YOUR solutions: How should we fix Glen Osmond Road?

[Splashmo]

Carpooling, development of public transport infrastructure - most of the cars that come down every morning and go back up every evening have only one occupant. Can you imagine the difference if there were two people per car, halving the number of those single-occupant cars?

Another idea that was looked at on Unley Road (a far worse bottleneck) was changing the lanes so that three would be city-bound in the morning, and three would be south-bound in the evening. That could work on Glen Osmond Road, with one lane dedicated to buses and the other two flowing smoothly without motorists getting stuck behind the buses as they stop.

Of course, I maintain my original stance that we don't need to do anything to fix Glen Osmond Road.

Now - how do you suggest a freeway would work? How would it fit in with the existing roads, houses and businesses? What would happen to it when it reaches the parklands and then the city itself? Where would the money come from?

[Shuz]

Suicide lanes, reversible lanes, whatever-lanes-you-wanna-call them etc. Is a concept I think this city can readily embrace and adapt to to alleviating our traffic conjestion. Our road network is largely primed for the introduction of such a system on a widespread scale.

Goodwood Road, Unley Road, Glen Osmond Road, Fullarton Road, Magill Road, Kensington Road, Richmond Road, Torrens Road, etc. Would all benefit.

[peas_and_corn]

Magill road? What room is there for additions on that road? Many businesses and houses go really close to the road.

[Shuz]

Magill road? What room is there for additions on that road? Many businesses and houses go really close to the road.

That's just the thing, it's not an addition! It makes use of the existing space by introducing a reversible lanes system.

[peas_and_corn]

Reversible lane system?

[Shuz]

Reversible lane system?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversible_lane

[peas_and_corn]

I doubt it will fix much on Magill road. While there is a lot of traffic on peak hour, there is a lot of general traffic at all hours. What direction would be best for weekends? On Saturdays (in my experience anyway) that road is busy pretty much all day in both directions.

However, this is getting incredibly off topic...

[Cam]

The Suicide Lane model would be most feasable for Glen Osmond road at the minute.

[AtD]

Counter-flow lanes on Glen Osmond Road is a beggar-thy-neighbour solution without property acquisition. As the road is only four lanes wide with no median or turning lanes, in peak there would presumably be 3 lanes heading with peak and just one lane heading against peak. Two lanes, surprisingly, are more than twice as much traffic as one lane. I would expect a relative relief for peak direction traffic would be offset by significant angst for counter peak direction traffic.

Shuz's suggestion of counter-flow lanes on roads such as Unley, Magill and Goodwood Roads overlooks a key issues. These inner city streets are more than means of transports but destinations in their own right. This is why parking should be allowed on Goodwood Road, IMO, as it is now. Converting these roads into four lane drag strips would ruin their ambiance and destroy these higher density inner city areas, at the benefit of the car dependent lower density suburban sprawl we dislike. It'll encourage more traffic and therefore more noise and pollution, making the area less pedestrian friendly. Would you dine in an alfresco area along side the SE Freeway?

This is the conflict that faces many inner city arterial roads in all the major cities. The street is as much a destination as a means of transport.

[Norman]

If there ever was a desperate need for more capacity on Glen Osmond Road, all options already used (PT, etc), a tunnel would be the only option to contain the character of those suburbs.

[adam73837]

If there ever was a desperate need for more capacity on Glen Osmond Road, all options already used (PT, etc), a tunnel would be the only option to contain the character of those suburbs.

I agree. As Shuz had said earlier on in this forum,

In an effort to minimise the costs of property acquisition, and disruption to traffic, the best solutlion is to tunnel. Not only does tunnelling provide a soundproof environment, it provides a continous right of way from point A to B, minimal property acquistion, and offers an oppurtunity to reclaim Glen Osmond Road to its former glory - with trams!

Glen Osmond Road would also be the corridor into the city for the people in the areas surrounding it (as it is now), however without having the added pressure of being the link between the city and the southeast of the state.
This expressway-style tunnel's Hills portal could be about halfway between the Mt Osmond exit on the Adelaide-Crafers Highway and the Portrush Road/Cross Road/ Glen Osmond Road Intersection. Its city portal could then be located either on the Glenside Campus -as Shuz suggested, OR it could be in the southeastern corner of the parklands, thus feeding traffic into the city ring route. The city ring route of Fullarton Road/Dequetteville Terrace/Hackney Road/Mann Road/Park Road/Robe Terrace and Fitzroy Terrace could then be upgraded into a continuous expressway-style road with underpasses at the current location of the Britannia Roundabout (thus killing two birds with one stone), Botanic Road/North Terrace and the other intersections along the current route. This continuous route can then find our North-South Corridor, which therefore completes a continuous freight route for the freight from the state's south-east and serves the hills and city.
I am well aware that such a thing would cost ALOT, which is why it wouldn't necessarily be the thing to do RIGHT NOW (what with the financial crisis), but rather in the near future to provide a long-term solution for freight and the growing number of commuters from the hills. -Nor am I saying that my idea is THE solution, I'm just asking for a long-term vision from the leaders of our state, rather than quick band-aid solutions to make it look like they are always doing something.

[Somebody]

For all those advocating a tunnel, where are you proposing the tunnel dumps all these cars at the other end?

How is encouraging more people to drive into the CBD a good thing? And nobody here has had the foresight of my plan to include special off-ramps to major carparks - one of which will be on reclaimed land formerly used by parklands, cos if everybody drives then we need more car parking :wank:

[Shuz]

Read my earlier posts Somebody.

[AtD]

You don't answer his question Shuz. The ACC is actively discouraging more traffic through narrowing of roads by removing lanes and limiting turns. Examples include North Terrace and Grote Street.

[adam73837]

For all those advocating a tunnel, where are you proposing the tunnel dumps all these cars at the other end?

How is encouraging more people to drive into the CBD a good thing? And nobody here has had the foresight of my plan to include special off-ramps to major carparks - one of which will be on reclaimed land formerly used by parklands, cos if everybody drives then we need more car parking :wank:

I forgot to mention that. In the forum, the 'Great Roads Debate', I had suggested something similar involving car parks on the edge of the CBD near the exits. However the more I think about it, the more I think that your idea is far better because it keeps the cars out of the CBD streets, while keeping the cars out of suburban areas and school zones.