Road safety and community consultation in WeHo

Here are some notes from the latest West Hobart Residents' Traffic Committee meeting, this last Wednesday.  It was a small meeting, but we heard from Angela Moore, the Council's Manager, Traffic Engineering, and also from Louisa Gordon, our newly appointed Community Engagement Advisor - Strategic. 


Hill Street Pedestrian Improvement Project
This is about halfway through.  The roadworks to make safer pedestrian crossing points at Cavell Street and Alison Street are complete, bar the painting of traffic and bike lane markings.  The crossing point at Petty Street is half built, and works have started on the new wider bus stand at Hamilton Street.  After those, the raised pedestrian crossing (the wombat crossing) at the pharmacy will be built, in conjunction with some maintenance roadworks to improve the whole roundabout roadspace.

Cate Sumner reiterated the urgency of creating safer walking conditions for kids getting to and from Lansdowne Crescent school.  Angela advised that there is a single work crew which is steadily working through the list of improvements.  The current completion date is expected to be about October (2018!).

Di Elliffe asked for confirmation that the green painted bikelanes will be extended through the kerb bulb/median island crossing points, so that drivers are reminded that riders are entitled to ride safely through those pinchpoints.  As this diagram below shows, there is ample room for a 1.5m painted bikelane (sadly, in the dooring zone) along Hill Street, and for a 1m painted bikelane through the pedestrian crossing points (sadly, even more exposed to fast moving vehicles).

Paul Turvey asked for clarification about the new style of bus stop which will be built at Hamilton Street.  Angela confirmed that it will be a deep stand, extending to the edge of the traffic lane.  Buses will stop in the traffic lane to set down and pick up passengers.  It will be interesting to see this in action.

Several other street surfaces and footpaths were mentioned as needing improvement. These included Arthur Street and Newdegate Street.

Retail Precinct Upgrades
Lenah Valley is almost complete.  Next on the list is NewTown - these works are scheduled for the second quarter of 2018.
After that will be MidTown, i.e. Elizabeth Street this side of the mall.

Community Engagement
Louisa Gordon told us that the Council has a new Engaged Communities Team, of three staff.  They are currently encouraging input to the Draft Community Engagement Strategy.  Comments are welcome till the end of August.  We should all take a look to see if what is being proposed lines up with our ideas on how Council should be communicating, seeking (and acting on) input from residents and ratepayers.

Just click on Your Say Hobart and open up the Community Engagement Strategy page. 

Page 18 and 19 list the currently available channels and  methods by which we can find out what is going on and have some input.  Angela noted that the Community Panel approach has been very useful with the Local Retail Precinct Upgrade projects.

Page 20 and 21 show the strategic framework defining the spectrum of methods of engagement.