melba maroondah intersection
report from the roundtable - 14 april
The matter of the Maroondah & Melba Highway intersection came up to council again, this matter was originally considered by council on the 27th January this year (see blog).After discussions with Vic Roads it seems there was no other option but traffic lights for this intersection.
A motion was put to install traffic lights at the site, I could not support this option.
This particular matter has been hijacked as an issue about a tree, but that's not what it's about, this matter is about how we manage traffic at the intersection.
I had an interesting conversation with an officer of Vic Roads who told me that in constrained areas the only option for traffic control is a roundabout as they need less space than traffic lights. For Vic Roads in this case to say there isn't enough room to install a roundabout is a bit of a furphy.
They could install a roundabout, if you can manage with roundabouts in constrained areas (and the roundabout in Belgrave comes to mind for me, it takes b-doubles, buses and all manner of vehicles) you could install one here in Coldstream. But there is no will from Vic Roads to do so.
I don't think traffic lights are the best outcome for managing traffic at this intersection, they are not safer, they impede traffic, they do not prevent accidents or fatalities. Traffic lights are not the be all and end all in traffic management and they won’t be here.
The vote was cast and a Division was called:
For: Crs Templer, Higgins, Warren, Heenan and Cox
Against: Crs Cliff, McRae, Avery and Dunn
Labels: coldstream, melba, samantha dunn
posted by Samantha Dunn @ 11:47 PM
2 Comments:
The issue with you has always been about the tree, just read the official minutes from the first refusal.
If the roundabout was possible then why didn't you bother to ask the shire engineers to design one and present it to Vic Roads and to us the rate payers. It was all just talk that badly misfired and harmed the reputation of our Shire.
I really don't care what system is put in place there but lights are better than nothing.
Should ratepayers be wearing engineering costs that should be borne by VicRoads - I don't think so, there are more than enough local projects that need our Shire Engineer's expertise and we are better investing ratepayers money into those projects.
I would think VicRoads have a plethora of qualified engineers to achieve a roundabout, what they don't have is the will to deliver a roundabout.
Will the community be happy with traffic lights which will constantly stop the flow of traffic and do nothing to stop accidents? Time will tell.
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