run of Well Station/Hoskins/Sandford when they see the bank up….

Surely the cyclists are to blame somehow?

I use the Sandford St / Gungahlin Dr junction each day on my way to work.

I work in Mitchell, and come from the Barton Hwy. It usually takes 2 to 3 cycles of the signals to turn right as they don’t stay green long enough to clear the turn lanes there. The merge on Sandford St also creates a cross junction bottleneck as well.

I would prefer to use the Well Station Rd junction instead, but because parking is restricted on the southbound carriageway of Hoskins St, I would have to find a place to do a U-turn, so I can park on the unrestricted side of the street. The U-turn or a blocky, would mean I’d still contribute to traffic problems, as both require using the Sandford St & Hoskins St signals.

The roads in Gungahlin are still inadequate compared to other areas of the ACT and it seems no one in power is interested in making the flow work better. I think TAMS only like to intervene with traffic flow when they can make it as difficult as possible to get to work, such as using badly placed merging facilities, speed humps / cushions, and mis-timed / unsynchronised signals.

MangaGal said :

Perhaps we all should consider car-pooling? It’ll reduce the amount of traffic.

I do, it didn’t.

About 5 months ago I was commuting to Weston Creek on Friday mornings, and the lights at the Sandford street intersection were a bottleneck then.

I don’t recall the Mitchell bound traffic backing up at all, but the city bound traffic was backing up for about 1km, so they may need to adjust the lights (or maybe they don’t, I’m not a traffic engineer).

Perhaps we all should consider car-pooling? It’ll reduce the amount of traffic.

That’s the reason I stopped using the GDE in the morning. Traffic banks up turning into Mitchell at Sandford St, which causes short phasing of the lights going the other way and banks the traffic up past Well Station. It also entices the idiots of the world to to through the red light. I was going to Mitchell, I would use some common sense and turn at Well Station which has more capacity.

Another well planned intersection with no thought to future traffic levels when building it. They either need to lengthen the turning lane and double the lanes on Sandford st (removing the form 1 lane after the intersection) or add capacity on the GDE with a third lane from Well Station until the Barton Hwy. not holding my breath given they haven’t done anything useful in the area in years.

Les Lozenger said :

Mothy – if you’re talking about the very same thing that frustrates me, it seems to be the northbound traffic turning from Gungahlin Drive on to Sandford St. Those lights seem to hold up the city bound arterial flow for what seems like an eternity.

Probably just like they seem to hold the Mitchell bound traffic for an eternity.

The lights can only do so much.

Les Lozenger10:41 am 21 May 13

Mothy – if you’re talking about the very same thing that frustrates me, it seems to be the northbound traffic turning from Gungahlin Drive on to Sandford St. Those lights seem to hold up the city bound arterial flow for what seems like an eternity.

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