9 July 2009

Signs for the lost!

| johnboy
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Jon Stanhope would like the aboretum to be his legacy, but I reckon it will be the signs. Signs everywhere. Signs in half-hearted txt speak. Signs reminding you to wipe your nose and put a jumper on (ok I made that last one up to the best of my knowledge).

The Chiefly One has this very morning announced more signs for the “community paths” (is this a re-naming of the off-road cycle path network?):

    The signs will help cyclists and walkers navigate the Territory’s community paths by providing information about direction and distance to major destinations.

    The first route, linking Belconnen to the City via Cook, has been completed and another three routes linking the City to Woden (via Yarralumla), Woden to Tuggeranong (via Torrens) and Woden to Tuggeranong (via Fisher) will be finished by October.

    The entire project will see fourteen priority routes signposted by the end of next year at a cost of $1.1m.

    “The ACT Government is investing in simple and consistent directional signs to link the Territory’s community paths,” Mr Stanhope said. “The signs will help cyclists and walkers to make quick and accurate route choices when navigating between town and employment centres.

This at a time when soon even entry level phones will have GPS. Oh well.

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sepi said :

Yes! I hate that Canberra thing of putting up huge roadsigns that say “City” or “Gordon” but don’t actually have the street name – hopeless.

It’s not just a Canberra thing – navigational signs in Sydney are terrible too – one that gets me is a fork on a major motorway – both forks just say “Airport” but don’t tell you which road is which!

Yes! I hate that Canberra thing of putting up huge roadsigns that say “City” or “Gordon” but don’t actually have the street name – hopeless.

How about properly signposting roundabouts in the Tuggers area instead? For many, you have to drive right round the roundabout to find out if it is the correct turnoff, as only one direction has signage! No wonder we have a bad rep for roundabouts. Also, it’s annoying to have signs saying things like ‘to Monaro Highway’ but leaving off the name of the road (eg Johnson Drive). When you look up a map before travel and get lefts and rights, you rely on the street name.

It would also be nice if they put the word ‘Airport’ on a few signs, instead of that dinky kindergarten picture of a plane. Yes, I know it’s an international symbol (and I’m not saying get rid of it completely) but I for one look for words, not pictures.

In contrast, Sydney and Melbourne have done it correctly with very clear signage all the way to their respective airports, from every direction.

jackthemartin10:11 am 10 Jul 09

Dagget66 said:

I think the barriers are to try and stop adventurous car drivers entering cycle paths / shared paths / whatever they are called .

Apparently there is some history of that happening here ?

There is – I’ve encountered cars on the bike paths near the lake a couple of times, presumably while barriers had been removed for some reason.

But there are safer solutions than to narrow the path, which as well as creating collision risk within the narrow section, sometimes also force cyclists to come to a near standstill while still on the road. A single bollard in the middle of the path seems safer

Hells_Bells746:16 am 10 Jul 09

Many more millions Horrid, they need many more. Would rather them fix the problems before putting almost gold/neon signs about it up.

Hells_Bells744:40 am 10 Jul 09

Tourists in Canberra, if they cycle much at all do it at the lake with the ancient bikes you hire. In the day normally, quite feeble people mostly, not game to test the boundaries a little or a lot. If they were venturing out beyond the realm of fantasy they would either be prepared, have a friend here with them or bloody lost anyhow regardless of signs, but some signs too wouldn’t hurt (I just think the Govt. has lost it’s head with the prices swindled out of them).

Spend a mill getting shiny new bikes for hire and a shiny girl to run it. Sure that would make everyone slightly happier. (could be outdated if they are updated)

Don’t matter it went on signs anyhow 😛

Will no one steal the Arboreteum signs? I see that they never seem to be grafitteed.

Mike Bessenger11:27 pm 09 Jul 09

Anyone know what the recent resealing of the bike paths has cost?

I suspect that the problem for many is not that the money has been spent on signs, it’s that it has been spent on cycling full stop. For some, the mere mention that a tiny fraction of cyclist’s own taxes has been spent on cycling brings immediate rage.

But presumably those who think this money is wasted would also like the immediate removal of all road signs. After all, drivers can also stop up every few minutes to check maps or GPS, so they wouldn’t have any double standards would they?

In many suburbs of Canberra, especially with no landmarks visible, the paths and immediate surroundings all look the same. That goes double at night. Even experienced riders on semi-regular routes can get confused and disorientated, and tourists have no chance. A million dollars once every 30 years or more (the previous brown signs, of which a few survive, date from the 1970’s) works out to about 40K per year- in terms of capital works spending that’s nothing- except, of course, to those bigots who believe that this is precisely what cycling taxpayers should always always get.

Love it. There is such an unrecognised need to make QUICK decisions on route choice while walking.

Sorry to double post, but I also agree that we have too many on-road signs, each extra one is a hazard for people to crash into, and potentially fatal for motorcyclists.

While some paths are in desperate need to fixing (mostly due to tree roots lifting them), I also think some more navigation signs on the off-road cycle paths would be a good thing – even with the map it’s often confusing as to which exit you need (the maze of under passes near the belconnen soccer club on william slim comes to mind)

Road drivers take for granted the green navigation signs, but it’s very confusing learning the cycle network as the routes are often non-obvious.

Why not put that 1.1m into fixing the bike paths

I am so with you there Mike B. Fix the bike paths and the regular paths. The paths around Kambah are horrible, I feel sorry for the older people who have to trip over cracks and raised bits, wade through dirt and sand and even find paths at all under all the grass that’s overgrown them. Hell, I feel sorry for myself sometimes, but then I write comments on Riotact and I feel a tiny bit better.

We need to have a Riotact comp. to send in pictures of the ACTs worst paths, I bet I could find a winner.

Hells_Bells74 said :

Might have to start stealing ‘boring’ signs they could be worth heaps on the black market now.

**I’ve never stolen a sign in my life, but I’ve seen some doozies lifted of course.

I’m with you here, time to start stealing some, at $1.1m, I want my share back, that’s a ridiculous price.

What are the signs around Barton Hwy, Federal Hwy (to at least Gundaroo turnoff), EPIC that are yellow and folded in half ie you can’t read them? Is this something to do with Summernats??

My new favourite has just appeared on Southern Cross Drive, facing west. It directs you to turn right into Starke St for Kippax Shops. So what? you say. But there is every chance that you have driven/ridden from, or past, the aforementioned shops to get to this sign. Or it has been placed at the wrong intersection. Starke St intercepts Southern Cross twice. Still a stuff up.

Well done that sign allocator. Next, arrange sign pointing to your bum. You probably need it.

@ Mike post #11

I think the barriers are to try and stop adventurous car drivers entering cycle paths / shared paths / whatever they are called .

Apparently there is some history of that happening here ?

Hells_Bells7411:23 am 09 Jul 09

Might have to start stealing ‘boring’ signs they could be worth heaps on the black market now.

**I’ve never stolen a sign in my life, but I’ve seen some doozies lifted of course.

Mike Bessenger11:16 am 09 Jul 09

Yeah it’s great. Always wondered where Schlick St it. The more regular cyclists will also notice that barriers are also starting to appear forcing the two lanes to become one, for about a metre or so. I will try get some photo’s of one. Hoping it does not cause and accidents, as I see head on’s happening.

la mente torbida11:12 am 09 Jul 09

Have been waiting with bated breath over the last couple of weeks to see a couple of steel posts finally completed with informative signs. Saw it this morning….sign said ‘Schlick St’ with a couple of images of a pedestrian & a bicycle. Money well spent.

1.1 Million? Seriously? Where does that money go? Sign making must be a lucrative business.

jackthemartin10:55 am 09 Jul 09

This signage sounds like a good idea (depending how it’s done).

As a frequent bike-path user, I have no need for signs myself. But visitors, new residents, and those cycling for the first time are frequently baffled by our extensive bike-path network, so often either cycle on the road even though they’d prefer a bike-path, or choose not to cycle.

In terms of the infrastructure itself, our bike-path network is comparitively excellent, and I beleive, at this stage, $1 million invested in signage (depending on whether its done well) will add more value to the network than what it could buy in reseals/extensions.

Free maps would also be good if the aim is to encourage bike path use, but maps have some shortcomings: (1) some find them confusing; and (2) stopping to get out a map every few minutes is inconvenient on a bicycle.

Hells_Bells7410:55 am 09 Jul 09

Canberra neglects it’s needy (cyclists and otherwise) as always but has no problem with paying over a mill for freaking signs to look good pretending to care!
Can’t they just buy cheaper signs if they feel the need for them?
That’s ok it wasn’t long ago they put flippin’ signs for bubblers all over the city (non-existent ones sometimes). Wonder what that cost was?
Madness!

Post #2

+1

screaming banshee9:42 am 09 Jul 09

Right, the other Uriarra road……crawls back into his hole

screaming banshee8:55 am 09 Jul 09

Isn’t the southern end of Uriarra road in NSW therefore nothing to do with Stanhopeless

Mike Bessenger8:39 am 09 Jul 09

Why not put that 1.1m into fixing the bike paths. Infact why not make the contractor that just resealed the bike paths a couple of months ago come back and have another crack at it.
We don’t need little signposts. For those that don’t know where they are going go buy a bike map. Even better put the 1.1m into free bike maps.
The last thing we need is more obstacles to dodge whilst we are riding around.

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