Much discussion but little agreement in quangers peace talks

yellowsnow said :

No, centralisation is good. People much prefer to work in Civic than Tuggers or Gungahlin, unless they live close by.

Only half agree. The problem is that the majority are trying to get to the same place at the exact same time (regardless of mode of transport)

yellowsnow said :

People much prefer to work in Civic than Tuggers or Gungahlin, unless they live close by.

Erm… citation needed. Me thinks YOU would rather work there, but the rest of us?

yellowsnow said :

If you decentralise any further as you suggest the result would be: (1) overall kms travelled increase as larger number of people travel cross town instead to a central location…

In the short term, certainly. But this is the kinda planning that works over the life of office buildings. We are talking somewhere between ten and thirty years that a department might have a big office in a town centre. Long enough that staff will move house, and when they do, choose to live closer (or alternatively, move jobs, and look for one closer to home).

There will always be people living in one town centre and working in another, but the only way to reduce traffic is if there is at least the option to work and live in the same place.

Massive centralisation is a good alternative if we can have fast efficient trunk transport to get the majority of workers into the “central location”.

yellowsnow said :

Proboscus said :

Also, there really needs to be a concerted effort to move more of the Federal and ACT Government staff into offices in Gungharlem, Belco and Tuggers to stop what seems like 99% of Canberra going into the City everyday.

-1

No, centralisation is good. People much prefer to work in Civic than Tuggers or Gungahlin, unless they live close by. At the moment you get vast flows of traffic travelling from Gungahlin to workplaces in Tuggeranong (just look at the traffic on the parkway & GDE), people from Tuggereanong travelling to Belco, and people from West Belco travelling to Brindabella, and pretty much all other possible combinations.

If you decentralise any further as you suggest the result would be: (1) overall kms travelled increase as larger number of people travel cross town instead to a central location; (2) the job of traffic planners is made more difficult as they have to consider a wider range of traffic movements than suburbs to city (given Roads ACT limited ability to get the roads right, you don’t want to make their job even harder; (3) catching a bus to work, and more broadly designing a bus system matched to demand is made a lot more difficult. If you work in Civic, for most people going to and from work in Civic during the morning peak is a viable option. If your work moves to Gungahlin or Brindabella for most Canberrans buses cease to be a realistic option. Last thing we want to do is encourage more cars on the roads. And then there’s things like employee satisfaction, lunchtime options, ability to attract good staff etc — a civic location ticks all the options, a far flung location does not

The obvious solution to stated traffic problems is better traffic planning and investment in roads and buses. You shouldn’t have to decentralise workplaces to make travelling to and from work easier

I fail to see the logic in the arguments you present.
It seems to be: almost every other city on the world paints themselves into a congestion corner by centralising everything in one spot, therefore it must be good, so let’s do it here too.

Proboscus said :

Also, there really needs to be a concerted effort to move more of the Federal and ACT Government staff into offices in Gungharlem, Belco and Tuggers to stop what seems like 99% of Canberra going into the City everyday.

-1

No, centralisation is good. People much prefer to work in Civic than Tuggers or Gungahlin, unless they live close by. At the moment you get vast flows of traffic travelling from Gungahlin to workplaces in Tuggeranong (just look at the traffic on the parkway & GDE), people from Tuggereanong travelling to Belco, and people from West Belco travelling to Brindabella, and pretty much all other possible combinations.

If you decentralise any further as you suggest the result would be: (1) overall kms travelled increase as larger number of people travel cross town instead to a central location; (2) the job of traffic planners is made more difficult as they have to consider a wider range of traffic movements than suburbs to city (given Roads ACT limited ability to get the roads right, you don’t want to make their job even harder; (3) catching a bus to work, and more broadly designing a bus system matched to demand is made a lot more difficult. If you work in Civic, for most people going to and from work in Civic during the morning peak is a viable option. If your work moves to Gungahlin or Brindabella for most Canberrans buses cease to be a realistic option. Last thing we want to do is encourage more cars on the roads. And then there’s things like employee satisfaction, lunchtime options, ability to attract good staff etc — a civic location ticks all the options, a far flung location does not

The obvious solution to stated traffic problems is better traffic planning and investment in roads and buses. You shouldn’t have to decentralise workplaces to make travelling to and from work easier

EvanJames said :

So the mess on Pialligo Ave didn’t get a mention. The installation of traffic lights at the old Fairbairn RAAF base sees traffic clogging back into Queanbeyan Yass Road every morning, it’s horrible. A left hand bypass lane would alleviate this, but the age-old issue, who will pay for it? Especially as a lot of the commuters aren’t from Qbn’s shire at all, but from Palerang and Goulburn shires.

+1

Also, there really needs to be a concerted effort to move more of the Federal and ACT Government staff into offices in Gungharlem, Belco and Tuggers to stop what seems like 99% of Canberra going into the City everyday.

gentoopenguin said :

….Quangers?!

Honkers… Quangers… Yonkers…

So the mess on Pialligo Ave didn’t get a mention. The installation of traffic lights at the old Fairbairn RAAF base sees traffic clogging back into Queanbeyan Yass Road every morning, it’s horrible. A left hand bypass lane would alleviate this, but the age-old issue, who will pay for it? Especially as a lot of the commuters aren’t from Qbn’s shire at all, but from Palerang and Goulburn shires.

Pardon my ignorance but how did we get the leap from Queanbeyan to Quangers? I understand the devolution of Tuggernong to Tuggers, Belconnen to Belco, Charnwood to Charny but….Quangers?!