31 July 2013

Mayor Rattenbury takes another swing at Holt traffic

| johnboy
Join the conversation
18
screenshot

Dark suspicions and much angst has surrounded the ACT Government’s work on traffic calming in West Belconnen.

Today Shane Rattenbury has announced more tweaking:

The results of a residential street improvement study in Holt along with feedback from community consultation have identified a need for some new traffic calming solutions in suburban streets as well changes to some existing traffic calming measures, announced Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Shane Rattenbury.

“During the consultation period, substantial feedback was received in relation to the traffic calming measures installed on Spofforth Street,” said Mr Rattenbury.

“As a result of this feedback, Roads ACT reviewed the traffic conditions on Spofforth Street and will be removing seven of the eleven existing speed cushions on the street and replacing them with two chicanes to narrow the carriageway and slow vehicles. The removed cushions will be used in traffic calming schemes in other ACT suburbs.

“Messenger Street, Trickett Street and Beaurepaire Crescent in Holt were also identified as traffic hot spots during public consultations. In particular, there is a need to reduce travelling speeds, reduce suburban traffic volumes and improve safety for everyone in the neighbourhood.

“TAMS have used the community’s feedback, along with technical analyses of traffic volume, and speed and crash data, to develop traffic management schemes or ‘local road master plans’ to guide the implementation of a number of prioritised traffic calming solutions over a number of years.

“The first priority works in Holt will be implemented during 2013-14 and include line marking and rubberised kerb extensions on Beaurepaire Crescent, Messenger Street and Trickett Street. Two chicanes will be installed on Beaurepaire Crescent and a speed cushion will be installed on both Messenger Street and Trickett Street.

“The changes on Spofforth Street will be implemented at the same time as the first priority treatments on the other streets.”


View Larger Map

Join the conversation

18
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

p1 said :

Spofforth Street is a much more appropriate for through traffic then Southern Cross Drive, let alone the roads interior to the suburb.

The fact is that there is very little reason for any pedestrian to be crossing that road. There is a golf course with “do not enter” signs along the entire length. Except for one footpath through the golf course, and a couple of bus stops, there is zero reason to cross the road… unlike all the other streets where there are kids going to school, people to the shops, the park, etc. In addition, the houses are all well back from the street, with plenty of room to park off the road.

All the speed humps should be removed, and all the heavy vehicle traffic should be encouraged to use that safe route, in preference over Southern Cross Dr and its dodgy intersections with a history of fatal accidents and near misses.
.

Exactly, it was designed for this very purpose hence why it is so wide.

Why not put in point to point cameras and make it a drag strip?

Spofforth Street is a much more appropriate for through traffic then Southern Cross Drive, let alone the roads interior to the suburb.

The fact is that there is very little reason for any pedestrian to be crossing that road. There is a golf course with “do not enter” signs along the entire length. Except for one footpath through the golf course, and a couple of bus stops, there is zero reason to cross the road… unlike all the other streets where there are kids going to school, people to the shops, the park, etc. In addition, the houses are all well back from the street, with plenty of room to park off the road.

All the speed humps should be removed, and all the heavy vehicle traffic should be encouraged to use that safe route, in preference over Southern Cross Dr and its dodgy intersections with a history of fatal accidents and near misses.

The speed issue could be addressed with a point-to-point speed camera system (which you can’t just bounce over, like a road turtle).

Are these idiots serious?
These stupid chicanes only encourage tools to drive like tools, and see how fast they can go through them. Awesome idea, turn the road into a little race track. Then when these idiots inevitably don’t make it through cleanly, they hit the “Keep left” sign on the chicane, and bend it over into the road so other cars are damaged, or outright can’t get through without stopping and somehow bending the sign out of the roadway. I see it on a constant basis on Kerrigan St in Dunlop when I’m going to a friends place up that way.

As other people have said, try not screwing up the arterial roads with nonsensical “traffic calming” measures if you want traffic flow improved.

tim_c said :

PBO said :

I wonder how many residents were “actually” annoyed prior to the speed bumps being installed, I know that 1 very vocal person was and then it became a protected breeding ground for the lesser spotted rubber-backed Road Turtle almost overnight at the behest of a local .

Thankfully the light has been seen and they are now releasing 7 of them back into the wild.

But putting in chicanes? Putting chicanes in West Belconnen to celebrate the removal of speedbumps?!?

Genius!!!!

To celebrate the asshole of Belco finally getting 7 of its little Berry’s remove. I propose 21 toots of the horn, 3 for each one when driving down Spofforth st!

I’d be all for that – a toot every time you drive over an inverted pothole, any day, any time….

“HONK if you hate speedbumps”

He doesn’t live there anymore. Lots of other people who have nothing to do with the speedbumps do.

PBO said :

I wonder how many residents were “actually” annoyed prior to the speed bumps being installed, I know that 1 very vocal person was and then it became a protected breeding ground for the lesser spotted rubber-backed Road Turtle almost overnight at the behest of a local .

Thankfully the light has been seen and they are now releasing 7 of them back into the wild.

But putting in chicanes? Putting chicanes in West Belconnen to celebrate the removal of speedbumps?!?

Genius!!!!

To celebrate the asshole of Belco finally getting 7 of its little Berry’s remove. I propose 21 toots of the horn, 3 for each one when driving down Spofforth st!

I’d be all for that – a toot every time you drive over an inverted pothole, any day, any time….

“HONK if you hate speedbumps”

bundah said :

A bit like Kate Carnell with Dalrymple St Narrabundah? Was it pure coincidence or divine intervention that all the traffic chicanes and humps appeared while she lived there(and quite possibly still does)?

I often wondered about those – and the ridiculous weight restriction that means half of the cars using the street are illegally driving there (including a large station 2WD wagon with a couple of passengers)!

PBO said :

I wonder how many residents were “actually” annoyed prior to the speed bumps being installed, I know that 1 very vocal person was and then it became a protected breeding ground for the lesser spotted rubber-backed Road Turtle almost overnight at the behest of a local .

Thankfully the light has been seen and they are now releasing 7 of them back into the wild.

But putting in chicanes? Putting chicanes in West Belconnen to celebrate the removal of speedbumps?!?

Genius!!!!

To celebrate the asshole of Belco finally getting 7 of its little Berry’s remove. I propose 21 toots of the horn, 3 for each one when driving down Spofforth st!

To be fair, a lot of people did fly down Spofforth Street at some crazy and completely unsafe speeds. The speed vans that were regularly located there did a hell of a lot more to fix the problem than anything else. The problem has changed and intensified because of the whole speed bump thing.

So you build a massive suburb and totally and absolutely neglect the infrastructure and later have problems with traffic?

Tell me it isn’t so…

+1

“In particular, there is a need to reduce travelling speeds, reduce suburban traffic volumes and improve safety for everyone in the neighbourhood”

The key to stopping people from “rat-racing” through suburban areas is to focus on not f***ing up the main arterial roads. Something that our government doesn’t understand.

Jim Jones said :

MrBigEars said :

Doing the rounds of Spofforth-Beaurepaire at 6am this morning, I’m not sure how effective the speed cushions are. Three vehicles in a row flew over them at ~80km/h and it didn’t seem to affect them at all.

A lot of tradies drive vehicles with beefed up suspension so that they can speed over them without caring.

Also worth noting that the primary reason that there are issues with traffic on Messenger Street, Trickett Street and Beaurepaire Crescent in Holt is because everyone is ratrunning throuh the suburb to avoid the speed bumps on Spofforth Street.

If only a particular ex-politician had lived on another street, this whole debacle wouldn’t have occurred.

Jim Jones said :

MrBigEars said :

Doing the rounds of Spofforth-Beaurepaire at 6am this morning, I’m not sure how effective the speed cushions are. Three vehicles in a row flew over them at ~80km/h and it didn’t seem to affect them at all.

A lot of tradies drive vehicles with beefed up suspension so that they can speed over them without caring.

Also worth noting that the primary reason that there are issues with traffic on Messenger Street, Trickett Street and Beaurepaire Crescent in Holt is because everyone is ratrunning throuh the suburb to avoid the speed bumps on Spofforth Street.

If only a particular ex-politician had lived on another street, this whole debacle wouldn’t have occurred.

A bit like Kate Carnell with Dalrymple St Narrabundah? Was it pure coincidence or divine intervention that all the traffic chicanes and humps appeared while she lived there(and quite possibly still does)?

I wonder how many residents were “actually” annoyed prior to the speed bumps being installed, I know that 1 very vocal person was and then it became a protected breeding ground for the lesser spotted rubber-backed Road Turtle almost overnight at the behest of a local .

Thankfully the light has been seen and they are now releasing 7 of them back into the wild.

But putting in chicanes? Putting chicanes in West Belconnen to celebrate the removal of speedbumps?!?

Genius!!!!

To celebrate the asshole of Belco finally getting 7 of its little Berry’s remove. I propose 21 toots of the horn, 3 for each one when driving down Spofforth st!

MrBigEars said :

Doing the rounds of Spofforth-Beaurepaire at 6am this morning, I’m not sure how effective the speed cushions are. Three vehicles in a row flew over them at ~80km/h and it didn’t seem to affect them at all.

A lot of tradies drive vehicles with beefed up suspension so that they can speed over them without caring.

Also worth noting that the primary reason that there are issues with traffic on Messenger Street, Trickett Street and Beaurepaire Crescent in Holt is because everyone is ratrunning throuh the suburb to avoid the speed bumps on Spofforth Street.

If only a particular ex-politician had lived on another street, this whole debacle wouldn’t have occurred.

Doing the rounds of Spofforth-Beaurepaire at 6am this morning, I’m not sure how effective the speed cushions are. Three vehicles in a row flew over them at ~80km/h and it didn’t seem to affect them at all.

switch said :

magiccar9 said :

WTF are “rubberised kerb extensions” and what purpose do they actually serve?

Inverted potholes.

Seriously?

magiccar9 said :

WTF are “rubberised kerb extensions” and what purpose do they actually serve?

Inverted potholes.

So you build a massive suburb and totally and absolutely neglect the infrastructure and later have problems with traffic?

Tell me it isn’t so…

Well actually if you have a look at the original plans of Belconnen and have a look at the road infrastructure like Spofforth Street and Drake Brockman Drive you would see that they planned for the traffic all those years ago. The roads were built like they were for this very reason.

The problem of course is because ‘West Macgregor’ is being built now rather than 30 years ago when the rest of Macgregor etc were built, the residents of Spofforth Street have ‘had it good’ for all these years and now the road is starting to take the traffic it was DESIGNED for people, including one ex MLA are (rightly or wrongly) whinging.

WTF are “rubberised kerb extensions” and what purpose do they actually serve?

Congratulations Shane, great decision

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.