News location:

Canberra Today 15°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Anger at ‘speed cushions’

“Speed cushions” on Flinders Way. Photo by Dylan Meikle

THEIR purpose is to calm traffic, but the series of new “speed cushions” on 60kph Flinders Way near Manuka seem to do anything but calm drivers.

“CityNews” has received calls of outrage from south-side residents about the seven 20kph speed bumps, which were installed in May as part of the Residential Streets Improvements Program.

The program targets collector roads within the ACT and ranks them based on crash history, speed and volume, and land use information, according to Territory and Municipal Services.

“The installed speed cushions on Flinders Way and associated intersections were implemented to slow the speed of vehicles approaching with the aim of reducing crash incidents,” a TAMS spokesperson said.

“The project will be evaluated six months from the date of installation.”

When asked about the effect of drivers avoiding the speed humps by taking alternative routes, “rat running” through residential streets of Forrest, Red Hill and Griffith the spokesperson said: “The evaluation of the project will take into account speed and volume surveys on adjoining streets.

“Adjustments may be made pending the outcome of this evaluation.

“The evaluation will include comparison of speed and volume information pre and post-installation and examination of crash data.”

However, the consultation of directly affected residents was undertaken over a three-week period in November.

Residents and businesses on Flinders Way, Monaro Crescent, La Perouse Street and Murray Crescent were only contacted by a letterbox drop.

“Flinders Way is not an arterial road,” the spokesperson said. “It is a road where people live and the aim of this project is to address their concerns and improve their amenity…

“The signposted speed limit on roads such as Flinders Way is a guide and is a maximum limit. Road users need to adjust their speed to suit the conditions.

“The Flinders Way project is primarily aimed at managing crash incidence.”

The evaluation will be made by Roads ACT around October/November and will include a comparison of speed and volume information pre and post-installation and crash data.

Public comment will be invited over a minimum three-week period.

“Follow up speed and volume surveys will be undertaken over a minimum seven-day period at locations that were surveyed pre-installation,” the spokesperson said.

“This includes Flinders Way and side streets. Crash data for the period post installation will be compared against similar periods in previous years.”

The spokesperson said directly affected residences will be letterbox dropped and information will be also available on the ACT Government website and feedback can be submitted online or in writing.

Results of the evaluation will be available on the ACT Government website.

Speed cushions are also proposed for Spofforth Street in Holt.

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Share this

3 Responses to Anger at ‘speed cushions’

Radlebb says: 8 January 2012 at 11:19 am

I live of Spofforth St and it has become a nightmare to drive down. There are 13 speed bumps (every 4th house) and my car gets very rattley by the time I reach my house. It used to be a very nice street with the occasional hoon but now I’m seriously contemplating moving, though I think I’d have a hard time selling. Who’d want to live here now!

Reply
Steve Blakers says: 18 September 2012 at 9:12 am

The Act Labour Party is now trying to convince the local residence that the majority of residence support the speed humps. What a lie. Most of the Spofforth St residents don’t support it, let alone Holt, Macgregor or West Macgregor residents. It is an arterial road, the local governments plans and all maps state it as such. Remove Speed Humps, bring back the 60 km/ph zone (As it should be. Directly joins Drake Brockman Dr 60km/ph), increase load limit and fine those that disobey the road laws. Not to mention, ‘stop wasting Tax Payers Money’ and time.
I am assured the local residents won’t settle for anything less than the total removal of these Speed Humps.
An interesting point has been made, why was the street speed limit dropped on an arterial road, (same as Drake Brockman Rd) in the first place???? And, if the speed limit was not changed (remained at 60) would there have been any need for the mindless waste of Tax Payers Money???
On behalf of all those law abiding people who used the street on a daily basis, ‘WHAT A JOKE’

Reply
Larissa says: 24 September 2012 at 7:20 pm

FIrst of all, I live on Spofforth St. When I first encountered the speed bumps I hated them with a passion, I would drive to and from my residence in anger and ranted about them to anyone who would listen. But after calming down, I realised that these are 100% necessary. I live right in the middle of the street where there is a curve in the road, and before the speed bumps were introduced it sucked backing out of my driveway. Everyone zoomed down there at 75+ km/h and with limited visibility due to the curve in the road and unfortunately placed trees and shrubs, I honestly entered the street every single time just hoping for the best. To top it off it was always busy, only at odd hours of the day (before 7am and after 8pm) would I not have to wait for at least one car coming down as I left my house. But that’s nothing compared to before they introduced the load limit and banned trucks from going down there, I was quite young when this happened but I remember the street being so noisy with trucks that were headed for the old tip. Also, my very first pet (a cat) was run over on the street by a lady who admitted to my dad, in-between sobs, that she had hit the little thing because she was speeding.

Thank you to the government for these speed bumps. They may be annoying to drive over, especially considering there are so many of them, but driving out of my house is so much safer than it used to be.

Reply

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews