Speed Camera

“The Cotter Road is not a merging lane. There are lines on the raod that makes the ramp from the Cotter Raod to the Parkway a give-way to the traffic on the Parkway. Theoretically the cars from the Cotter should stop to merge.”

This is exactly the same problem as the southbound lane of the Monaro Hwy heading over the first Fyshwick entry. It’s clearly a give way for the cars from Fyshwick, but everyone steams in as though they have right of way. It would be nice to see some marked police cars targeting this kind of stupid and dangerous behaviour.

I just checked the Australian Road Rules ( http://www.ntc.gov.au/ViewPage.aspx?page=A022075053009400200 ) and on page 306 it says;

“The traffic sign applies to the driver or pedestrian even though the driver or pedestrian does not pass the sign.”

My friend was wrong.

I’d like it if we got some of those advisory speed measuring signs installed on that overpass, like the ones on the Hume freeway as you leave Albury. That way people would know how “out” their speedo is, and wouldn’t have to overcompensate.

Why don’t they put the 100 sign on the camera warning sign?

bd84

The Cotter Road is not a merging lane. There are lines on the raod that makes the ramp from the Cotter Raod to the Parkway a give-way to the traffic on the Parkway. Theoretically the cars from the Cotter should stop to merge.

But when will this happen to one of the speed cameras?

http://www.speedcam.co.uk/gatso2.htm

Ingee, aa – I too have experienced this slowing to around 80 at least 9/10 times I drive along this section of road. From a conversation with my colleagues, I now understand that some drivers want to ensure they are below 100 (also taking into account their car’s speedo may be slightly out) but I still think it is a little excessive to have to slow right down to 80 to make absolutely sure that they are below 100.. perhaps they should have their speedo’s checked if this is their main argument! I think El must be particularly lucky if he has never had to put up with this crazy behaviour, fingers crossed next time I’m on the Parkway I don’t have to!

El, I only go under the Cotter Rd bridge on Saturday mornings and I have definately experienced this sort of thing – it could be a “Saturday” drivers thing, but it does happen.

Well I travel the road in question every day, and I’m yet to see someone slow down to 80 from 100 for the cameras. Most often I see people slowing from just over 100 – 110 or so to just under 100 for a few seconds. Methinks ‘aa’ was a particularly uninspiring troll.

Smee I think you will find that’s not the law, on ramps will be the same speed limit as the road you’re coming off (i.e. hindmarsh drive case 80kph) but technically as has been mentioned above you should be at the speed limit of the road you’re joining by the time you get to merge into traffic (for the smooth flow of traffic, plus it’s illegal to pull out in front of someone causing them to slow, which half the morons in canberra do not understand) It is never signposted though and good luck guessing if you have never driven on the road before.

The merging problem in canberra is a mixture of a few things, cars entering the road who do not give way and try and force their way on, cars who will never let the merging car to enter – trying to get past before they merge, and the merging lanes in a lot of cases is just too short, people can’t get up to speed in time and the short window to merge causes accidents.

on the signage issue i think stanjoke said they were looking at purchasing similar speed camera signs to that in nsw, with their new found speed fine wealth.

finally with the jamming on breaks towards the cameras, you should be far enough behind to be able to react, I find it helpful to stay in the left lane.. it allows the people who can’t read to go flying past and or those slow at the last minute to do their own thing in the right lane 😉

I have found that people are more likely to go 80 in the southerly direction, i’ve passed a few people past that camera while still being at or just under 100kph.. might have more to do with the camera being at the base of the hill going up.

I was told recently by a friend who runs a driving school that in the ACT now there is no such thing as a “road speed”. The ACT state limit is 50Km/h.

If you turn at an intersection then you have a speed limit of 50Km/h until you pass a sign indicating a speed.

So, for that person turning north off Hindmarsh to the Parkway, it’s officially only 50Km/h up the ramp and onto the Parkway until you pass a speed sign.

Damn stupid I think, but my friend was insistent that it was now law. (Is Nik the pig around to verify this?)

I’m with you Cameron. If there’s one thing that Canberra Drivers do to rival the incompetence of other states it’s absolutely pathetic merging. Time and time again these dopes dawdle up to the end of the feeder lane at less than the speed limit and I’ve even seen some useless dogs parked at the intersection – WTF are they waiting for!

In the land of the free you get a bloody big fine for failing to merge at the posted speed limit … can’t see why you wouldn’t introduce that law here.

If the people coming from Cotter Road actually used the on ramp to accelerate to 100kph (instead of cruising down the ramp at 80 and hoping that the parkway traffic will slow and let them in) and blend in with the traffic, there wouldn’t be a problem.

I think the placement of the parkway speed camera is intended to keep people at 100 so that others can merge safely (northbound) from cotter rd.

About bloody time.

Hmm – I agree that most of them are here for revenue not safety, but I think the “text wording” signs are pretty bloody obvious.

What pisses me off is that the Speed Camera Ahead signs are “text wording” (sorry no pictures) instead of being obvious.

NSW RTA got it right with the signage
http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/roadsafety/speedandspeedcameras/fixeddigitalspeedcameras/signageatspeedcamerasites.html

This reinforces the issue in the ACT that the cameras are for revenue not safety.

I believe the rule is that residential streets are 50kph unless signposted otherwise – a system that I thought was also in place in NSW.

I don’t think there’s a problem for residential streets though. The problem with the signposting relates exactly to what Gungahlin Al has said, in that there are plenty of areas that could be anywhere between 70 and 100 and aren’t signposted at key entry points.

I agree, speed signs in Canberra are shocking. Most NSW towns have taken the time to signpost every single road.. if you go from a 60 to a 50 road, it is signposted.. if it’s not then it continues to be 60.

Canberra just took the cheap option and said everywhere in Canberra is 50, unless otherwise signposted.

Canberra should take the time to introduce the same system as NSW.

Well I’ll toss a different spin on the issue. There are next to no bloody speed signs around Canberra!

This was rammed home to me again this week when as a northside worker, I had to go to Woden. Came out of Hindmarsh (a pretty major intersection I would think) onto the Parkway heading north.
No speed sign – is the road 80/90/100? I dunno.

Then a few klicks north you come across a “Speed camera ahead” sign. So what are you going to do? Slow down to 80 just in case. After all, there are plenty of 100-suitable roads around Canberra that are stupidly posted to only 80 (Gungahlin Drive for example).

Then a little further there is the first speed sign since leaving Woden – a 100 sign just 50 metres before the speed camera.

For god sake this is stupid! Get some damn speed signs put in around the place Hargreaves – if it isn’t just the revenue you care about…

yeah! you tell it.

This has been discussed to death here, here and here – and that’s only from the last two months (as far back as I could be bothered looking).

Could we put a brake on all this whining? We all know they’re revenue raisers. How long until they break even, I wonder?

I’ve experienced the 80km/h in the 100 zone thing to – you know that it’s likely there’ll be a hand full of Sydney drivers about so you just give these incompetents a little room and back off a bit.

Hey admins, could we perhaps have some sticky posts that sit at the top (or maybe on the side somewhere) so that topics like this get added into a single thread and these endless battles can be fought out in a central location?

Maybe – speed cameras, I hate Stanhope this time because…, climate change/AGW, soft judges, I hate this business because…, smoking and the socialist plot to brainwash our children?

I don’t know how hard this might be, just a thought.

🙂 i do agree it could cause accidents though since most people are too close

There is a 100 sign just before the camera and you should be a sufficient distance behind that if the car hit a kangaroo you could stop.