Fortunately the fix appears to be as simple as taking down a few signs and removing a few painted arrows at the head of Beaconsfield Rd. It appears that the physical light infrastructure, sequencing and median strips don't even need to be changed.


If you would like to see this problem fixed, please sign this petition and you will be ensuring that Willoughby Council, Lane Cove Council and the RMS hear the voices of those that feel this decision was made against the best interests of the majority of local residents.

Please sign the petition on the right hand side of this page

In addition to your name, please include your street name in the 'Location' field to help ensure that the legitimacy of the petition is not in doubt as we will not be able to properly count petitions where no street name or surname is provided. 

Including your street name will will also give the RMS/council a sense of the geographic spread of residents not happy with the design of the new lights. 


Thanks
fixthelights@gmail.com
 

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Privacy:
By signing the petition you consent to your 'signature' being provided to Willoughby Council, Lane Cove Council and the RMS for the purposes of demonstrating the level of community opinion on this issue.  Your email address will not be displayed publicly on this site nor submitted with the petition.

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Background:

It is well understood and accepted that there are a diversity of views in the Chatswood West and Lane Cove North communities about the general need for traffic lights at the Mowbray/Beaconsfield/Ralston intersection. However, the lights have now been installed and will not be removed.

The issue that can be easily fixed is the dubious and inconvenient "Left Turn Only" restriction that prevents local residents safely driving straight over into Ralston or turning right into Mowbray Road.

This restriction substantially reduces the previous usefulness of the intersection for the majority of residents and imposes other undue consequences on residents of surrounding streets.  

Many Chatswood West residents take their children to schools in Lane Cove, many do their shopping in Lane Cove rather than battle Chatswood CBD congestion. Many work in areas of Sydney accessed via Burns Bay Rd and Epping Rd.

Residents can't turn right onto the Pacific Highway from Mowbray. The right turn out of Goodchap is often highly congested due to its proximity to the Mowbray/Pacific Intersection. The right turn directly out of Dalrymple is located on a dangerous bend in Mowbray. And now we can no longer travel from Beaconsfield over into Ralston or even turn right into Mowbray Road.
 

With the lights as they now are, almost anyone wanting to travel from Chatswood West to
- Lane Cove schools
- Lane Cove shops
- Macquarie Park/North Ryde and beyond 
- Gladesville Bridge/Victoria Road and beyond

are now primarily funneled down into Dalrymple Ave and Coolaroo Rd into the Greenlands Rd traffic lights (at Mowbray/Centennial), a series of growing bottlenecks and inconvenient detours. The other alternative is a dangerous right turn out of Dalrymple, located on a bend in Mowbray.


The residents of Dalrymple and Coolaroo have had this traffic transferred to their streets in full, rather than fairly shared with Beaconsfield as it was before the lights were installed.
 

Additionally, once in in Centennial, residents either have to then battle Epping Road or take the long way through Lane Cove West to get to Lane Cove schools/shops. 

Willoughby Council's own traffic design staff recommended against the current design because the alternative option (crossing and right turns allowed) provided a "greater benefit for the wider community" but it appears that a number of residents pushed for the 'Left Turn Only' design due to a perception that any other design would somehow encourage additional traffic through the area.

Making the matter worse, council communication to the broader resident community on the timing and nature of the final council decision appears to have been absent, with an advisory letter not distributed until after the installation of the lights.

As far as the petition organiser is aware there was no letter to local residents informing them that a final decision on the issue was planned for the May meeting agenda (held some 15 months after a single community consultation meeting back in February 2012).

The personal views of the small number of residents who believe they benefit from the restriction is understandable and they have every right to advocate in their personal best interests and views on potential traffic impacts in their street, however many recent personal discussions with many residents of the area have indicated to the petition organiser that the voices of the vast majority of impacted residents were not heard or accounted for in the final decision making process.

Despite council staff recommendations to the contrary, Willoughby Council conceded to the proponents of the restricted design without conducting a final, current and fully representative survey of the views of the broader community, apparently on the presumption that the views put by residents who spoke at at the meeting were completely representative of the broader impacted community.

Some residents in favour of the Left Turn Only are believed to be concerned about Lane Cove-destined traffic using Beaconsfield Rd to get across to Lane Cove. While it is not completely clear to the organisers of this petition why so many additional Lane Cove-destined drivers would be traversing Chatswood West (other than being local residents), the residents of Dalrymple, Coolaroo and surrounding streets are now paying for that hypothetical possibility.

Rat runs for motivated commuters from outside the area still exist (primarily along the length of Dalrymple and Goodchap), while local residents much more frequently moving in and out of Chatswood West are now the main people inconvenienced for what is likely no net gain for the area.

The diversion of local residents and golf club users into Dalrymple/Coolaroo/Greenlands simply moves cars from a relatively larger & straight local feeder road (Beaconsfield), into a series of smaller, narrower, more winding streets with parked cars on numerous bends and were already inappropriately loaded with through traffic in peak times.

Those smaller streets have now become the only method of travelling to Lane Cove and beyond from almost all of Chatswood West.

Google Maps link showing the streets involved:
http://www.google.com.au/maps?ll=-33.803703,151.169869&spn=0.008273,0.013078&t=m&z=17 

You are also welcome to write a short email directly to Willoughby Council (email@willoughby.nsw.gov.au) or your West Ward Councillors advising them of your views on the issue and how the changes have impacted you.

Locals can also contribute to discussion of local issues via the Chatswood West Ward Progress Association website (important note: the CWWPA has absolutely zero affiliation with this petition or the views put forward in it - it is referenced here simply the only formal residents group in the area and has a website encouraging community discussion of local issues) http://cwwpa.org/