Friday 31 July 2015

A comment regarding traffic flow

The issue of entry and departure from HM is sounding like an issue that is in the "too hard basket". Ceerose states that: "Cars are not SUPPOSED to drive up or down the driveway on the southern side of the building between Jones Lane and Jones Street... and It is INTENTED only for pedestrians and the garbage truck." Who will policing this? City of Sydney state that: "Vehicle access is considered suitable to this site... " By which standard? "...and has been supplemented by the THROUGH SITE LINK connecting Jones Street and Jones Lane... This link will allow vehicles to enter and exit the site without needing to reverse on a road, and all servicing will be contained within the site." Does this statement contradict what Ceerose have stated? And again, who is policing this? Sorry, but anyone can see that the narrowness of both Jones Street and Jones Lane is prohibitive for safe two-way access. These responses seem to fall short of addressing to the concerns raised under PUBLIC CONSULTATION: (b) Vehicle access to and from the site is inadequate and will cause inconvenience to residents living along Jones St and will increase danger to school children. Warning lights should be installed at crossings near the school. I’m not sure if the City of Sydney Town Planners considered the decision to move Pyrmont Public along Jones Street but I am envisaging further increases of traffic and associated safety risks. Associated with any school, there is a significant number of parents that choose to drop off their children and so, will require access and a drop-off area; there will be up to 1000 students moving to and from the school location at least 5 days per week for 40 weeks, let alone pre and post school times, during meetings and events such as Parent/Teacher meetings; there are is also school extracurricular transport to consider such as buses for excursions and sport; visitors and in-school excursions, canteen and office supplies... it can go on. Dare I mention the building works that will be going on both during time that the school is being built but also during any ongoing project work such as landscaping, repairs etc? It is suggested that there should be TRAFFIC LIGHTS installed but then we may need to factor-in additional time for light changes from local, visitor and school sources for our arrival and departure. Right now, it indisputable that there are issues with: - the narrowness of Jones Street Currently, existing residents enter and leave their properties by taking turns to back into the street due to parked cars. If it was a NO PARKING ZONE then there may be an opportunity for two-way traffic, however, this option may be quite unfair to the current residents. - the even greater narrowness of Jones Lane It's really only wide enough for one-way traffic. So, we are already facing a difficult traffic situation - let alone what may happen in the future. Both Ceerose and City of Sydney are charged with the responsibility of managing this situation. I fear however, that given their efforts to-date, that they are hoping “brush it under the carpet”. We may very well be left with a long and possibly futile battle - which will be a headache for all but more importantly a very serious safety hazard. PS Could this also affect our insurance premiums - personally and for the HM...?

7 comments:

  1. Thank Elana and Graham. Perhaps, I am simplifying this issue too much but it seems very easy to make Jones St and Jones Lane one-way and traffic just flows clock wise or anti-clock wise - simple solution as you already previously suggested. I totally agree that Jones Street cannot be 2-way, it is too narrow.

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  2. My 5cents worth -

    Apartments in which I have lived in before - only had room for one car to utilise their parking ramps and still worked fine, albeit a little annoying. Correct me if I am wrong, harbour mill, will allow cars to go up and down the car parking ramps (two lanes).

    Have to rule out utilising little jones street - this will be quite a hairpin turn and can't see it being practical.

    This only leads to the Jones st issue which I don't think we will have much say in.

    current residents along jones st will benefit somewhat. They will no longer need to reverse their cars backing into jones st- they will be able to do a u-turn/3 point turn at the harbour mill entrance (which is big enough from what I have seen)

    ****Did anyone consider that in all possibility - the end of jones street (harbour mill entrance) maybe be used as dropping off zone for people catching the light rail.

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  3. Hi Mario, just checked the floor plans - you are right, there are 2 lanes for cars to go up and down into the car park (3 levels of parking). It also looks like Jones St is planned to be 2-way. However, practically this will be impossible, if the residents continue parking there... Regarding your question of making the end of Jones St a drop-off zone for light rail passengers - I am not sure if this will work, as there is just enough space for cars to go in and out of the car park but I may be wrong.

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  4. Are we still on track for inspection end of this month now ? I'm not sure now :(

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  5. Nathan, I personally wouldn't be surprised if inspections don't happen until September - happy to be proven wrong of course!

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  6. The solicitor from Ceerose said in an email (sent 5th August) to my solicitor that;

    - inspections will be in late August.
    - anticipated completion of construction is early September.
    - settlement in late September or early October.

    So, looks like they are on track for inspections.

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  7. Hi all, if we read the development consent correctly as mentioned in a previous comment, there are marks on the footpath in Jones St, I think they are making the footpath narrower and making the road wider (allowing two way traffic and parking). Sadly it also states we cannot move in till this is completed (council has to do this) so this might throw the settlement time frame out. I don't think they will start on this till the building is finished because of the trucks currently going in and out. Was there during the week and they have to dig the road up a bit to connect large storm water and sewer pipes, sadly there was a lot of discussion how they were going to do this as apparently theres a lot of pipes there. The guy who looked like the site supervisor told me there's another 2 months to go.

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