20 April 2016

Right of way at Captain Cook/Jerra Ave?

| Queen_of_the_Bun
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Hello Rioters,

This afternoon I was walking home when I saw the following: three cars waiting to turn right from Captain Cook Crescent on to Jerrabomberra Ave Narrabundah, and one car waiting to turn right from Jerra on to Captain Cook. The sun was in the eyes of the driver turning on to Captain Cook, and two of the three drivers coming the other way took advantage and made a sneaky turn in front of him.

I use this intersection regularly and have always given way to the traffic turning from Jerrabomberra, given that there is a Give Way sign for traffic turning from Captain Cook. But it is also essentially a give way (dashed line marking, no sign) for traffic turning right from Jerrabomberra.

Who has right of way?

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Queen_of_the_Bun7:47 pm 11 Mar 14

gazket said :

Queen_of_the_Bun how do you have a drivers license, it’s a T intersection. I suppose round a bouts and merging are confusing for you as well.

Hey, just be glad I don’t ride a bike!

Queen_of_the_Bun how do you have a drivers license, it’s a T intersection. I suppose round a bouts and merging are confusing for you as well.

ExarKun said :

That’s a horrible intersection. I live on Jerrabomberra Av so pass through it everyday. I’ve had one car written off when someone failed to give way pulling out of Captain Cook and the first person on the scene of the accident said his car had been written off in the same place and manner. People giving way from Captain Cook have their visibility obscured by a light pole to the right and then they often only consider getting across to the island in the middle even though another car might already be waiting there, thus blocking Jerra Av. It desperately needs traffic lights – given there are already a set there for the school pedestrian crossing why not combine them?

Never a truer word! I was a teacher for many years at St Benedicts, the primary school that uses the crossing and the number of times we nearly had kids hit here on after school crossing duty was frightening. Despite the fact that we always crossed carrying big orange crossing flags, the problem was, traffic turning right from Captain Cook onto Stuart/ Jerra was so busy looking over their left shoulder to watch the merging traffic that they didn’t realise there was a red light RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM. When crossing with a large group of kids, we always had to watch all the traffic seeking to merge in and never assume they had seen the light was in fact red, particularly if there was no other traffic stopped there. Its a badly placed light, needs to be about 20m further up.

Queen_of_the_Bun11:29 am 09 Mar 14

Queen_of_the_Bun said :

ExarKun said :

That’s a horrible intersection. I live on Jerrabomberra Av so pass through it everyday. I’ve had one car written off when someone failed to give way pulling out of Captain Cook and the first person on the scene of the accident said his car had been written off in the same place and manner. People giving way from Captain Cook have their visibility obscured by a light pole to the right and then they often only consider getting across to the island in the middle even though another car might already be waiting there, thus blocking Jerra Av. It desperately needs traffic lights – given there are already a set there for the school pedestrian crossing why not combine them?

The lights for the school crossing create problems themselves for drivers waiting to turn out of Captain Cook. You’ve just negotiated two lanes of traffic to the right becoming three with the left hand turn lane emerging, and you’re making sure that the traffic to your right is going straight ahead and not turning right, so you make your right-hand turn only to discover that the traffic you’re turning into is at a standstill.

It’s complicated by the fact that traffic is moving from a 70km/h zone on Jerra and 60km/h on Capt Cook into a 40 school zone at the turn.

I don’t think more traffic lights are the answer – I actually think a roundabout *gasp yes another one* would work more efficiently there. And yes, moving the light pole.

*left*

Queen_of_the_Bun10:26 am 09 Mar 14

ExarKun said :

That’s a horrible intersection. I live on Jerrabomberra Av so pass through it everyday. I’ve had one car written off when someone failed to give way pulling out of Captain Cook and the first person on the scene of the accident said his car had been written off in the same place and manner. People giving way from Captain Cook have their visibility obscured by a light pole to the right and then they often only consider getting across to the island in the middle even though another car might already be waiting there, thus blocking Jerra Av. It desperately needs traffic lights – given there are already a set there for the school pedestrian crossing why not combine them?

The lights for the school crossing create problems themselves for drivers waiting to turn out of Captain Cook. You’ve just negotiated two lanes of traffic to the right becoming three with the left hand turn lane emerging, and you’re making sure that the traffic to your right is going straight ahead and not turning right, so you make your right-hand turn only to discover that the traffic you’re turning into is at a standstill.

It’s complicated by the fact that traffic is moving from a 70km/h zone on Jerra and 60km/h on Capt Cook into a 40 school zone at the turn.

I don’t think more traffic lights are the answer – I actually think a roundabout *gasp yes another one* would work more efficiently there. And yes, moving the light pole.

bundah said :

Solidarity said :

c_c™ said :

That is a terrible road system around there, ironic since that was the former route for the Monaro Highway. Thank goodness it is no longer.

So that’s why there is trhat random strip of road on the other side of Hindmarsh! Cool.

Which has been gated for years to stop the arseholes from using that area as a rubbish dump. Mind you it was also used by some to perform burnouts.

I guess that odd double gate arrangement for the Coppins Crossing carpark is for similar reasons.

Solidarity said :

c_c™ said :

That is a terrible road system around there, ironic since that was the former route for the Monaro Highway. Thank goodness it is no longer.

So that’s why there is trhat random strip of road on the other side of Hindmarsh! Cool.

Which has been gated for years to stop the arseholes from using that area as a rubbish dump. Mind you it was also used by some to perform burnouts.

c_c™ said :

That is a terrible road system around there, ironic since that was the former route for the Monaro Highway. Thank goodness it is no longer.

So that’s why there is trhat random strip of road on the other side of Hindmarsh! Cool.

JC said :

Clearly the car on the terminating road, who is facing a giveway sign has to give way to everyone else.

The line marking appears ok too. The giveway sign has giveway markings the turn off Sturt Ave does not cross a giveway line it simply crosses a broken lane marker.

This seems fairly straightforward. I think the aware driver should do okay.

That’s a horrible intersection. I live on Jerrabomberra Av so pass through it everyday. I’ve had one car written off when someone failed to give way pulling out of Captain Cook and the first person on the scene of the accident said his car had been written off in the same place and manner. People giving way from Captain Cook have their visibility obscured by a light pole to the right and then they often only consider getting across to the island in the middle even though another car might already be waiting there, thus blocking Jerra Av. It desperately needs traffic lights – given there are already a set there for the school pedestrian crossing why not combine them?

Queen_of_the_Bun7:24 pm 05 Mar 14

Thanks everyone. That is what I thought. I got confused when I saw two drivers flagrantly break the law* and wondered if I had been doing the wrong thing virtually every day for the past five years.

*No cyclists were defamed in the creation of this post.

Clearly the car on the terminating road, who is facing a giveway sign has to give way to everyone else.

The line marking appears ok too. The giveway sign has giveway markings the turn off Sturt Ave does not cross a giveway line it simply crosses a broken lane marker.

They are not that confusing. Cars turning right from Sturt/Jerrabomberra Ave has right of way over cars on Captain Cook Cres. In fact all traffic on Sturt/Jerrabomberra Ave has right of way over traffic leaving Captain Cook Cres.

edit. i misread our post about who was where.

Yes those 2 cars were in fact sneaky as they should have given way at the ‘t-section’

There was nothing ‘sneaky’ about what those cars did. They had the right of way.
Those cars only have to give way to cars coming from jerrabomberra ave.

basic T-junction road rules apply.

That is a terrible road system around there, ironic since that was the former route for the Monaro Highway. Thank goodness it is no longer.

Oh and I should add there are give way signs to back that up.

That’s easy the car turning right from Captain Cook on to Jerra must give way.

Looks to me like a re-jigging of the traffic islands and line marking has resulted in two parallel broken lines for traffic turning right from Jerra Ave. IMO, these are lane marking lines, not give way lines. The old line is aligned with the gutter of the traffic island, whereas the new line is marked parallel with the gutter on the bitumen. It’s unfortunate, and confusing, but that’s nothing new from Roads ACT.

Note the broken line at the give way sign is thicker than the lane marking lines.

My understanding is that car turning from the continuing road has right of way. If I’m picturing your scenario correctly, that would be the one car on Jerrabomberra Ave.

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