7 June 2010

Just what are they doing to London Circuit?

| johnboy
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The Greens’ Caroline Le Couteur is continuing her trend of asking difficult questions. This time asking why London Circuit is being dug up while the “Greater Civic Plan” is due to be endorsed this month.

“The Government is spending $3.8m just on London Circuit, but not taking the opportunity to improve the design.”

“If you are going to shut down London Circuit and rebuild parts of it, this is the time you should add coordinated transport infrastructure, such as separated or on-road bike and bus priority lanes that link up and are safe.”

“London Circuit now has some new, short, on-road bike lanes squeezed in, but they suddenly end in busy traffic. If the Government adds better bike lanes in the future, it will need to demolish its new gutters, making the current work redundant.”

We look forward to the answer.

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Quite the dust-farm going on out there while works continue.

Meanwhile, once the machinery turns up to do the work – ship: sailed.

thy_dungeonman9:56 am 08 Jun 10

johnboy said :

Particularly when cyclists have a clear zoom along City Walk just 50 metres over.

If by clear zoom you mean avoiding constant intersection of pedestrians in every direction weaving through street furniture, sculptures and cafes then yes.

If they really want more people cycling in civic they could have widened those tiny footpaths while they were completely replacing them, or better yet adopt pedal power’s plan for the civic cycling loop, it doesn’t even use the roads. It’s really low hanging fruit, 2m path with a line down the middle (that goes places)to improve cycling, reduce congestion, parking and road maintenance I wonder why the government never seems to realize this.

Peanut said :

Well according to the signs they are Rehabilitating the Pavement. The mind boggles. What happened to good old road repairs?

Ahhh I see what the Government is doing, it can’t rehabilitate it’s criminals so it’s learning on something that is easy and going to work it’s way up from there?

Oh, I thought this was just another one of Chairman Stanhope’s great ideas for celebrating the upcoming Centenary of Canberra – by recreating a rutted and uneven dirt road typical of the early 1900s in the centre of Civic.

deye said :

Just a bit of food for thought, generally speaking, if you lower the number of people using cars daily by 5% it works out to be doubling the number of people using bikes and/or public transport. Do you think our buses would cope with that ?

I’m not convinced the buses cope with the ridership levels now. I’d like to put forth the view that improving the bus services is more socially and economically efficient than trying to improve the roads to fit more cars in.

If you reduce the number of people using cars daily by 5% and you have sufficient buses and cycle facilities, then the environment wins, the people using the bus win, and and the motorists win because there are fewer cars on the road.

London Circuit desperately needed digging up and putting a new surface down, the road was beyond resurfacing as it had been left to decay to a pile of crumbling ashphalt.

It has taken the workmen a reduculous amount of time to actually lay the new ashphalt after digging it up, most sections have remained a dirt road for over a week, I would think common sense would see the ashphalt laid on the same day or close to. Now they’ve painted rediculous bike lanes, particularly at the south end heading from Rydges towards Constitution Ave, where the left hand lane coming from Commonwealth Ave is now too thin for an ACTION bus to fit in. At least the government is consistently idiotic.

Though having separated cycle lanes is the ultimate goal, I cannot say I have ever seen many if any cyclists using London Cct. It’s not exactly a route to anywhere, other than in a circle..

Particularly when cyclists have a clear zoom along City Walk just 50 metres over.

Snarky said :

Personally I’d be happier if they’d fix the north east corner of Bunda St – it’s a tar-patched nightmare!

On it’s way, but don’t hold your breath.

Just a bit of food for thought, generally speaking, if you lower the number of people using cars daily by 5% it works out to be doubling the number of people using bikes and/or public transport. Do you think our buses would cope with that ?

Personally I’d be happier if they’d fix the north east corner of Bunda St – it’s a tar-patched nightmare!

More cyclists = less cars = good for me.
Improving* roads to make it safer for cyclists can only be good for road users in general. Choppping off some of the pavement would be an idea… would shrink the available outdoor dining area although if eating encased in a cloud of engine fumes is your thing just eat in the garage with the motor running.

Make the entire CBD and commuter lanes safe for cyclists.If a backwater pseudo country the size of a postage stamp like Holland can do it, we can. This town thinks too small.

Alternatively, we could just transplant the Netherlands into one of the blocks out at Gungahlin and ban cyclists from riding anywhere except there. (wouldn’t be a proper green policy without banning something)

Fisho.

*Improving != shrinking lanes and jerry rigging a cycle lane. That just endangers everyone.

She can’t just ring up Urban Services and ask what they’re doing, or walk her fat ass across the road and ask?

Peanut said :

Well according to the signs they are Rehabilitating the Pavement. The mind boggles. What happened to good old road repairs?

There is only so often you can patch bits of road before you have to rip up the whole surface and do a continuous decent job across the entire surface.

Given that the “Greater Civic Plan” is likely to take some time to implement, they may as well redo the surface now.

These roadworks were announced months before they started and planning undoubtedly began much earlier. Why didn’t the Greens raise this point before the roadworks were almost finished?

I don’t see how you can have both “separated or on-road bike and bus priority lanes” on a two lane road – surely its one or the other (or a lot of cyclists being hit by buses).

Well according to the signs they are Rehabilitating the Pavement. The mind boggles. What happened to good old road repairs?

Isn’t it a bit much to complain about something Urban Services are doing, without providing a realistic alternative?

I’ve voted Greens both locally and federally for the last few elections, but I’m getting heartedly sick of the local mob’s obsession for these bike lanes. They’re unsafe, inefficient and generally bad policy (the lanes, that is, not necessarily the Greens – yet).

Caroline, pull your bloody head in while you’ve still got plenty of credit in the bank.

Holden Caulfield4:41 pm 07 Jun 10

Well, speaking as a member of the majority (ie. a motorist) I do appreciate the nice hot mix asphalt they are using.

That aside, CLC probably makes a fair point.

Pulling it up then putting it back down again of course. No actual improvements are needed according to the ACT government.

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