Page 643 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 May 1992
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very accurately what needs to be turned out, and I have no doubt that that will continue. The timing of turning it out is also very important. We are selling more land in October. Both the amount of land and the timing of the release have been accurate in the past, and I have no doubt that they will continue to be accurate in the future.
Northbourne Avenue Traffic Lights
MR STEVENSON: My question is of Mr Connolly, the Minister for Urban Services. A number of constituents have mentioned to me that when driving along Northbourne Avenue they feel that the traffic control lights are not well synchronised to assist the traffic flow. Would the Minister indicate how the light sequences are initially set? Can these settings be changed to assist traffic flow?
MR CONNOLLY: I thank Mr Stevenson for the courtesy of letting my office know that he was interested in this matter so that I was able to research it. The traffic signals on Northbourne Avenue are synchronised through a thing called the Canberra automated traffic signal system, which is a black box that allows us to vary what happens. The factor about Northbourne Avenue that members must bear in mind is that, because of the excellent planning of Canberra, unlike some State capitals, the arterial flow on Northbourne Avenue tends to be both ways.
In a major State capital there is a very distinct flow into the city in the morning and out of the city in the afternoon. But, because of the excellent planning of Canberra and the fact that employment is scattered throughout Canberra, flows on roads such as Northbourne Avenue and other arterial roads tend to be in two ways. The difficulty with that is that, if signals are linked to give a synchronisation in one direction, they will muck up the other direction. You cannot have signals for the flow of traffic northbound at one setting and the signals for the flow southbound at another setting.
Mr De Domenico: You could, but there would be enormous accidents.
MR CONNOLLY: Yes, this is true. It would be a Liberal Party solution perhaps, but it would result in chaos. A new computer program called Transit was installed by the department in February of this year. It is attempting to minimise delays and stops for traffic and is giving a level of synchronisation to favour slightly inbound traffic in the morning and outbound traffic in the afternoon. So, that should lead to some improvement in delays.
But total synchronisation, which is done in some State capitals, would cause confusion and chaos with people going against the general traffic flow. The whole idea of Canberra urban planning, and particularly Canberra transport planning, is to avoid a total inflow in the morning and a total outflow in the afternoon. But, to the extent that we can make the flow of traffic smoother, we are doing so.
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