4 May 2013

The (not so) great Tuggeranong 40 zone

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Well, they’ve done it! The government has laid out their “speed cushions” on the streets around Tuggeranong. Just a single trip around these streets has highlighted some problems…

    — They’ve succeeded in slowing traffic, however they now have the problem that traffic has been slowed beyond the 40km/h goal. Every time I went on those streets trafic was moving at 10-15km/h. This means that traffic is banked along entire lengths of the streets, which makes it harder for pedestrians to cross away from lights, crossings etc.

    — The new “speed cushions” aren’t signposted properly. They’ve just bunged the speed hump signs onto light poles or whatever they could find in the general vicinity of the “speed cushions”. Most of them are concealed behind trees and other obstacles.

    — The 2 sets of “speed cushions” along Anketel St have now blocked out parking spaces on each side side of the street. We’ve either lost a total of 4 spaces, or have to park on really awkward angles on top of a “cushion”.

Now I know the local government really tries their best with these sorts of things, but why do they constantly cock everything up? Now they can’t even put a lump of steel onto the road properly.

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Rollersk8r said :

Cushions have been installed all the way across into parking spaces in Civic too. I don’t get it – unless it’s meant to stop people driving through a vacant park to avoid them??

I can understand that people would drive around them otherwise – hell I’m guilty of driving around speed humps where ever possible – but you’d think they would have come up with a more intelligent solution, eg place the outer-most ‘cushion’ right next to the parking space to make it incredible difficult to drive around it – but not so it sits in the middle of the space…

Rollersk8r said :

Cushions have been installed all the way across into parking spaces in Civic too. I don’t get it – unless it’s meant to stop people driving through a vacant park to avoid them??

Correct.

Last week I saw some people crossing Pitman St (outside the Southern Cross Club) by walking across the speed cushions as though it was a pedestrian crossing! Bemused drivers had no choice but to stop for them.

Cushions have been installed all the way across into parking spaces in Civic too. I don’t get it – unless it’s meant to stop people driving through a vacant park to avoid them??

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd3:31 pm 05 May 13

banco said :

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Yet more first world problems.

Who cares? If peeps didn’t speed through here in the first place them it never would have been necessary.

Is some douchebag going to refer to “first world problems” in every thread? You’re right we should give up having an opinion on local matters until the third world has caught up with us and of course the Government only does things that are just and necessary.

How about you tell us all your problems and we can asses if they are ridiculous first world problems or actual real problems.

Open your your mind and <3 to me, blanco. What is so bad in your life that you can consider it a non first world problem?

magiccar9 said :

KB1971 said :

“OMG my life has ended….I have to slow down & think about others who are not in my car with me. Oh the travesty”.

Well the same could be said about the cyclists and pedestrians who complained enough to enact these changes. But do you comment about them? Apparently walking across a road is a difficult task these days…

I am a driver, with a 4WD, I am a motorcyclist (without a motorcycle ATM), I am a cyclist (do it regularly), I am a pedestrian and a father. Any thing to reduce the speed of cars in areas where there is heavy pedestrian traffic such as my family and I is welcome with me. I can see life outside of my car.

Honestly, if you are driving through these areas you are no more than a couple of minutes they are so short that its not an issue.

Parking? Who parks on Anketel St? That is what the multi story park is for.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Yet more first world problems.

Who cares? If peeps didn’t speed through here in the first place them it never would have been necessary.

Is some douchebag going to refer to “first world problems” in every thread? You’re right we should give up having an opinion on local matters until the third world has caught up with us and of course the Government only does things that are just and necessary.

magiccar9 said :

KB1971 said :

“OMG my life has ended….I have to slow down & think about others who are not in my car with me. Oh the travesty”.

Well the same could be said about the cyclists and pedestrians who complained enough to enact these changes. But do you comment about them? Apparently walking across a road is a difficult task these days…

Do you go anywhere other than in your car? I presume that you are able bodied and have no responsibility, or empathy, for children or others who are not so fully abled? As well, would I be correct in guessing that you have no environmental or social conscience such as recognising the need for society to reduce its ecological footprint and improve the amenity of its community spaces?

I would guess that there is a significantly increased risk to pedestrians in crossing anything other than a single lane, slow moving road with traffic islands. And yet you have a whinge, perhaps because your trip might take you an extra minute, you might be encouraged to walk somewhere instead of driving another 100 metres or a slow pedestrian might leave a dent in your car.

I hope Roads ACT view your link Sgt Bungers, given that it shows their premise for slowing down traffic is coming from the wrong starting point. What’s particularly interesting is that all users are happy with it – pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.
Quotes directly transferable to Anketell Street include ‘If you’re not comfortable, you’re not going to dwell’ . . . ‘it doesn’t feel like a dying High Street any more’ . . . ‘we’ve established a place where people want to be.’

KB1971 said :

“OMG my life has ended….I have to slow down & think about others who are not in my car with me. Oh the travesty”.

Well the same could be said about the cyclists and pedestrians who complained enough to enact these changes. But do you comment about them? Apparently walking across a road is a difficult task these days…

“OMG my life has ended….I have to slow down & think about others who are not in my car with me. Oh the travesty”.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd8:13 am 05 May 13

Yet more first world problems.

Who cares? If peeps didn’t speed through here in the first place them it never would have been necessary.

Pork Hunt said :

The spelling is “Anketell”. It seems ironic to complain about the incompetence of others while incorrectly spelling the the name of the subject in question.

So sorry. If I could edit the post I’d correct myself. Didn’t look right with double L. My bad.

dks00k said :

Sgt.Bungers said :

Shared space done right… worth watching

Interesting video Sgt. Would that work here though?

Seems like a certain amount of common sense and common courtesy would be required, both of which seem to be lacking in a good proportion of Canberra drivers. We cant even manage the shared space in the Bunnings carparks correctly…..

I’d hate to see a highspeed car chase go though there.

Interesting concept and shows the initiative that the current gov are lacking.

The spelling is “Anketell”. It seems ironic to complain about the incompetence of others while incorrectly spelling the the name of the subject in question.

It might also be worth noting that these areas aren’t legal 40km/h zones yet as there are no legal speed signs indicating the change.

Sgt.Bungers said :

Shared space done right… worth watching

Interesting video Sgt. Would that work here though?

Seems like a certain amount of common sense and common courtesy would be required, both of which seem to be lacking in a good proportion of Canberra drivers. We cant even manage the shared space in the Bunnings carparks correctly…..

AsparagusSyndrome3:03 pm 04 May 13

“Now they can’t even put a lump of steel onto the road properly.”

Hmmm, interesting. The ones in Akuna Street in Civic were installed a couple of days back. The sections lying on the footpath resembled some kind of black plastic, more than steel. Perhaps the ACT Government is trying to use this as a way to recycle plastic in our community.

I should also note that ‘speed cushioning’ or ‘park benching’, ‘playgrounding’, traffic barriering’ etc, are not long-term effective ways of removing plastic from the biosphere. It just kicks the can down the road a bit.

Yeah those speed cushions are a pain. The 40 zones seem prudent, but these cushions (in apparently random spots too) are nasty. It does effectively drop the 40 zones right down to 10-20.

Oh well, another reason to avoid Tuggeranong, adding to the dud shopping centre, lack of evening life and as seen today in broad daylight near the Hyperdome, public urination against a shop’s front door.

I will have to check this out.

I’m not a fan of speed bumps/cushions. I do support slowing motor vehicle traffic in our commercial areas… but this is not the way to do it.

When I replied to the ACT Gov’s request for community feedback re 40 km/h areas, I suggested that cushions should be seen as a temporary fix to a badly designed road, not a permanent sollution.

Ankatel St was designed for 60 km/h… a grossly inappropriate speed for a commercial area. Ideally, the whole thing needs to be ripped up and rebuilt to encourage slow speeds along its entire length.

When a road in the immediate vicinity of commercial/shopping areas is designed to cater for all road users equally, the result is almost always a decrease in travel times for all users, a boost to local business, decreased crime rates thanks to more people on the streets… all wins.

Speed bumps may be cheap, but they do little more than annoy motorists.

Shared space done right… worth watching

HiddenDragon11:33 am 04 May 13

Sounds like punishment for those recalcitrant Tuggeranongites who had the temerity to lean towards the Liberals in the Territory election last year.

Given the increasing propensity of federal pollies to stick their noses into state/territory/local government business in search of issues and wedges, the Liberal candidate for Canberra should promise to “do something” about this – perhaps a requirement that some federal funding to the Territory be tied to a requirement to remove ham-fisted interference into the everyday lives of Canberrans. I imagine people elsewhere in Australia would also be most interested in such a federal intervention.

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