22 February 2012

Just how bad is William Hovell Drive?

| johnboy
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At the last election 5% of the population voted for the Australian Motorists Party and for no one else at all.

The Liberals appear determined to at least get second preferences from One Nation on Wheels voters and so today we have Vicki Dunne weeping for the commuters of West Belconnen.

The car park that is William Hovell Drive for Canberra’s morning commuters is being ignored by ACT Labor, according to Member for Ginninderra, Vicki Dunne.

“For too long, West Belconnen residents in particular have had to put up with long traffic queues and delays on William Hovell Drive,” Mrs Dunne said.

“These delays are exacerbated by as yet unresolved traffic congestion on the exit from the GDE to Parkes Way.

“I am concerned that the GDE, a road delivered ten years late and at twice the original budget, still does not deliver the efficient traffic flows it promised.

“So, today I will be introducing a motion calling the government to action.

“My motion calls on the government to gather traffic data, analyse it and then report to the Assembly by 1 May on the results.

“It also calls on the government to tell the Assembly and the people of Canberra, particularly those stuck in traffic, what its strategy will be to alleviate the congestion.

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+1.

My solution, just improve public transport and build more bus lanes and not make them T2. Reading Alistair?

knuckles said :

Yes, I demand that the ACT Government spend billions of dollars so that I can leave home at the time of my choosing, even if it is the same time as thousands of others, and not be inconvenienced at all, not even by 5 minutes.

I also demand that the Government find the funding to carry out said improvements without raising taxes or charges at all. If they do I will have another almighty whinge on various public forums and will vote against the government for a single interest party at the next election, even if they have no idea how to manage the ACT.

knuckles said :

Yes, I demand that the ACT Government spend billions of dollars so that I can leave home at the time of my choosing, even if it is the same time as thousands of others, and not be inconvenienced at all, not even by 5 minutes.

I also demand that the Government find the funding to carry out said improvements without raising taxes or charges at all. If they do I will have another almighty whinge on various public forums and will vote against the government for a single interest party at the next election, even if they have no idea how to manage the ACT.

+1….. the traffic along William Hovell really isn’t that bad. Instead of taking 25 minutes to get from outer Belco to Parkes, peak hour traffic slows the travel time to maybe 35 minutes.

When you consider that almost everyone who travels from outer Belco along William Hovell sits by themselves in a family sized car and ends up in Civic or Parkes, you’ve got to wonder if it wouldn’t be a whole lot cheaper and efficient to do something like introduce pay parking in Parkes, maintain pay parking in civic, but provide free or heavily discounted parking for people who carpool with 3 or more people in the car.

If the government actually made the effort to really encourage car pooling you could see the traffic on that road plunge dramatically.

For those who don’t want to car pool, why not try leaving 20 minutes earlier?

wildturkeycanoe5:10 am 24 Feb 12

The traffic lights are the real cause here. Flyover would solve it, getting rid of traffic trying to get to Coppins Crossing from Coulter Dr. Also, the merging of all traffic to one lane just before the lights exasperates the issue. Aren’t they going to make this an 80 zone in the near future too because of all the accidents? Backwards engineering if you ask me.
Still, it’s a more pleasant drive than going down Belco way to get to Civic.
I hate traffic lights…I hate traffic lights….I hate traffic lights…..especially when I’m stuck behind a snail in the right hand lane.

PrinceOfAles11:36 pm 23 Feb 12

Why not start by removing the eastbound overtaking lane (where both directions go down to 1 lane) just before Coulter Dr and using it to duplicate the westbound lane. The eastbound lane merges just after the Coulter lights so I don`t really think it would be much of a loss. Realign Coppins Crossing Rd so it meets up with Coulter and make it an interchange like Parkes Way/Kings Ave.

Yes, I demand that the ACT Government spend billions of dollars so that I can leave home at the time of my choosing, even if it is the same time as thousands of others, and not be inconvenienced at all, not even by 5 minutes.

I also demand that the Government find the funding to carry out said improvements without raising taxes or charges at all. If they do I will have another almighty whinge on various public forums and will vote against the government for a single interest party at the next election, even if they have no idea how to manage the ACT.

Holden Caulfield6:14 pm 23 Feb 12

p1 said :

Chop71 said :

Or to get William Hovell traffic onto the parkway without having to get into Parkes Way

Often the thing slowing you up if you want to go from William Hovell to the parkway, is people who want to go down parks way slowing both lanes down. The second you make it to the ramp turning to the parkway you are flowing again.

This is why I take Coppins Crossing Rd and cut through Western Creek…

ZOMG rat runner stone him!!!

AFAIK: The biggest problem with WH Dr is the choke point immediately on the Belconnen side of the Cotter Road exit. There; in both directions, it closes from 2 lanes back to 1 for 300m, then back to 2… Canberra’s worst effort at “duplication”. From there, it is pretty much just lights and getting off the thing that are your issues… A couple of Kings Av/Parkes Way type flyovers would fix all problems 😉

How about charging motorists to use roads at peak times? They don’t pay anything at the moment. Pricing infrastructure usage is a well known strategy for managing demand. Personally, I’d rather not contribute to the millions for upgrades that will be used for a hour each to allow public servants to get to work a few minutes quicker.

Take the licenses of people who do 70kph leaving Drake Brockman Drive roundabout with a 30 car train backed up behind them and accelerate to 100 when they get to the double lanes at the Coulter drive turn off . The same morons do it every morning.

Mick said :

Dudes, our traffic is nothing.
At least we don’t live in Sydney.

http://news.drive.com.au/drive/motor-news/audis-electrical-fault-brings-sydney-traffic-to-a-halt-20120215-1t4y7.html

Amen.

I saw the headline for this story and assumed it was reffering to the safety on William Hovell Drive.

To me, it is one of the most dangerous roads in Canberra.

No lighting, fast-moving traffic that has absolutely no lane-dividers, private and public entries that mean cars can simply appear on the roadway, kangaroos basically living on it after dark, most users believing it is actually a 120 zone.

With regards to peak-hour traffic… meh. It’s nothing that 11:30am on a Saturday morning in outer-Sydney wouldn’t throw up.

I’ll give you a bit of consultancy for free. The solution is as follows: more lanes, less traffic lights. Fix the merging of the lanes on parkes way (after the parkway turn off city bound)

Inappropriate10:54 pm 22 Feb 12

William Hovell is fine…except for the choke point at the Drake Brockman Drive roundabout, the choke point of the lane merging near Cotter Road, and the choke point where Caswell Drive merges with William Hovell, then merges with Parkes Way….

That said, it wouldn’t be so bad if Canberrans could merge at full speed and not need to slow to 40km/h to merge.

damien haas said :

Build some MORE roads, that will help with congestion.

Its working. MORE roads. MORE congestion.

arescarti42 said :

Chop71 said :

Problem is only going to get worse with more development in West Macgregor. Fastest growing suburb in Canberra I hear. (Where are you Gungahlin Al?)

West Macgregor is probably nothing in comparison to the 55,000 people slated to live in Molonglo/North Weston, most of whom will probably be accessing the city via Parkes Way west.

Also, fun fact. The 2006 census indicated that only 18.6% of work trips in to the Sydney CBD were by car. In Melbourne, 27.9% of CBD commuters travel to work by car. In Canberra, 69.3% of commuters travel to work in the city by car.

Solution?

Perhaps the greens should merge this traffic problem with this one:
http://the-riotact.com/greens-want-more-social-justice-in-traffic-fines/66189
…and give free public transport to those who can’t pay their fines?? Not that i’m saying such pople are over-represented in west belco….! Hahaha! 😉

Chop71 said :

Problem is only going to get worse with more development in West Macgregor. Fastest growing suburb in Canberra I hear. (Where are you Gungahlin Al?)

West Macgregor is probably nothing in comparison to the 55,000 people slated to live in Molonglo/North Weston, most of whom will probably be accessing the city via Parkes Way west.

Also, fun fact. The 2006 census indicated that only 18.6% of work trips in to the Sydney CBD were by car. In Melbourne, 27.9% of CBD commuters travel to work by car. In Canberra, 69.3% of commuters travel to work in the city by car.

Solution?

Chop71 said :

Or to get William Hovell traffic onto the parkway without having to get into Parkes Way

Often the thing slowing you up if you want to go from William Hovell to the parkway, is people who want to go down parks way slowing both lanes down. The second you make it to the ramp turning to the parkway you are flowing again.

This is why I take Coppins Crossing Rd and cut through Western Creek…

dpm said :

So, basically, a way for Vicki to fix William Hovell traffic would be to make the GDE southbound one lane again. Happy with that??

Or to get William Hovell traffic onto the parkway without having to get into Parkes Way

Problem is only going to get worse with more development in West Macgregor. Fastest growing suburb in Canberra I hear. (Where are you Gungahlin Al?)

damien haas said :

Build some MORE roads, that will help with congestion.

A funnel can only work as efficiently as its narrowest point. Simply building more roads solves nothing, strategically increasing road capacity is the solution to congestion.

Vicki, who actually thought creating the GDE which, when finally finished, would dump more cars (more quickly) into Glenloch would improve traffic congestion on Parkes way? How are they to resolve that? I never saw anything onthe GDE plans about modifying Parkes way?
Anyway, as i’ve mentioned before, it doesn’t matter how efficient you make all the roads into Civic, traffic flow is eventually at the mercy of how fast you can get all these cars off the road and parked when they get there. Dumping more cars at the Canberra carwash roundabout every morning won’t help the overall travel time to work in Civic – just where you spend your time sitting and waiting! 🙂
On a side note, now the GDE is finished, I now see queues of southbound cars every morning exiting it at Belco way, Glenloch, Lady Denman and Cotter road! So it seems to be dispersing Gunners traffic quite evenly! It’s just a pity it affects the William Hovell lanes the most, as it doesn’t have lights to ‘manage’ flows (as we know, when people are left with merging by themselves in Canberra, issues start)! Hahahaha! 🙂
So, basically, a way for Vicki to fix William Hovell traffic would be to make the GDE southbound one lane again. Happy with that??

“It also calls on the government to tell the Assembly and the people of Canberra, particularly those stuck in traffic, what its strategy will be to alleviate the congestion.

Strategy?

Build some MORE roads, that will help with congestion.

Every major road in, and into, Canberra locks up in the morning. What is needed is competant traffic planners. There’s plenty of small works that could be done to improve traffic flow, if someone had a mind to do it. And the capability.

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