Residents may recall that our City Council undertook to implement improvements on Hill Street in this current financial year. These improvements were listed on this previous blog post.
As part of this implementation, Council has now advertised the trial Wombat crossing, on the north side of the Pine Street roundabout (from the pharmacy towards the school), for any public comment. This is the advert (and apologies for the very late notice on this):
As you can see, responses are due in by Monday 19 February. My understanding is that this means by close of business on that date, but this may be wrong (can anyone confirm this?). Anyhow, best to get your response in ASAP.
Responses can be emailed to coh@hobartcity.com.au, marked to the attention of the Manager Traffic Engineering. You could provide a copy to the General Manager, Nick Heath, to make certain of your message getting through: heathn@hobartcity.com.au
Here are some thoughts you could use in your response:
I fully support the installation of a Wombat crossing (i.e. a pedestrian zebra crossing with a road hump) in the vicinity of 111 Hill Street, West Hobart.
This Wombat crossing, in association with the other changes being made at the same time which will moderate traffic flow along Hill Street, will assist in the slowing down of traffic on this busy street and will support the eventual introduction of a 40 km per hr speed limit in this residential area. It will give legal priority to pedestrians crossing the street here, and this will help children and older residents to cross. This improvement, with the other changes included in this package, is long overdue.
On 5 August 2015, the (listed below) 13
businesses, 6
schools and Lawrenny Court and Hamilton Place Residential Facilities for
the Elderly located along Hill St and Lansdowne Crescent sent letters to the Hobart City Council on this issue.
They requested that “the Hobart City Council
consider the most appropriate placement of non-signalised crossings that allow
for right of way to pedestrians along Hill St in the context of providing the
necessary traffic infrastructure to implement the new 40 km/h zone.”
On 18 November 2016 a community workshop held at Lansdowne Crescent PS- "Walk This Way" - highlighted some good ideas on how to make West Hobart more walkable. Residents and schools reps at the workshop also came away convinced by the
additional data and examples presented that the Council's plans for Hill Street should include:
- zebra crossings (which give pedestrians a legal priority under our current Road Rules)
- located at the two intersections at either end of Lansdowne Crescent
- and preferably on raised tables for additional protection.
Members of
the Hobart City Council City Infrastructure team joined the West Hobart
community and Lansdowne Crescent Primary School parents and friends in a
count of students crossing Hill St on 16 March 2017. These numbers of vehicles and pedestrians more than satisfy the
minimum requirement accepted by the Department of State Growth for
installation of a proper Pedestrian Crossing (i.e. zebra crossing).
It is wonderful to
see that the raised traffic crossing is now happening, and I urge Council to install it as soon as possible to assist students crossing to school.
The local businesses and stakeholder signatories to the 2015 letter to Council:
1. Hill
St Grocer
2. Hill
St Gourmet Meats
3. West
Hobart Amcal Pharmacy
4. Melt
Café
5. Staley
& Son Framers
6. Christians
Automotive
7. Island
Tyres
8. Verde
Karen Wagner Design
9. Hill
St Express/ West Hobart Post Office
10. Marquis
Hotel/ West Hobart Fine Wines
11. Paesano
Pizza
12. Lansdowne
Café
13. Lansdowne
Physiotherapy
14. Lansdowne
Crescent Primary School
15. Taroona
High School
16. The
Friends’ School
17. St
Virgils College Junior School
18. Guildford
Young College
19. St
Mary’s College
20. Lawrenny
Court and Hamilton Place Residential Facilities for the Elderly
