William Hovell Drive - now 80kmh

gasman said :

White people’s problems.

Yes… financial penalties and possible loss of licence due to goverment stupidity… leading to loss of job… loss of house… family strain… divorce… should totally be palmed of as being a minor first world problem.

indeed. as someone said, it makes no sense that the william hovel portion is now 80 and still 90 on parkes way….though i should shut up or they will make that 70 next.

80 is too slow for that road…although in peak times you’re generally stretching to get to 20km/hr

White people’s problems.

KeenGolfer said :

p1 said :

AAMC said :

Has anyone seen the debacle that is Spofforth St in Holt?

Ah yes, death by a thousand speed bumps.

Thirteen actually, I counted.

AAMC said :

Actually that is a massive pain; especially when heavy vehicles are trying to get to the west Belconnen industrial area. So most vehicles are either going past Kippax or through the small housing estate behind the gold course. So effectively, they have pushed more traffic (heavy traffic) through higher density and higher pedestrian traffic areas.

I think that they are actually pushing most traffic down Southern Cross Drive and along Kingsford Smith, which is designed to be a much busier road. Although, since Spofforth St is the same speed limit as Southern Cross, it should be equally as safe, yes?

No. Spofforth St is a 50 zone, not 60. The reason for the speed bumps is because of people regularly driving at 70+ (and much higher) in a residential 50 zone. Before the speed humps the morning traffic from Macgregor along Spofforth during peak hour would literally race along there.

True.

The speedbumps are terrible. But even with them in place, there are *still* vehicles that speed through there. The other day there was a jeep doing at least 80 kph bouncing over the speedbumps without slowing down, it overtook about 3 cars negotiating the bumps and came close to clipping a couple of kids playing on the side of the road.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

AAMC said :

Yeah, I saw that this morning, it’s pretty annoying.

I’m going to guess that it is an attempt to slow traffic down approaching the Glenloch exchange to reduce congestion in peak periods; won’t work as WHD backs up to the Higgins/Hawker roundabout and the average speed is <50km/h anyway during the peak.

OR

Maybe it is so the cars hit the potholes slower??

Nope, what it is about is slowing people down through the two sets of lights on William Hovell Drive which are traffic accident hotsposts. There is a list of the hotspots in the latest Chronicle. This is why it starts city bound just before Coulter drive and ends just after Bindubi Street. Ironicly the best stretch on the whole of William Hovell.

Sounds pretty silly to me though, because all the accidents I’ve seen on this road are during peak hour when no bugger gets to 90km/h anyway, mostly rear enders by people not looking, or at the merge just before Coulter. I’ve only seen two accidents where I reckon speed was invlolved but the idiots driving wouldn’t care what the speed limit was anyway.

What is annying though are the speed limit signs. Sgt are you there? Headinng west there is a large sign just after Glenloch, followed by a small sign before Bindubi then nothing till just before Coulter. How about another just after Bindubi rather than before?

p1 said :

AAMC said :

Has anyone seen the debacle that is Spofforth St in Holt?

Ah yes, death by a thousand speed bumps.

Thirteen actually, I counted.

AAMC said :

Actually that is a massive pain; especially when heavy vehicles are trying to get to the west Belconnen industrial area. So most vehicles are either going past Kippax or through the small housing estate behind the gold course. So effectively, they have pushed more traffic (heavy traffic) through higher density and higher pedestrian traffic areas.

I think that they are actually pushing most traffic down Southern Cross Drive and along Kingsford Smith, which is designed to be a much busier road. Although, since Spofforth St is the same speed limit as Southern Cross, it should be equally as safe, yes?

No. Spofforth St is a 50 zone, not 60. The reason for the speed bumps is because of people regularly driving at 70+ (and much higher) in a residential 50 zone. Before the speed humps the morning traffic from Macgregor along Spofforth during peak hour would literally race along there.

p1 said :

I think that they are actually pushing most traffic down Southern Cross Drive and along Kingsford Smith, which is designed to be a much busier road. Although, since Spofforth St is the same speed limit as Southern Cross, it should be equally as safe, yes?

Spofforth is actually a lower limit to Southern Cross. For some reason, it’s been progressively screwed up – banning heavy vehicles, then lowering the speed limit to 50km/h (try telling me that Spofforth is more deserving of a lower limit than Osbourne Drive, which remains 60km/h…) and now, the speed humps. Meanwhile, Southern Cross Drive is getting busier and busier all the time, and the government are actively discouraging drivers from Macgregor West, from using the most sensible feeder road up to Drake Brockman.

I’ve made the same comment previously – I’m now just waiting for the gates and a ‘residents only’ sign to be erected, it’s the logical next step.

I was wondering the same myself yesterday as I came home. They make Glenloch 90 finally but then drop William Hovel down to 80 just afterwards. Even weirder is the fact it goes back to 90 just before you hit the form one lane after Coppins Crossing. Very annoying.

I’m waiting for the fleets of speed camera vans to appear to catch people out who are used to it being 90…

BenMac said :

With the construction of Molonglo now underway and the news of the Coppins Crossing intersection being upgraded, I wonder if they will take the time and re-align Coppins Crossing and Coulter Dr into one big intersection like they were planning.

From what I can recall of a previous discussion the plan was to reduce that area to 70kph, install another set of traffic lights at the end of Coppins Crossing Road, and NOT realign it with Coulter Drive to make a single intersection. Madness.

Wait for the speed camera’s to pop up now, you know, in the interests of safety…

It’s another f@#$%ed decision.

Saw this last night on my way home in peak hour traffic. This road is not near any dwellings, so why the 10km less??

A reason informing motorists ahead of time would be ideal.

Alistair Coe is also unimpressed as per his twitter posts: https://twitter.com/#!/alistair_coe

I checked out the implementation of the limit, and as usual, there are multiple violations of Australian Standard 1742.4, as well as some of 1742.3 at present. Full article to come.

I don’t understand why the limit on this dual carriageway road has been lowered to 80 km/h as it now matches the speed limit of Coulter Drive, a single carriageway road with bus stops and passively controlled intersections… Coppins Crossing Road, a winding and unforgiving rural road, and Bindubi Street, another single carriageway road.

Some small sections of William Hovell Drive could be argued to be inappropriate for 90 km/h, but certainly not the 2 km/h section of relatively new dual carriageway between Bindubi and Coulter.

Given that the installation of point to point cameras has been recommended on William Hovell Drive by AECOM, one cannot help but be synical about this drop in the speed limit.

BenMac said :

With the construction of Molonglo now underway and the news of the Coppins Crossing intersection being upgraded, I wonder if they will take the time and re-align Coppins Crossing and Coulter Dr into one big intersection like they were planning.

If they do, I really hope the budget includes a bridge.

Once they start the roadworks on Parkes Way for the extra lane I believe it’s going to get dropped to 80km/hr too.

With the construction of Molonglo now underway and the news of the Coppins Crossing intersection being upgraded, I wonder if they will take the time and re-align Coppins Crossing and Coulter Dr into one big intersection like they were planning.

circusmonkey said :

I’m hoping that this is in preparation for the intersection upgrades about to happen on that section of road.

Seems a little more permanent. They’ve got the proper street speed signs up, not just a temporary speed notice.

AAMC said :

Has anyone seen the debacle that is Spofforth St in Holt?

Ah yes, death by a thousand speed bumps.

Thirteen actually, I counted.

AAMC said :

Actually that is a massive pain; especially when heavy vehicles are trying to get to the west Belconnen industrial area. So most vehicles are either going past Kippax or through the small housing estate behind the gold course. So effectively, they have pushed more traffic (heavy traffic) through higher density and higher pedestrian traffic areas.

I think that they are actually pushing most traffic down Southern Cross Drive and along Kingsford Smith, which is designed to be a much busier road. Although, since Spofforth St is the same speed limit as Southern Cross, it should be equally as safe, yes?

Has anyone seen the debacle that is Spofforth St in Holt?

Seriously, do yourself a favour and have a look.

Ah yes, death by a thousand speed bumps.

Actually that is a massive pain; especially when heavy vehicles are trying to get to the west Belconnen industrial area. So most vehicles are either going past Kippax or through the small housing estate behind the gold course. So effectively, they have pushed more traffic (heavy traffic) through higher density and higher pedestrian traffic areas.

How stupid is that? I drive this daily, it should have gone up 10 k, not down!!

Mysteryman said :

Don’t you know that cars travelling at speeds higher than 80km/h are a million times more likely to spontaneously combust and kill nuns, children, legless lizards? They are also only driven by criminals and those who don’t care about safety.

Unless they are white and driven by a high vis wear bloke on the phone. Then they are fine.

Don’t you know that cars travelling at speeds higher than 80km/h are a million times more likely to spontaneously combust and kill nuns, children, legless lizards? They are also only driven by criminals and those who don’t care about safety.

I dont drive that stretch, so can’t visualise the area, but is isn’t related to this is it?
http://www.gaibrodtmann.com.au/media/eight-black-spot-projects-commence-across-canberra/

I’m hoping that this is in preparation for the intersection upgrades about to happen on that section of road.

Yeah, I saw that this morning, it’s pretty annoying.

I’m going to guess that it is an attempt to slow traffic down approaching the Glenloch exchange to reduce congestion in peak periods; won’t work as WHD backs up to the Higgins/Hawker roundabout and the average speed is <50km/h anyway during the peak.

OR

Maybe it is so the cars hit the potholes slower??