Interesting

[Sir Lex]

According to the media, a fatal accident that occurred yesterday has
brought the ACT road toll to 10 deaths this year. There were a total of
10 fatalities in the ACT for all of last year; clearly 2005 is going to
be a terrible year.

The ACT gov is slashing speed limits faster than our PM will deny
knowledge of any given affair. The general speed limits in the ACT are
now 100 for rural motorways, 80 for motorways if they're equipped with
street lamps, 80 for rural single carriageway roads, 60 and 70 is
quickly becoming the default for many 6 lane main roads with a
scattering of traffic lights, and of course 50 in urban areas. Those
motorway limits are amongst the lowest in the developed world.

The best thing about the ACT's speed limits is that in many situations,
you'll turn off a 6 lane road with a speed limit of 60, into an
extremely busy two way road in a commercial area, also with a speed
limit of 60. Madness.

The lower speed limits have obviously not helped lower the ACT road
toll. Do you think as a result of the latest news, the speed limits may
go up again?

Me thinks that at the end of 2006, when the road toll may well have gone
down from an uncharacteristic high in 2005, the ACT government will be
releasing media statements left right and centre saying how much lower
the road toll is thanks to their low speed limits and high enforcement.

Surely no government would stoop that low in the name of revenue?

[kevcat]

> Surely no government would stoop that low in the name of revenue?


I see that tongue in your cheek

Kev

[ant]

Sir Lex wrote:

> The ACT gov is slashing speed limits faster than our PM will deny
> knowledge of any given affair. (snip)
> The lower speed limits have obviously not helped lower the ACT road
> toll. Do you think as a result of the latest news, the speed limits
> may go up again?

> Surely no government would stoop that low in the name of revenue?

yeah, right!

It's bizarre really, Canberra has great roads, although they are steadily
wrecking them with traffic lights (traffic lights on a roundabout! that's a
new one - war memorial). And some areas the roads can't handle the volume of
traffic.. like the Gunghalin debacle, and the other debacle of the Airport
development. A new business district on a standard 2-way road. The traffic
snarls there in the morning when the NSW commuters hit the ACT people
heading for the Airport are significant.

Driver skill,or lack thereof, it's always the same thing.

ant

[Allan A]

"Sir Lex" <SL@nospam.com.au> wrote in message
news:4281edc7@mail.netspeed.com.au...
> According to the media, a fatal accident that occurred yesterday has
> brought the ACT road toll to 10 deaths this year. There were a total of
> 10 fatalities in the ACT for all of last year; clearly 2005 is going to be
> a terrible year.
>
> The ACT gov is slashing speed limits faster than our PM will deny
> knowledge of any given affair. The general speed limits in the ACT are
> now 100 for rural motorways, 80 for motorways if they're equipped with
> street lamps, 80 for rural single carriageway roads, 60 and 70 is quickly
> becoming the default for many 6 lane main roads with a scattering of
> traffic lights, and of course 50 in urban areas. Those motorway limits
> are amongst the lowest in the developed world.
>
> The best thing about the ACT's speed limits is that in many situations,
> you'll turn off a 6 lane road with a speed limit of 60, into an extremely
> busy two way road in a commercial area, also with a speed limit of 60.
> Madness.
>
> The lower speed limits have obviously not helped lower the ACT road toll.
> Do you think as a result of the latest news, the speed limits may go up
> again?
>
> Me thinks that at the end of 2006, when the road toll may well have gone
> down from an uncharacteristic high in 2005, the ACT government will be
> releasing media statements left right and centre saying how much lower the
> road toll is thanks to their low speed limits and high enforcement.
>
> Surely no government would stoop that low in the name of revenue?


The speed limit on "motorways" (not that there is much of that!) in ACT has
always been 100km/h.

Reduction in the speed limits on some of the arterials (Northbourne Ave,
Commonwealth Ave) has dropped by 10km/h because of the narrowing of the
traffic lanes to accomodate on-road cycleways (don't get me started on
that).

The annual road toll is very low by statistical standards, and jumps up and
down from year to year all the time. When you think about it, last year it
was 10 for the whole year, one bad crash with a people-mover can add 4 or 5
in once incident. Statistically, because of the low number of samples, it's
effectively impossible to draw any conclusions from the fluctuations -
though in the years when it goes down the pollies are quick to claim some
sort of credit.

Allan A

[Allan A]

"ant" <ant_kNOT@geocities.com> wrote in message
news:3efo2jF2t1h3U1@individual.net...
> Sir Lex wrote:
>
>> The ACT gov is slashing speed limits faster than our PM will deny
>> knowledge of any given affair. (snip)
>> The lower speed limits have obviously not helped lower the ACT road
>> toll. Do you think as a result of the latest news, the speed limits
>> may go up again?
>
>> Surely no government would stoop that low in the name of revenue?
>
> yeah, right!
>
> It's bizarre really, Canberra has great roads, although they are steadily
> wrecking them with traffic lights (traffic lights on a roundabout! that's
> a new one - war memorial). And some areas the roads can't handle the
> volume of traffic.. like the Gunghalin debacle, and the other debacle of
> the Airport development. A new business district on a standard 2-way road.
> The traffic snarls there in the morning when the NSW commuters hit the ACT
> people heading for the Airport are significant.
>
> Driver skill,or lack thereof, it's always the same thing.
>
> ant
>
The sitgnals at the AWM are actually not on the roundabout - they're just
off it and are for ped crossings - but I agree they're pretty poorly thought
out.

But they can't claim to be a first either - the notorious Miranda roundabout
in Sydney for a long time operated with traffic signals on the approaches,
and switched between signals operating or "normal" roundabout depending on
traffic volumes. Now that WAS bizarre!

Allan A

[ant]

Allan A wrote:


> The sitgnals at the AWM are actually not on the roundabout - they're
> just off it and are for ped crossings - but I agree they're pretty
> poorly thought out.

It's an amazingly messy and poorly thought out solution to whatever the
problem was. I think roundabouts are usually a very good thing, although
where there's a lot of traffic dominant from one direction they can be a
little bit frustrating.

One thing I don't like is the major roundabout at the Airport entrance. In
the morning peak hour traffic, a lot of slobs use the right lane (there for
people turning into the airport from the Qbn direction) to overtake some of
the loooong line of cars. When the road goes back to 1 lane after the
roundabout, the usual Canberran merging disability sees a long hirtoresis
effect with traffic stopping.

It is amazing how many people, in a very very long line of moving traffic,
will take that opportunity to overtake some cars, even though it gets them
nowhere, they know the road is choked right into Canberra, and still they do
it.

ant

[Sir Lex]

Allan A wrote:
>
> The speed limit on "motorways" (not that there is much of that!) in ACT has
> always been 100km/h.

True, but that limit is still ridiculous! As drivers cross into the ACT
when coming down the federal highway, the speed limit drops from 110 to
100, even though the section of road between the border and the Antill
street round about is one of the safest sections of the federal highway,
complete with median barriers and restricted access intersections. That
section of road should have a speed limit of at least 110 to be in line
with the rest of the country, and could safely be 120 or 130.

> Reduction in the speed limits on some of the arterials (Northbourne Ave,
> Commonwealth Ave) has dropped by 10km/h because of the narrowing of the
> traffic lanes to accomodate on-road cycleways (don't get me started on
> that).

I realise that's the case. That reason does not justify a reduction in
the speed limit though. Even though the lanes have been narrowed, they
are still far wider than those found in many other cities. With the new
bike lanes, the roads are actually safer seeing as bicycles don't
interfere with the flow of traffic to the same degree as they used to.
If the speed limit were to change it should have gone up with the
implementation of bike lanes.

> The annual road toll is very low by statistical standards, and jumps up and
> down from year to year all the time. When you think about it, last year it
> was 10 for the whole year, one bad crash with a people-mover can add 4 or 5
> in once incident. Statistically, because of the low number of samples, it's
> effectively impossible to draw any conclusions from the fluctuations -
> though in the years when it goes down the pollies are quick to claim some
> sort of credit.

The only way to lower a road toll that's as low as the ACT's is to
remove humans from the drivers seat of cars, as humans make mistakes.
Even though the fatality rate is too low to correctly draw any
conclusions from the statistics, the ACT government still uses them to
justify the placement of speed cameras.

> Allan A
>
>
>
>

[jrs]

On Thu, 12 May 2005 16:32:21 +1000, "Allan A" <aaci@hotkey.net.au>
wrote:

>
>But they can't claim to be a first either - the notorious Miranda roundabout
>in Sydney for a long time operated with traffic signals on the approaches,
>and switched between signals operating or "normal" roundabout depending on
>traffic volumes. Now that WAS bizarre!
>
>Allan A
>
>

I grew up near there and it has an interesting history. It was
originally six roads converging to a single point and was know as the
six ways. As traffic flow increased they closed off one of the roads,
installed traffic lights and it was renamed the five ways. When
roundabouts became all the rage some bright spark traffic engineer
thought it would be a good way to speed up the traffic flow. The
lights were ripped out and a roundabout installed. This immediately
caused traffic problems as it became difficult to enter the roundabout
during peak periods. At some stage someone decided that landscaping
the centre was a good idea. They put a mound of dirt in the centre and
planted it out with bushes. This resulted in not being able to see
cars coming around the roundabout when trying to enter and the
accident rate increased. The solution to this was to install lights on
the roundabout to created breaks in the traffic. This only added to
the confusion and accident rate. Finally sanity prevailed and they
removed the roundabout and reinstalled traffic lights. I hate to think
how much money has been spent over the years only to take it back to
the way it was pre roundabout.

[ant]

jrs wrote:

> I grew up near there and it has an interesting history. It was
> originally six roads converging to a single point and was know as the
> six ways. As traffic flow increased they closed off one of the roads,
> installed traffic lights and it was renamed the five ways. When
> roundabouts became all the rage some bright spark traffic engineer
> thought it would be a good way to speed up the traffic flow. The
> lights were ripped out and a roundabout installed. This immediately
> caused traffic problems as it became difficult to enter the roundabout
> during peak periods. At some stage someone decided that landscaping
> the centre was a good idea. They put a mound of dirt in the centre and
> planted it out with bushes. This resulted in not being able to see
> cars coming around the roundabout when trying to enter and the
> accident rate increased. The solution to this was to install lights on
> the roundabout to created breaks in the traffic. This only added to
> the confusion and accident rate. Finally sanity prevailed and they
> removed the roundabout and reinstalled traffic lights. I hate to think
> how much money has been spent over the years only to take it back to
> the way it was pre roundabout.

that reminds me of that weird roundabout in the Maroubra area. It seems to
work, god knows how, but some fool has put plants all over it and the roads
going off/to it are weirdly aligned.

ant