CBD speeds
THE recent debate between cyclists and motorists over reducing the CBD speed limit to 30km/hr (TC, 24/8) has missed the point.
We want a city centre that can accommodate both vehicles and cyclists but most importantly pedestrians if we want to have foot traffic throughout the CBD supporting all premises and not just up at Grand Central.
We do not want the whole place to grind to a halt or no one will bother going to the CBD.
The biggest single impediment to the free flow of traffic and pedestrians is the crazy signage system on both Margaret and Ruthven Streets.
I wrote to The Chronicle about this nearly 15 years ago not long after moving to Toowoomba in 2007 as we have a uniquely weird system.
The facts are that vehicles have to give way to pedestrians at all times who are crossing the road at zebra crossings but also by nature at alternatively paved crossings as we have in Toowoomba.
These brick paved crossings are causing confusion. The signs that face the pedestrians at each of these crossing points state “Pedestrians give way to vehicles”. The vehicles approaching these crossings cannot read the signs. They naturally slow as they approach. The pedestrians seeing the signs stop to give way to the vehicles. And a stalemate ensues until each one graciously waves the other on. Time wasted and frustration for both parties.
This single thing causes the traffic to move slower than envisaged by the traffic designer who did not contemplate common sense in the design calculations.
Either make these crossings proper line marked zebra crossings to give right of way to pedestrians or have signs facing the traffic that note they have right of way despite the apparent crossing location.
At the moment the average traffic speed at most times through the CBD is probably lower than 30Km/hr anyway because of the above situation, so I do not think cyclists really have much to complain about.
The bulk of them have long finished their early morning rides and had their coffees at a cafe before the CBD gets busy.
In reality it is the safe but smooth movement of vehicles and pedestrians that will result in a thriving CBD more than cyclists and the designated cycle lanes throughout most certainly assist cyclists in having safe passage around our great city.
ANDREW CIVIL, Toowoomba