Page 3050 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 August 2013
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continually breaking, people pulling trailers creating noise as they negotiate the speed humps and motorbike riders driving around the speed humps to avoid them altogether.
She went on to say on behalf of her constituent:
They would like the speed humps removed if possible and the speed limit set at 60kms as there are only houses on one side of the street.
She is spot on. Three days later, on 14 February, there was another letter from Ms Porter to the minister. She said, referring to a constituent:
He has informed me that since the installation of traffic calming measures in the street he has observed that traffic noise has increased due to vehicles decelerating and accelerating when approaching and moving away from the speed humps.
The FOI has redacted the name of the constituent but Ms Porter then said that the constituent:
… has asked that the traffic calming measures along Spofforth Street be reviewed and that an increased police presence and mobile speed cameras be considered as an alternative to the current traffic measures.
Ms Porter’s manoeuvrability on this issue has been pretty extraordinary. Quite simply, the government has spent around $150,000 to create a mess.
In September last year, I hosted a public meeting on this issue which attracted around 100 people. There was unanimity in the view that the traffic on Beaurepaire Street had got much worse since the installation of speed humps on Spofforth Street as more cars were diverting through more dangerous and risky suburban roads to avoid the humps.
Now the government have announced that they will be implementing traffic calming measures across several streets in Holt, apparently to address concerns caused by the Spofforth Street speed humps and the rat-running they have created. However, I think that the government are simply treating symptoms. The problem is the speed cushions on Spofforth Street and the change of driver behaviour they have created.
The opposition calls to start this process again from scratch—that is, remove the speed cushions and then do a system-wide traffic assessment in Holt.
Our proposed course of action is a reasonable one. Rather than try to address the TAMS-created problem of rat-running through Beaurepaire, Messenger and Trickett streets, let us start this process again. Remove all the speed humps; then do an assessment. It may well turn out that all that is required is proper policing of Spofforth Street or perhaps a raised pedestrian crossing or some narrow points on one road in Holt.
The Canberra Liberals will continue to lobby for a common-sense approach and a fair deal for the hundreds of thousands of Canberrans who depend on cars to get around our city.
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