3 February 2012

Lights go live for the corner of Majura and Phillip Avenues

| johnboy
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phillip avenue intersection

Slowly all possibility of exercising judgment, and cocking it up, are removed from our roads.

Andrew Barr has announced the new lights at the intersection of Majura Avenue and Phillip Avenue in Hackett have gone live:

The lights will be particularly welcome news for residents living in Hackett, Watson and Dickson, who have experienced significant traffic congestion in recent times caused by north Canberra traffic using the suburban streets on the daily commute.

The $1 million project will increase the ability to manage peak hour traffic through the intersection of Phillip Avenue and Majura Avenue by directing commuters to the major collector and arterial road network and away from the residential streets.

A further two sets of pedestrian traffic signals on Antill Street, along with two raised pedestrian crossings on Knox Street in Watson and Madigan Street in Hackett have been installed to improve pedestrian safety.


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It is fabulous for pedestrians. People are walking to school again, who had given up trying to get across philip ave with the crazy traffic last year.

Well I’ve been using this intersection all week (Dickson to childcare at watson and return twice a day around peak times) and it seems to be working well. I haven’t had to wait going in either direction for more than a minute.

Either that or everyone is still in holiday mode and starting work at 10 and quitting before 4.

Thoroughly Smashed2:50 pm 06 Feb 12

nice_enough said :

This whole thing is a bit of a mess, it needed to be a round-about.

Without having seen the traffic survey data I can’t comment on whether this is true.

nice_enough said :

A few points:
This will not stop Gungahlin rats. Traffic there this morning was backed up terribly – as bad as it ever was.

I don’t know how long it’s been operating, but you won’t see changes in travel behaviour on opening day.

nice_enough said :

8 light poles for a T-intersection is overkill. I feel sorry for the people who’s front yards were transformed into an L.A style road jungle.

The plans actually show nine poles, but they’re there because they are required. Your roundabout suggestion also wouldn’t have easily fit within the road reserve.

nice_enough said :

The brand new traffic sensors are not sensitive enough to pick up when a bike comes to stop. SO you basically have to wait for a car to show up or run the red light.

The plan shows a detector loop on the Majura Ave bike lane, if it’s not working report it to Roads ACT.

nice_enough said :

The only way to stop the Gungahlin rats is to block traffic from coming in from the north into Hackett and AInslie. Whilst this might cause slight delays in those residents when they head north, I think it would greatly reduce the super heavy traffic flow they experience in the mornings.
Also putting in “local traffic only” zones and fining people if they are caught rat-running works in other cities it can work here too.

How about a congestion charge.

As a resident of Hackett who has nearly had the front of my car taken out soooo many times by people cutting the corner and speeding down maitland, I am thankful. Hasn’t happened all week… But the year is yet young!
It also means that my child doesn’t have to navigate both the old road crossing and Dickson college – both abit scary for a primary school child as she can now cross at the lights and continue straight down the new extended bike path.

I am sure there is signifcant competition for roads upgrades but I am thankful that this has been done.

However, when I went through the roundabout at 8.20 the traffic was still bad. I can forsee they will need to fix this before everyone moves into the watson development on Antill Street. Can’t help but feel that they should have done both intersections in one go??

I thought it seemed to work really well this morning, it banked up a little but certainly didn’t crawl like it normally does. I also fail to see the problem with the slip lanes?

This whole thing is a bit of a mess, it needed to be a round-about.

A few points:
This will not stop Gungahlin rats. Traffic there this morning was backed up terribly – as bad as it ever was.

8 light poles for a T-intersection is overkill. I feel sorry for the people who’s front yards were transformed into an L.A style road jungle.

The brand new traffic sensors are not sensitive enough to pick up when a bike comes to stop. SO you basically have to wait for a car to show up or run the red light.

The only way to stop the Gungahlin rats is to block traffic from coming in from the north into Hackett and AInslie. Whilst this might cause slight delays in those residents when they head north, I think it would greatly reduce the super heavy traffic flow they experience in the mornings.
Also putting in “local traffic only” zones and fining people if they are caught rat-running works in other cities it can work here too.

Gungahlin Al11:06 am 06 Feb 12

Thoroughly Smashed said :

GordonResidential said :

Growling Ferret said :

It will definately drop the rat run road traffic volumes down, and make life easier and safer for the residents of Hackett ……

Ahhh… how?

If you make a particular route take longer you make that route less attractive.

Although I get the impression from Gungahlin Al’s earlier reaction to the slip lanes that this may not happen. Either way, priority controlled intersections don’t cope well with large volumes of conflicting traffic, hence the new signals.

Spot on. Rat running is all about drivers taking the line of least resistance. The lights can be prioritised to favour the preferred direction during peak periods to encourage drivers to stay on the major routes instead of ratrunning. With enough bias towards the right turn from Phillip into Majura, there should never be any backup through the Antill St roundabout.

But you put a slip lane in and that gets undone. At least it will be simple to close it off if the problem continues.

They need to put traffic monitors onto Madigan, Maitland, Stott and Phillip to gauge if it is fixed or not, then deal with it if needed.

Thoroughly Smashed10:23 am 06 Feb 12

GordonResidential said :

Growling Ferret said :

It will definately drop the rat run road traffic volumes down, and make life easier and safer for the residents of Hackett ……

Ahhh… how?

If you make a particular route take longer you make that route less attractive.

Although I get the impression from Gungahlin Al’s earlier reaction to the slip lanes that this may not happen. Either way, priority controlled intersections don’t cope well with large volumes of conflicting traffic, hence the new signals.

Last week he gave me Aldi and this week he gives me trafflic lights exactly where I want them. I can’t wait for next week’s big reveal.

GordonResidential9:24 am 05 Feb 12

Growling Ferret said :

It will definately drop the rat run road traffic volumes down, and make life easier and safer for the residents of Hackett ……

Ahhh… how?

GordonResidential9:22 am 05 Feb 12

Quote: Slowly all possibility of exercising judgment, and cocking it up, are removed from our roads.

What does that statement mean? You are an advocate of controlling traffic at intersections, or not?

Confused.

Gungahlin Al8:14 pm 03 Feb 12

They put a left turn slip in??? Oh FFS!

Jazzacat said :

We went through the lights this morning, and really don’t understand how they stop the rat running. What they seem to do now is bank up the traffic through the roundabout on Philip Ave a whole lot worse than before, and the rat runners cutting through Hackett still get a free ride as they dodge the lights with the turn off lane onto Majura Ave. Whilst I hate to be a stereotype, this morning confirms that rat running through Hackett will continue to be my route of choice into the city from Gungahlin. Apologies in advance.

Cars using that turn off lane have to give way to cars turning right at the light though, so surely that is an improvement? I can’t see how it could possibly be any worse than it was.

Growling Ferret7:08 pm 03 Feb 12

It will definately drop the rat run road traffic volumes down, and make life easier and safer for the residents of Hackett who won’t have to suffer the residents of Wamboin, Gungahlin and anywhere else north of town cutting down Maitland and Stott St’s. Not as easy as Monash Drive would have made it, but you can’t have everything….

I do hope Phillip Ave to Majura Ave gets the priority on the lights though, to encourage non local traffic from using the Madigan/Stott st runs.

We went through the lights this morning, and really don’t understand how they stop the rat running. What they seem to do now is bank up the traffic through the roundabout on Philip Ave a whole lot worse than before, and the rat runners cutting through Hackett still get a free ride as they dodge the lights with the turn off lane onto Majura Ave. Whilst I hate to be a stereotype, this morning confirms that rat running through Hackett will continue to be my route of choice into the city from Gungahlin. Apologies in advance.

Gungahlin Al3:45 pm 03 Feb 12

Have had so many media interviews and debates with Roads staff to try get them to see sense on this. Initially I was told that it was about #160 on their priority list. I still think it could have been achieved with just a Give Way sign westbound, but it is a solution regardless.

Sorry JB but as Sepi said this was nothing to do with judgement – it was all about rat-running through back streets. This should stop cold the rat-runners through Madigan and Maitland Streets (no small proportion of whom were from over the border) and Hackett residents can get some respite from the clogged streets every work/school morning.

And perhaps Hackett residents can stop hating Gungahlin commuters quite so much…?

Erg0 said :

Hopefully this will free somebody up to install the lights at National Cct/Sydney Ave.

Or better yet, free someone up to remove the bare poles and go back to the way the intersection was. Sorry, but if you actually had a problem with that intersection, you need to hand back your licence right now.

Amazing, long time since I lived that side of town, but those lights were really needed back in the 70’s.
I wonder how many accidents have occurred there over the last 40 years.

These lights were really needed and are appreciated.

It wasn’t about drivers using judgement – it was the constant flow of traffic which make crossing the road impossible and also meant that turning into Hackett during morning and evening peak hour was actually physically impossible – although some people tried to suicidally cut across between cars turning in front of them.

Hopefully this will free somebody up to install the lights at National Cct/Sydney Ave. The bare poles have been there since last November, but at least they’ve covered over the prematurely marked lines that caused two collisions in the first week.

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