23 August 2011

So should Northbourne be green lighted ?

| shadow boxer
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Well the unanimous verdict around my work this morning is that Northbourne should be made green lights all the way from 730-900 in the morning (southbound) and 5-630 in the evening (northbound).

Maybe one or two exceptions like Antill street and Barry Drive but that’s it. The traffic problems of Gungahlin are effectively solved for nil cost. Inner north residents not turning with the traffic go through Braddon/Limestone or O’conner/turner.

Would this work ?

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shadow boxer9:30 am 24 Aug 11

I guess it’s 100’s versus 10’s of thousands, there’s not to many heading north up the GDE in the morning when i’m sitting in the gridlock.

That said, people can still go north, you just join at one of the three joining points. A seriously minor inconvenience for the greater good.

I assume I’m falling into a ‘shadow boxer’ troll trap here, but…

shadow boxer said :

Greenlighting it would provide

A faster commute for cars
A faster commute for buses
A faster commute for bikes and
Improved amenity for the inner north
Sometimes the awesomeness of my ideas amazes even me….

The only benefit would be for Northside commuters heading for the city. You do realise that there are hundreds and hundreds of cars heading north up Northbourne each morning too, don’t you?

If this isn’t a trolling effort, then the selfishness and short-sightedness of shadow boxer astounds me.

shadow boxer7:52 am 24 Aug 11

wildturkeycanoe said :

How about making all the traffic lights from Civic to my place green 4 hours a day, just because I want to be selfish too!
Please don’t turn Civic into another Sydney centre where you can’t get from one end to the other without “no right turn”, “no U-turn”, “One Way” and “No entry” signs on every street, preventing you from getting to your destination without driving an extra 15km. Think about the visitors to the A.C.T who’d get lost trying to figure out how to get from east to west. You will need one almighty slip lane for traffic wanting to turn right at say Barry drive, or to do u-turn to get back to Mcarthur Ave. Dumb, dumb, dumb idea. You don’t happen to be a traffic engineer at TAMS or ACTPLA by any chance, God forbid??

What a bizarre post, no doubt self interest at play but to address your points.

No right turn during peak hour limits are common all over the world, we have them in Canberra (Moat street into Archibald comes to mind). The world doesn’t stop turning. Local traffic actually benefits from the removal of rat running. Imagine how much better Officer Cr, Cowper St, Miller st and the road past Lyneham shops would flow if they were returned to precdominately local traffic.

The Sydney example is just the opposite of what you are saying, the traffic engineers in Sydney are trying to move massive amounts of traffic through the CBD and have recognised to do this the main arterials need to be allowed to flow and process traffic. This can be inconvenient to the short tripper but the alternative gridlock is worse. This is the tipping point N’bourne is approaching and there are about 20,000 more gungahlin residents about to hit it.

Greenlighting it would provide

A faster commute for cars
A faster commute for buses
A faster commute for bikes and
Improved amenity for the inner north

The trade off is for a couple of hours a day traffic crossing and trying to turn right would have to go up or down a couple of blocks to do it.

Sometimes the awesomeness of my ideas amazes even me….

wildturkeycanoe6:10 am 24 Aug 11

How about making all the traffic lights from Civic to my place green 4 hours a day, just because I want to be selfish too!
Please don’t turn Civic into another Sydney centre where you can’t get from one end to the other without “no right turn”, “no U-turn”, “One Way” and “No entry” signs on every street, preventing you from getting to your destination without driving an extra 15km. Think about the visitors to the A.C.T who’d get lost trying to figure out how to get from east to west. You will need one almighty slip lane for traffic wanting to turn right at say Barry drive, or to do u-turn to get back to Mcarthur Ave. Dumb, dumb, dumb idea. You don’t happen to be a traffic engineer at TAMS or ACTPLA by any chance, God forbid??

Jivrashia said :

No wait! Instead we should put in place a teleporter …

Way more sensible than the original suggestion.

Northbound, the Antill St lights can barely cope with the current restricted flow. Green lighting would make that intersection really interesting.
Southbound, Barry Drv will also be lots of fun.

Felix the Cat9:28 pm 23 Aug 11

I reckon they could have the Northbourne lights flash orange from say 11pm until 6am. There’s very little traffic around at this time and it’s so annoying sitting at the red light waiting for non-existant traffic to go past.

Tunnels work brilliantly in Brussels. I’m sure one would work starting at Antill/Northbourne and emerging at London Circuit.

Here are some better ideas: Catch the bus. Car pool. Start work earlier. Start work later. Or simply accept that getting that many cars into car parking spaces and treating traffic from Belconnen and Tuggeranong equal in dignity means that you folk from Gungahlin get to enjoy the same traffic issues that the rest of Canberra has.

Don’t believe me? Try getting to work along William Hovell Drive any morning.

Holden Caulfield5:26 pm 23 Aug 11

I normally drive through O’Connor/Turner into the city and onto Comm Ave Bridge to get from my inner north abode to Fyshwick. However, while they are messing around with Ipswich St and the adjacent overpass in Fyshwick I am now commuting along Limetsone, which means I cross Northbourne at Macarthur Ave. So if you can please wait until the the Ipswich St works in Fyshwick are complete that would be great, haha.

Having said that, I understand your pain and I generally avoid Northbourne at all cost if the traffic there is heavy.

Although, the worst traffic lights synchronisation in Canberra—and it has been this way for 20+ years—has to be the stretch from Barry Drive–Cooyong–Ballumbir–Coranderrk stretch along the boundary of Civic/Braddon/Ainslie/Reid.

On a good day you might get through two sets of lights in one go, but never three!

gooterz said :

They should put a tunnel in and have it come out just before city hill. Then at the same time put in light rail!

No wait! Instead we should put in place a teleporter at the south-end of Nthbourne and one at the north of Capital Hill. That way we remove most of the traffic from the accursed circle (Vermon Circle). Of course some vehicles might be vapourised into nothingness and others might end up out of a wormhole in a parallel universe… but that’s a small price to pay.
What? You started it first…

Seriously though can’t we wait to see how the GDE dual-lane plays out first once it is finished? (Oct this year? Urban Myth?) That way the traffic can be diverted to the Gridlock Interchange to everyone’s flabbergastation.

Thoroughly Smashed4:47 pm 23 Aug 11

Hah.

I think making northbourne one way is a possibility too. Hobart city is like this. It eliminates waiting for traffic turning across intersections.

LImestone would be one way in the other direction.

Also I would make all schools around the inner north start at 8.30 instead of 9.00. Or possibly 9.30.

Green-lighting Northbourne? Top idea.

They should put a tunnel in and have it come out just before city hill. Then at the same time put in light rail!

shadow boxer4:18 pm 23 Aug 11

Innovation said :

Henry82 said :

grundy said :

No. Being in Turner, if I wanted to drive to the other side of northbourne, where would I cross?

You basically live in the city, walk across the road.

And how does one walk across Northbourne if the lights are constantly green running North to South. Don’t you mean “run across while dodging cars……”

Yeh I think we probably need to keep Wakefield, still that’s 3 sets of lights rather than the current 9. The crossing at the ambulance station could go noting there is already a drain that goes under the road. I’m sure some smart engineer could turn that into an underpass like at the Albert Hall.

We might need a couple of pedestrian bridges like on Ginninderra Drive as well.

If it worked well enough closing a lane during peak hour for buses and cyclists is probably feasible.

Henry82 said :

grundy said :

No. Being in Turner, if I wanted to drive to the other side of northbourne, where would I cross?

You basically live in the city, walk across the road.

And how does one walk across Northbourne if the lights are constantly green running North to South. Don’t you mean “run across while dodging cars……”

Henry82 said :

grundy said :

You basically live in the city, walk across the road.

I do! 😀

Its not as stupid an idea as it first sounds. I have lived in Turner/Braddon for years and drive to work. As long as you put roads through Haig park (which I think should be done anyway to relieve a lot of the morning congestion) to allow Turner/Braddon residents to be able get to Antil St/ Barry Dr it wouldn’t be that much harder to get across Northbourne and to the spot in Braddon/Turner you were after.

Thinking more laterally, the today’s CT pointed out that a lot of Canberrans changed their morning commuting arrangements yesterday (to avoid trucks), which reduced traffic congestion. Maybe this should be the trigger for ACT workplaces to look at more flexible start-stop times. Just an idea.

grundy said :

No. Being in Turner, if I wanted to drive to the other side of northbourne, where would I cross?

You basically live in the city, walk across the road.

shadow boxer1:21 pm 23 Aug 11

Kayellar said :

shadow boxer said :

Kayellar said :

Did you actually read my post ?

Yes… re-read a couple of times again… I stand by my earlier statement which is not nearly as rediculous as your proposition.

So which part of turning with the traffic did you not understand ?

grundy said :

No.

Wouldn’t you just turn left onto Barry drive and cross over ?

I might be prepared to give you Wakefield as well if I have to.

Being in Turner, if I wanted to drive to the other side of northbourne, where would I cross?
Go down the back of Turner, drive down the parkway, cross under parli house and come back up? 😛

I suggest we improve the public transport before we screw with the roads. 🙂

shadow boxer said :

Kayellar said :

Did you actually read my post ?

Yes… re-read a couple of times again… I stand by my earlier statement which is not nearly as rediculous as your proposition.

luther_bendross12:12 pm 23 Aug 11

EvanJames said :

Our roads are maxxed out. Population growth, in the ACT and outside it, have overloaded the roads.

False. Our roads are not maxxed out no matter how many x’s you put in there. We have about 20min of semi-congested traffic on a few key arterials ten times a week. For the remining 9880min Canberra roads are very open.

To answer the OP: no, stop being selfish.

No.

Being in Turner, if I wanted to drive to the other side of northbourne, where would I cross?
Go down the back of Turner, drive down the parkway, cross under parli house and come back up? 😛

I suggest we improve the public transport before we screw with the roads. 🙂

shadow boxer12:01 pm 23 Aug 11

Kayellar said :

So everyone who is coming onto Northbourne or leaving by crossing traffic would have to be fed into Barry Dr or Antill St?

Would you like to give yourself the uppercut or should I let everyone who has to divert down backstreets at those times do it for you?

Did you actually read my post ?

shadow boxer11:50 am 23 Aug 11

arescarti42 said :

All the people around your work are from Gungahlin aren’t they?

The 40K people of the inner north mightn’t be so happy having only two points of access to the one major road through their area.

Pretty much, they also come from Belconnen, Yass and Dunlop.

shadow boxer11:44 am 23 Aug 11

EvanJames said :

Certainly lights should be synchronised. Stop-start is stupid. However, unrestrained green lights would only let greater volumes of traffic reach a bottleneck point faster.

Our roads are maxxed out. Population growth, in the ACT and outside it, have overloaded the roads.

Not really some go to Civic, the rest go on to State Circle/Barton which is remakably effective at distributing traffic.

The inner north is an issue but there are lots of roads like yesterday, Limestone, Braddon, Turner and these would only be needed if crossing Northbourne or turning against the traffic.

So everyone who is coming onto Northbourne or leaving by crossing traffic would have to be fed into Barry Dr or Antill St?

Would you like to give yourself the uppercut or should I let everyone who has to divert down backstreets at those times do it for you?

All the people around your work are from Gungahlin aren’t they?

The 40K people of the inner north mightn’t be so happy having only two points of access to the one major road through their area.

EvanJames said :

Certainly lights should be synchronised. Stop-start is stupid. However, unrestrained green lights would only let greater volumes of traffic reach a bottleneck point faster.

Our roads are maxxed out. Population growth, in the ACT and outside it, have overloaded the roads.

Only on Northbourne it seems……..

Certainly lights should be synchronised. Stop-start is stupid. However, unrestrained green lights would only let greater volumes of traffic reach a bottleneck point faster.

Our roads are maxxed out. Population growth, in the ACT and outside it, have overloaded the roads.

troll-sniffer10:28 am 23 Aug 11

No.

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