Hibberson St Mall?

Granny said :

The traffic is stressful as you’ve got very impatient drivers banked up at the crossings, or trying to make right hand turns, crossings that don’t look like ordinary crossings, a playground stuck in the middle of two busy crossroads, and the fumes from the passing traffic ruining your skinny muggacino.

Here’s my vent, but from a different angle: One time I was having coffee on Hibberson St, when some tool in his car was playing dance music at full volume. Unfortunately he was waiting for pedestrians to cross (Sat morn – one of the busiest times) and the constant “duf duf” was driving me insane! I mean, I like dance music, but the sound coming out of his car was mainly vibrating metal with bass – urgh! He thought he was a stud – everyone else thought he had small penis syndrome.

*locale

I’ve discussed the matter with the town centre planning study rep at ACTPLA and he said it likely came from an article in the Chronicle.
(The Chronicle doesn’t get delivered to all of Harrison, which is a point of stupidity I have taken up with CT people, but is why i haven’t seen the article.)
He said the headline incorrectly talked about a mall, whereas the article content was correct.

Jess from the Chronicle who attended the meeting and wrote the article is well aware of the situation, so I assume it is an “attack of the subeditor” problem.

On Flemington Road TP3000, the old map on the cover of this old GunSmoke issue clearly has the town centre in its current local, and the various grassland reserves in place, yet Flemington Road connects through to Anthony Rolfe Drive, not the town centre. I think this map dated around a decade ago, but obviously someone thought they knew better and we are now paying the price.

I’m quite open-minded about bollards though. I don’t see a need to get all barrierist about this, frankly.

: D

I reckon the RA should take over the planning of this city!

Err, I mean Canberrans prefer bollards!

Boomgate? Canberrans prefer bollards!

A pedestrian mall would be lovely – how about a daytime mall and nightime thru traffic. they could block it with a boomgate during the day.

I really like the outdoor shops there too, much nicer than the canberra centre. They just need a bit more parking.

Well, that sounds lovely, yes! I’ll put the frag grenades away then, shall I?

; )

Granny, the kind of “mall” they’re talking about is in the sense of Melbourne’s “Burke St Mall” – ie a paved outdoor pedestrian-only area like Garema Place.

Part of what is nice about the marketplace is that outdoor Garema Place sort of feel rather than sticking everything inside like at the Canberra Centre. It’s just much more pleasant.

The traffic is stressful as you’ve got very impatient drivers banked up at the crossings, or trying to make right hand turns, crossings that don’t look like ordinary crossings, a playground stuck in the middle of two busy crossroads, and the fumes from the passing traffic ruining your skinny muggacino.

It would certainly be nice if there was less traffic. It would make the whole experience safer and much more pleasant, and there are plenty of carparks located close by so that the necessity for people to be driving through Hibberson St should be minimal.

Wasn’t Wells Station designed to go to Gungahlin Town Centre? But then again, where Harrison is, was meant to be part of another suburb with a name similar to Ngunnawal.

But I suspect that all changed when 4 young lads from Kambah High did a science project of the striped legless lizard & sent their powerpoint presentation to the environment minister & John Stanhope. They pointed out that this endangered lizard lived in the grasslands that are now bordered by Palmerston, Franklin, Harrison & Gungahlin. So by years end, Harrison had been moved north east, Gungahlin moved north, Franklin slightly extended north & one suburb quietly cleared off the map. This meant that Wells Station Drive could no longer go through these grasslands & Nurdurr Drive & couldn’t be exteneded to go through the new town centre. So the next logical option was to extend Flemington Road around.

But if they now want to try & fix Hibberson Street, why not make the main drag, bus only?

Gungahlin Al said :

The problem is that Flemington Road was originally intended to connect to Valley Way, but it seems it was pointed into Hibberson instead to deliver a quick hit of passing trade to kick off the major retailers in the town centre. But this has proven very short-sighted as just 4 years on we have very dangerous conditions for shoppers in the town centre. The ‘through’ traffic (commuters passing through to Ngunnawal, Forde, Yerrabi etc) needs to be bounced around the town centre, leaving it to ‘destination’ traffic – which is going to grow exponentially once the college, new library, homemaker centre and oval are in place.

My first thought was didn’t they have a discussion paper years ago about whether the locals wanted streets or a big mall, so now they don’t like the streets? Thanks for the explanation. I’m just shaking my head here. How would closing the street fix the problem? As you say, through traffic needs a proper alternative route.

chewy14 said :

Gungahlin Al said :

The problem is that Flemington Road was originally intended to connect to Valley Way, but it seems it was pointed into Hibberson instead to deliver a quick hit of passing trade to kick off the major retailers in the town centre. But this has proven very short-sighted as just 4 years on we have very dangerous conditions for shoppers in the town centre. The ‘through’ traffic (commuters passing through to Ngunnawal, Forde, Yerrabi etc) needs to be bounced around the town centre, leaving it to ‘destination’ traffic – which is going to grow exponentially once the college, new library, homemaker centre and oval are in place.

Agree AL
I think this must have been a case of seemed like a good idea at the time.

Flemington Road was never intended to be an arterial road connecting town centres in the first place. It was only ever intended to be a semi-rural link between Northbourne and the showground (EPIC) / the racecourse (Thoroghbred Park). It wasn’t even a through road, it originally ended in a dead end. By turning it into a major thoroughfare our planners really stuffed up big time and must now wear the consequences.

why is it a bad idea for it to be turned into a mall?

Umm…yeah…OK Skid…thanks – I think…

A mall is not a good idea.

The traffic does make the marketplace unnecessarily dangerous and stressful at the moment, but I doubt most people would be pleased to see a large shopping mall there as it would certainly destroy most of what is best about the marketplace ambience.

And if nimbi of crackling flames are what it takes, then bring it on!

lol

Just don’t mess with an angry woman armed with a kalisnikov and a bandoleir full of frag grenades and a glock 9 strapped to the small of her back.

I hope your argument directed at whoever thinks the Gungahlin Mall proposal is a good idea contains such heat and passion, that their hair becomes a nimbus of crackling flame, their spectacles fall molten and dripping from their face, and there is a chrysanthemum-shaped bloom of soot on the wall behind them, Mr Al.
May only God have mercy for them and their accursed kind.

Gungahlin Al said :

The problem is that Flemington Road was originally intended to connect to Valley Way, but it seems it was pointed into Hibberson instead to deliver a quick hit of passing trade to kick off the major retailers in the town centre. But this has proven very short-sighted as just 4 years on we have very dangerous conditions for shoppers in the town centre. The ‘through’ traffic (commuters passing through to Ngunnawal, Forde, Yerrabi etc) needs to be bounced around the town centre, leaving it to ‘destination’ traffic – which is going to grow exponentially once the college, new library, homemaker centre and oval are in place.

Agree AL
I think this must have been a case of seemed like a good idea at the time.

Huh??

Just got a call from Mark Parton about discussing this on his show tomorrow (7:15) too.

The 30 people who attended the GCC meeting last week heard ACTPLA talk about the future of Hibberson Street, and a small workshop component gauged people’s thoughts on solutions. The general consensus was much what GCC have been promoting for the last couple of years to resolve the traffic problems.

As I’m sure I’ve written on RA before, we have been saying that a mall is not an option – they have proven security problems, as experienced in many other towns such as Coffs Harbour. Instead a shared zone much like Childers Street in the ANU precinct is our preferred option. High friction for cars in the day time with pedestrians on a reasonably even footing with cars and access to buses or light rail, less friction and therefore better vehicle access at night, thus ensuring casual surveillance that business operators need at night.

The problem is that Flemington Road was originally intended to connect to Valley Way, but it seems it was pointed into Hibberson instead to deliver a quick hit of passing trade to kick off the major retailers in the town centre. But this has proven very short-sighted as just 4 years on we have very dangerous conditions for shoppers in the town centre. The ‘through’ traffic (commuters passing through to Ngunnawal, Forde, Yerrabi etc) needs to be bounced around the town centre, leaving it to ‘destination’ traffic – which is going to grow exponentially once the college, new library, homemaker centre and oval are in place.