Stanhope and NRMA to meet to outlaw heart attacks

Wow wasn’t expecting quite that response.

Nothing I have suggested is out of the ordinary. I’ve read a fair bit about these pedestrian friendly roads in Europe over the past few years. Statistics show that despite vehicle speeds decreasing, travel times also decrease as you’re no longer waiting for several minutes for an intersection to clear before you can move. Fatalties also plummet. Why is this a bad thing?

Have a read about Woonerf’s as used in the Netherlands and Germany. The Netherlands has amoung the lowest road toll in the world.

#25 Yes “unmarked” intersections would create traffic chaos on major roads… however at intersections with less than a few thousand users per day, are we really all so stupid as to need governing regarding who has right of way?

#23 Yet statistics show that when these “experienced” drivers get behind the wheel themselves they’re more likely to kill, or be killed, than the inexperienced drivers they’re teaching. Learner drivers are the *safest* drivers on the road.

As for cobblestone streets, doesn’t have to be the rough cobblestones that will demount cyclists, and cause havoc for wheelchair users, it could be pavers as already used on some parts of Bunda Street, and the entrance to some roads in Hughes. As for coloured pavement, it’s already in use in Australia. Look up Port Campbell on Google Maps. The main street of Port campbell has been repaved with decorative lines, thus creating a more pleasant main street. Why cant we do that on Bunda Street, or Flinders Way, Bougainville St, Franklin St through the Manuka shops, Bradley St in Woden, etc, whilst turning them into shared zones?

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be the first person to opt for a 110km/h limit on the parkway, and for it to be resurfaced with hotmix then the limit bumped up again, 100 on the GDE, 90 on Adelaide, 120 on the Federal, as well as far stricter enforcement of keep left laws on high speed roads, and tailgating offences in all situations…

But in my opinion a maximum speed of walking pace is far safer in heavy pedestrain areas than the current 40-60km/h limits in the ACT. To acheive a speed limit of walking pace, we cant just bump speed limits down again on roads that were initially designed for 35mph. The roads have to be redesigned for a max speed of 5-10km/h.

Not to mention the disabled wouldn’t exactly be overjoyed, how do wheelchairs go on cobbles? Or blind people?

neanderthalsis said :

Sgt.Bungers said :

One way to achieve this would simply be to replace quieter intersections that currently have stop signs/ give way signs/ traffic lights/ painted white lines/ pedestrian ramps/ pedestrian crossings, need to go. Replace all of that, and the grey/black roads, with coloured concrete or cobble stones. Give pedestrians right of way at all time under all circumstances. When the road is clear of pedestrians, drivers have to sort out who’s going to go with eye contact and hand gestures as nobody has absolute right of way.
“.

Second go. Helps if you actually type a comment…

You would have traffic chaos, try driving in Italy on narrow cobbled streets with pedestrians wandering hither, tither and yon about the place and vehicular right of way determined by a variety of vague hand signals and nods. I don’t think this is a solution.

Our suburbanised housing arrangements make it necessary for us to use cars for just about everything. If we all lived, shopped and ate within strolling distance of our homes your cobbled street system would work, but because we live in outer suburbs, have poor access to public transport and thus have to drive to the CBD or other major centre for work, it would do little more than create chaos.

Sgt.Bungers said :

One way to achieve this would simply be to replace quieter intersections that currently have stop signs/ give way signs/ traffic lights/ painted white lines/ pedestrian ramps/ pedestrian crossings, need to go. Replace all of that, and the grey/black roads, with coloured concrete or cobble stones. Give pedestrians right of way at all time under all circumstances. When the road is clear of pedestrians, drivers have to sort out who’s going to go with eye contact and hand gestures as nobody has absolute right of way.
“.

Sgt.Bungers said :

Statistics show that learner drivers are the ones *least* likely to be involved in a serious crash. Why?

Because each learner driver is required to have an experienced, fully licensed driver beside them guiding them?

jakez said :

Note to self, never vote for Sgt Bungers.

or labor, or the greens, or the democrats?

Note to self, never vote for Sgt Bungers.

“Forced” cultural change, be it for better or worse, needs to start at the top.

ACT’s roads were designed during the time when the automobile was king. How many other cities in the world have an 8-10 lane road passing through the middle of the city centre (Northbourne Ave with bicycle lanes and parking lanes), where during the middle of the working day 50 pedestrians can be waiting to cross the road whilst waiting for 10 drivers to cruise through the intersection at a speed of 60km/h… Of course at 60km/h if something goes wrong and pedestrians involved will most likely wind up dead.

To change the automobile is king culture, we need road design to change, we need laws to change. Main roads like Adelaide Ave, the Parkway, Monaro, Federal and Barton highways can stay primarily designed for vehicular traffic, however commercial and residential roads should be redesigned for commercial and residential foot traffic, with vehicles being accommodated for, but coming at the bottom of the list priority wise.

Town centre and city traffic lights should be retimed to be synchronised so they’re pedestrian friendly… especially out of peak hour, there’s no excuse. At the moment it takes up to 5 minutes for a person to cross Northbourne Avenue in the city if they choose to obey ze law and do what the little red and green men say. Simply because the lights are timed for the needs of car drivers, not people using naturally aspirated forms of transport. Why is this? Shouldn’t our city centre be for people and not machines?

Another important thing: A person can often drive from A to B without having to make eye contact or use any other kind of interaction with any other road user. That’s what indicators and brake lights are for. This needs to change. Change this and it will be easy to stem road rage, tall poppy syndrome morons, and many other problems we face within our “road culture”. One way to achieve this would simply be to replace quieter intersections that currently have stop signs/ give way signs/ traffic lights/ painted white lines/ pedestrian ramps/ pedestrian crossings, need to go. Replace all of that, and the grey/black roads, with coloured concrete or cobble stones. Give pedestrians right of way at all time under all circumstances. When the road is clear of pedestrians, drivers have to sort out who’s going to go with eye contact and hand gestures as nobody has absolute right of way. Change the law so that if any two vehicles collide at one of these intersections, it’s both drivers fault.

Sounds mad, illogical and dangerous yes? That’s the point. Who in their right mind would hurtle into an intersection when they’re wondering wtf is going on, who has right of way? Make a road look safe, drivers will treat it as though it is safe and they’ll relax. Remove the certainty that vehicle drivers have at the moment, make a road look dangerous, and drivers will treat it as though it’s dangerous and use a lot of caution.

Case in point: Statistics show that learner drivers are the ones *least* likely to be involved in a serious crash. Why? Because to your typical learner driver every road is dangerous whilst their learning how it all works. Caution is at an all time high. They’re far from relaxed. Unfortunately this caution doesn’t last long. It doesn’t take a new driver long to work out that with our current laws and road systems, they’re king when behind the wheel. They can comfortably coast along knowing that everyone has to give way to them if they have a green light or aren’t faced with a stop, give way, or pedestrian crossing sign.

I could go on for ages, I’m obviously passionate about this topic. Why… I don’t know 🙂 Instead I’ll be in contact with the NRMA asking how I can get some suggestions across to this “round table discussion”.

Items to be discussed include driver and rider education, ideas for road safety campaigns, road infrastructure safety improvements and the enforcement of road safety policies, such as the use of speed cameras.

There’s the reason for it. Drum up a false fear with which to justify more speed cameras. More speed cameras = more revenue.

Follow the money people…

This roundtable is an attempt to replace the ACT Road Safety Committee – which hasn’t met for more than three years. Every other jurisdiction has proper community input into road safety – not us. We get to have a roundtable with no solid terms of reference, no formal decision making process and no formal input into road safety in the ACT.

It’s all just window dressing.