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CSIT RTW Bulletin #38: Jun 2006

http://cs.anu.edu.au/csitRTW/bulletins/RTW.38.Jun06.html
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The Future of Ride to Work

This has never looked better, with the soaring petrol prices... Both Jacquie Kempton and Bill Clarke recently sent this vision for the future :)


Unsafe Approaches to ANU: a csitRTW View

Last month, ANUGreen began an cycling safety audit of the main cycling hazards for cyclists entering the ANU. csitRTW gave a number of responses (many thanks!); those which I got a copy of are collated below.

The first series relate to the main approach from ANU from the north, from the shared path coming from OConnor.

  1. Dangerous Crossing from Entrance to North Oval Car Park (from Arrin Daley) ``There was a cyclist hit there last year that I know of. I think the problem seems to be cars trying to get into the parking area turning right have to turn across the busy road from O'Connor and are spotting gaps in the traffic and need to go fast to get out of the way of on-coming traffic and don't see the cyclists on the bike path. Cyclists for their part probably don't know which gap in the traffic the car will pick so don't know if the car is going to turn in whilst they are crossing.''
    A possible solution: shift the path 5m or so to the east at that point, to give room between the road and the path for the car to stop. This will also give the cyclist more time for evasive action.
  2. Inadequate Pedestrian Island, NE corner Barry Drive and McCaughey St (from Peter Lamb) ``... often gets overfilled by pedestrians and cyclists in the mornings around 9am, and cyclists frequently need to queue to cross on the cycle path leading to the crossing.'' The downward slope of the path into the slip lane exacerbates the danger.
  3. Concrete ANU Sign, cnr North Road and Barry Drive (from Ian Barnes) ``It forces everyone to swerve around it and causes major confusion. I actually fell there once when I tried to keep to the left of an oncoming cyclist going around there... removing that *#!#* sign would be a huge improvement''.
  4. Disappearance of Bike Path along North Rd (from Markus Buchhorn) ``it's a major [shared] path at Barry Drive, but suddenly around the tennis courts/Sports Union it turns into a footpath, and then into a joint footpath, parking area and traffic chicane around the Pickle. Bad for cyclists and pedestrians ... ''.
    (from Peter Strazdins), the intersection of the path with the new Sports Union car park is dangerous; cars don't always give way to path users, and, for cyclists entering the Uni, it is very hard to look over their shoulder to see if a car is going to swing in.
    (from Arrin Daley) ``I think at least part of the problem with the balls is that cyclists don't know if they are supposed to be part of the pedestrian traffic stream or in amongst the cars. When a cyclist needs to give way to a car at the narrow sections they most likely become part of the pedestrian stream rather than slow down...''
There is also a concern, applying to pedestrians more than cyclists, from the eastern (University Avenue) approach: