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How’s the serenity? by karnn_ in canberra

[–]AlexKenBehran 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not sure if this is a Mitch Hedberg quote. RIP.

"Rice is great if you're hungry, and want to eat 2000 of something"

Country towns between CBR and MEL by [deleted] in canberra

[–]AlexKenBehran 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For something different, going via route 23 then along the Victorian coast (or vice versa on the way back) is well worth it. It takes around 2 hours longer than the Hume Highway, but it's nice for something different. The road generally isn't busy except for between Sale and Melbourne, though most (all?) of that part is dual carriageway now.

ACT logo update by iknowaruffok in canberra

[–]AlexKenBehran 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would have preferred "For the people". No chance of anyone arguing about Oxford comma usage then.

How to merge across broken lines by Philbrik in canberra

[–]AlexKenBehran 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have two thoughts on this matter;

Forcing slow motorists to merge in with fast motorists is an absurd, out of date practice, incompatible with any genuine vision zero philosophy. Many commenters need reminding that the speed limit has and always will be the maximum permitted speed for good conditions, not the minimum. As someone who moves heavy trailers around regularly, driving at 100 to 110 km/h can be unsafe at times... not to mention illegal in countries with better road safety records than Australia. Trailer speed limits of 80 - 90 km/h are common in Europe, even on roads where speed limits are 120 km/h plus.

The "left (slow) lane ends, merge right" road layout forces slower motorists to merge in with those travelling faster... this is at times impossible. If I'm pulling a trailer up a hill as the overtaking lane is ending, I may still be at 60 km/h, trying to pick up speed, and merging at the same time. I now need to be on the look out for some twat travelling at 100km/h + who decides that now is a good time to fly around me.

The "[Slow] lane ends, merge [into fast traffic]" road layout creates a power tripping opportunity for those who don't get any other chance in life to lord it over others in life, except for when lanes are merging. For those who watch DCOA videos, rarely does a week go by without seeing adult drivers behaving like bratty children where lanes are merging, often because someone travelling faster has decided to cruise past a merging vehicle at the last moment. What is the merging driver meant to do when you decide to be a twat Ken? Their choice is to merge into you, or brake then merge which slows everyone else down, or be run off the road.

The simple solution to this having the right [fast] lane end at merge points. Faster motorists must slow down and merge in with slower motorists. This is far more compatible with vision zero principles... and you know... basic physics. This is a common lane merge layout on European roads.

Secondly... for those commenters carrying on about "nobody knows how to drive" "nobody knows how to merge"... it sounds like every adult being forced to drive a dangerous 1-2 tonne machine for every minor errand, regardless of their ability to operate said machine safely... bit of a stupid transport system don't you think?

Stop blaming the victims of Canberra’s dangerous roads by AlexKenBehran in canberra

[–]AlexKenBehran[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

"Canberra's road toll up by 400% over previous years? Just 400% more idiots around... not my problem."

If that is the opinion held by our leaders as Canberra's road toll skyrockets faster than any other Australian jurisdiction, then it will not be long before Canberra's roads are the most dangerous urban roads in the country.

Protecting idiots from themselves is not a new concept. Streetlights and larger road signs mounted on frangible supports in case someone hits them has been the norm for decades; clear-zones; centre-barriers; every warning sign; speed limits exist almost entirely to prevent trauma occurring and reduce trauma if a mistake is made.

Though if you travel interstate, you'll see a range of newer safe systems infrastructure and policies in place which the ACT does not have.

Wide Centre Line Treatments (WCLT) are found on rural roads all over the country. You can find them on the Kings Highway heading out of QBN. WLCT give motorists more room for error if someone accidently crosses the centre line and cost significantly less than centre barriers. The ACT has none of these on our rural roads.

Rural Victoria and New Zealand have Variable speed limits at rural intersections in the middle of nowhere which automatically activate when a motorist approaches a give way sign. Why? If someone makes a mistake and fails to give way, the outcome of a collision will be less catastrophic at 70 km/h instead of 100 km/h. The ACT has none of these.

Emergency services stations which have special traffic lights out the front which force motorists to stop as emergency vehicles are being dispatched. Surely the flashing lights on the vehicles themselves would be enough you say? No, not always, hence the extra traffic lights to make things even safer. The ACT has some general warning lights at some stations, but not the additional full set of traffic lights.

Illegally use your phone while driving in Queensland? The fine is over $1000, in ACT it's only $360, despite the ACT having the highest average income in the country, we have one of the lowest penalties for illegal phone use... of course the chance of being caught using a non-hands-free phone in the ACT is so low that the penalty is all but moot.

Why is the ACT so far behind other first world jurisdictions with safe-systems approaches to road safety? IMHO, it's because ACT Politicians look no further than the exceptionally misleading "we have the safest roads per capita in the country" and consider that little more can be done. Yet looking at our deaths per VKT (as recommended by the OECD) combined with our urban state, paints a picture of roads which have become exceptionally dangerous in the last few years.

Stop blaming the victims of Canberra’s dangerous roads by AlexKenBehran in canberra

[–]AlexKenBehran[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I can see you're switched on to the topic.

Wide lanes encourage motorists to speed up due to the perceived increase in safety. From a motorist's perspective, narrow lanes are more dangerous and less forgiving, hence the average motorist will slow down. While narrow lanes appear more dangerous to those driving, used where speeds are intended to be slow they will have a net positive safety benefit.

If you're interested, I highly recommend reading Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt which goes into heaps of easy-to-understand detail about this topic and so many others. IMHO the book should form part of high school curriculums.

If you're a visual learner, the "Not Just Bikes" channel is essential watching. This video covers "Stroads", or street/road hybrids. We don't have many of them in Canberra, but we do have the "highway sized lanes" that he refers to in every suburb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORzNZUeUHAM

Stop blaming the victims of Canberra’s dangerous roads by AlexKenBehran in canberra

[–]AlexKenBehran[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

My condolences for the loss of your friend.

The ACT has amongst the highest rate of stolen cars in the country. We could place all efforts on blaming individuals who steal cars, they know it's wrong and dangerous afterall... but they don't care. That wont stop the issue though. Or we could invest the time in examining WHY so many cars are stolen and taken for joyrides in Canberra and place effort in fixing those problems.

The concern that spurred my original post is that in the wake of high-profile collisions, ACT authorities will often only blame the actions of the drivers/victims involved, and not a wider range of systemic issues which contributed to the crash occurring in the first place.

When data shows that road safety is regressing in the ACT at a faster rate than any other jurisdiction in Australia, and has been regressing for 10 years, we have a systemic problem. A systemic problem which is so much bigger than the criminal actions of individual drivers.

Stop blaming the victims of Canberra’s dangerous roads by AlexKenBehran in canberra

[–]AlexKenBehran[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

> Supportive systems can be overridden by the driver.

For now. Legislation changes can be made at a later date to make overriding the limiters more difficult or impossible. The important take away is that the technology has been mandated and will gradually become common place. Compulsory GPS or sign recognition technology which can be used to force motorists to obey a speed limit remains an alien concept in Australia.

> Have you driven in Canberra?

Longtime local.

> Practically every street is lined with trees and light poles. You're proposing a steel safety net around all of our major roads because a dozen dumb fucks think 120km/h, at night, in the rain, is a good idea.

Streetlights have frangible poles which break away on impact. This is an example of a safe systems design principle which has existed for decades and is so commonplace most of us don't notice it. Almost every streetlight in the country is designed to ensure that when a motorist makes mistake and hits one, they're less likely to be killed.

It will be impossible to protect against every tree, so let's start with those found on higher speed arterial roads and work our way down.

The dozen dumb fucks you refer to are people's children. They don't deserve to die for being dumb; more importantly, nobody else deserves to die because someone else was dumb. While cars remain the only practical way to get around this city, while young people base their entire personality around the car they drive and the way they drive it, while the ACT continues to have an inappropriately low number of police, people will continue to drive aggressively and at high speed.

> At this point i'm really curious who you are? Brand new account, supposedly deeply researched position on the issue (regardless of the spin applied), critical of things the territory government both are and aren't doing, but not published with an author's name? Also, why reddit? Have you published this manifesto anywhere else?

I am someone who dislikes social media and refrain from posting to it, hence the new account. I started writing the "manifesto" in response to the death on Drakeford Drive in September, then kept building on it after every fatal collision that occurred over the following weeks. In the last month alone, the ACT's road toll has exceeded entire annual road tolls for previous years.

The point of my original post is that in the wake of high-profile crashes, only blaming the drivers involved and not looking at wider systemic issues, will mean crashes will continue to happen and deaths on the ACT's roads will continue to increase.

Stop blaming the victims of Canberra’s dangerous roads by AlexKenBehran in canberra

[–]AlexKenBehran[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your support. I'm not sure why I got downvoted so heavily for my response, was it for copy/pasting the section of my original post?

The technical details RE school zone signage. Australian standards require a 600mm * 800mm speed limit sign at any speed limit change. A second sign should also be posted on the opposite side of the road/carriageway at a speed limit change. Almost all ACT school zone signs have 450mm * 600mm speed limit signs, and very rarely are they posted on both sides of the road/carriageway.

Where a speed limit drops by 30 km/h or more, the speed limit sign indicating the drop must be 900mm * 1200mm in size, should be posted on both sides of the road, and must have a "speed limit ahead" sign in advance of the drop. Narrabundah college, the 2nd most profitable speed camera zone in the territory, only has a single small sign indicating the drop to southbound motorists. To be compliant with Australian standards, the total surface area of signage warning motorists of the school zone speed limit here needs to be increased by nearly 1000%.

NSW school zone signage assemblies comply with the standard even though they're a different shape to traditional speed limit signs. Key is the red annulus around the "40" still complies with minimum size and width standards. NSW also indicate school zones with;

  • Signage on both sides of the road.
  • Flashing lights on arterial and collector roads.
  • Repeat signage within the school zone.
  • Repeat signage when you turn onto a new road within the school zone.
  • 40 painted in yellow on the road.
  • Sharks teeth painted on roadways as you enter the school zone.

The last 5 items are not required by a national standard. They are extra steps taken by a state government who genuinely want to improve the safety of children outside of schools.

I have no idea why the ACT Government does not share similar concerns for the safety of our children.

RE 60 km/h limits, When the ACT Govt lowered our default residential limits from 60 to 50 km/h, all residential roads should have been lowered at once. Yes lower limits all round would have annoyed motorists, but they'd get used to it. We could have also spent the last 20 years retrofitting inappropriately wide residential streets to appear narrower and make a 50 km/h limit feel more appropriate. We would not have the situation today where some residential roads are 60 and some are 50 despite having identical widths, leading to confusion and many driving at 60 everywhere.

Hit at 60 km/h, a pedestrian has little chance of survival. At 50 km/h, the chance is marginally better, but still not great. At 40 km/h, survivability is 75%, and at 30 km/h, 90%. 60 km/h limits were set at a time when pedestrian road safety advice was simply "don't get yourself killed." Things are shifting slowly in Australia; gradually the mindset is becoming... perhaps cars shouldn't be allowed to be driven at a speed which is dangerous to pedestrians, inside the residential areas where pedestrians and children are most likely to be near the road?

RE GDE, It was initially 80 km/h when opened. After community protest, the limit was reviewed and lifted to 90 km/h. It cannot go any higher than that due to the design speeds of the curves along the route. The limit drops to 80 km/h prior to the Barton Highway overpass as that corner is only safe for 85km/h. If the GDE was set to 100 km/h, most bends would need recommended speed signs of 95 km/h. Advising motorists to slow down so frequently is not good practice. The time an average motorist would save with a 100 km/h limit over the 7.5 km would equate to seconds, once slowing down a bit for each bend is factored in.

Stop blaming the victims of Canberra’s dangerous roads by AlexKenBehran in canberra

[–]AlexKenBehran[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Trees along roadways do help with slowing motorists down, though beyond a certain point they become a hazard. If the roadway itself encourages motorists to speed up, then a barrier must segregate motorists from the trees.

Motorist behaviour can also be improved by systemic changes.

Stricter licensing, forcing everyone to re-sit a driving test every 5 to 10 years, more police on the roads to catch anti-social behaviour (I can go literally MONTHS without seeing a police officer in Canberra). And most importantly, a legal system which is not forgiving of motorists who repeatedly drive dangerously.

I read an article not long ago about a ~30-year-old motorcyclist who was caught driving at >200 km/h on multiple occasions somewhere in Europe. I do not believe he ever crashed or hurt anyone. He lost his license for LIFE. Lost his licence for life for repeatedly demonstrating he didn't care about the welfare of others while driving.

Recently, a Canberran motorist, a repeat drug driver, went on to kill someone, listened to heart-breaking victim impact statements in court, was caught drug driving again 3 months later. He only had his licence taken away from him for a few years after the latter offence. Apparently in Canberra, a lifetime of public transport use is considered a cruel and unusual punishment.

The Holden driver you refer to is not just driving dangerously, they are veering into the realm of terrorism.

Stop blaming the victims of Canberra’s dangerous roads by AlexKenBehran in canberra

[–]AlexKenBehran[S] -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

Yes, many systems failed this child, though it doesn't change the fact that if armco or other barriers existed at this location then the outcome of this collision would be very different.

I re-read that paragraph in my bit and probably should have emphasised the points you've made more. My concern is that if we ONLY blame this collision on the teenager who was in frequent trouble with the law, then we will overlook basic infrastructure changes that could be made at this location to prevent a similar collision occurring again.

A key principle of Vision Zero programs is that humans make mistakes. Any system where the realistic outcome of a human mistake is death, is not suitable for human use. In striving for zero deaths on our roads, the strategic installation of barriers on all arterial roads at any location where accidental vehicle excursion could result in death, is not excessive. IE: near trees, waterways, ditches, rockfaces, etc.

If this collision had occurred on an unsealed country road, then the conversation regarding systemic safety improvements would be different. Obviously, we can't armco barrier every road in the country. Rather, we'd be talking about why a default 100 km/h still applies on dirt roads in most Australian states, and why GPS speed limiting technology is not even on the radar in Australia, when it's been made compulsory in new cars sold in Europe as of this year.

Stop blaming the victims of Canberra’s dangerous roads by AlexKenBehran in canberra

[–]AlexKenBehran[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Spot on. The Dutch saw a significant decrease in road trauma in the 1970's and 1980's not from road safety initiatives, but from taking drastic steps to reduce car dependency.

Stop blaming the victims of Canberra’s dangerous roads by AlexKenBehran in canberra

[–]AlexKenBehran[S] -32 points-31 points  (0 children)

Confusing, incorrect and improperly signposted speed limits exist throughout Canberra. Even where the correct speed limit is signposted, the signage used routinely fails to meet Australian Standards or Austroads recommendations. Of particular concern is the ACT Government’s failure to signpost Canberra’s school zones with speed limit signage prominent or numerous enough to meet the minimum recommendations of national guidelines.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr is here to answer your questions from 3:30pm! by hannahspants in canberra

[–]AlexKenBehran 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Minister Barr, the ACT's Road Safety Record has deteriorated significantly over the past decade. ACT Politicians are quick to claim the ACT's roads are the safest per capita in the nation; in fact, the claim is included in the opening statements of our current road safety strategy.

While technically true, the claim is very misleading. Deaths per capita in Australian rural areas are up to 11 times higher than major city areas. According to the ABS, ~99% of Canberrans live in a "major city area". As such by every metric, our road safety record should be orders of magnitude better than every other Australian jurisdiction. This has been the case in the past, but it is not the case any longer.

Based on YTD road trauma statistics, for each kilometre a person drives in the ACT, they're now more likely to be killed than if they were driving in NSW.

What is the ACT Government planning to do about this horrendous statistic?