Grid Lock at the Roundabout
So the new traffic lights on Boat Harbour Drive near the Main Street intersection were turned on today. I seem to recall that we were assurred that they would not hinder the flow of traffic on the Main Street roundabout.
Even Blind Freddy could have seen that as an unavoidable outcome after the lights were positioned so close to the roundabout. And of course every time a pedestrian uses the lights to cross Boat Harbour drive traffic in all directions on the roundabout comes to standstill.
Well done Hervey Bay City Council - I’m sure somebody needed a University degree to not see that mess happening as soon as the lights were installed.
Instant traffic chaos many times a day and all at the push of a button.
June 27th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
In fairness to the council, Ted Sorrenson did say that he expected ’some problems during peak times’. The pedestrian lights were a long way overdue and badly needed (especially for the elderly), but their positioning would have caused trouble wherever they were placed on Boat Harbour Drive. I would have thought outside the cinemas would be a better spot, but this was discounted for some valid reason (can’t remember the specifics right now). But the bottom line is this - what’s more important - delays in traffic, or pedestrians being unable to cross the road? I know some people who have not crossed Boat Harbour Drive in over 6 years because they were scared of the traffic. Now they can get their revenge
Obviously a tunnel under the road would have been the answer if money was no object.
June 27th, 2006 at 2:36 pm
G’day Patricia
Thanks for your comment and what you say is certainly valid and I agree that there should be pedestrian lights on Boat Harbour Drive but they should not have been placed in such close proximity to the roundabout because now traffic banks up along Main Street in both directions.
The Council has plans to turn the area around Main Street into a the central business district and yet they have now stopped the traffic flow along Main Street anytime someone presses the walk button on those pedestrian lights. Imagine what traffic will be like when the area is developed in accordance with those plans
And Ted’s comment about peak hours was just farcical - peak hour along that stretch of Boat Harbour Drive is six days a week from 7am till sundown.
They placed the lights where they did because that was where the old railway line crossed Boat Harbour Drive and Council will soon be starting work on turning the railway line ‘west’ of Boat Harbour Drive into a mobility corridor but that should not have been a consideration at all.
If they really had been thinking about traffic flow they should have put those lights somwhere opposite the bottle shop simply to give Boat Harbour Drive more room to absorb the traffic and stop it banking up back across the roundabout.
And while those lights might have reduced a hazard for pedestrians I think you may well see that have turned the roundabout into more of a traffic hazard than it already is.
I’ve got 30 years and millions of kms of commercial driving experieence behind me and even before those lights were installed I avoided that roundabout whenever I could. Now I’ll be avoiding it even more.
I just wish the Council would hurry up and open up the back entrance into Bay Centro and the business centre.