Reform Wollongong City Council

Part of Cater Street, Coledale, runs up a steep hill from Lawrence Hargraves Drive, over a bridge across the railway, round a couple of bends and up to Morrison Avenue and Buttenshaw Drive.

There are a couple of the usual invisible traffic signs as you cross the railway bridge and before you encounter the first bend – neither of which is effective in terms of warning people what to expect.

FIRST BEND

The first bend, which hugs the hill on the south side, has really bad visibility for the frequent times when vehicles pass each other going in the opposite direction.

There is also vegetation on the side of the road which, left to run wild by Council, not only obscures what little visibility there is, but may scratch vehicles if they hug the corner too tight – so some locals instinctively drive wide to avoid damage to their cars. Not good!

In addition to those who drive too fast due to the stressed of modern life, some people accelerate to get their speed up to get up the hill. This means that, as they take the first bend, the laws of physics tend to throw their rocketing vehicle into the path of any vehicle coming down the hill. Some of the downhill vehicles come down far too fast into the bargain. Split second reflexes are called upon to avoid side swipes.

There are numerous stories among local people about the number of times they have had very narrow escapes from a major collision. Many locals have learnt to be very careful on this bend. People visiting the area for the first time have little idea of what they are about to encounter – suddenly and without warning – as they drive up Cater Street.

We – who live with this bend – all know it is only a matter of time before there is a major head-on collision on this first bend – which will result in maiming and possibly a terrible death.

SECOND BEND

The second bend, further up Cater Street, is a hairpin bend which – in addition to similar problems has also proved to be unsuitable for heavy vehicles seeking to come up the street. They get stuck – unable to proceed up the hill – and unable to turn around. Last time the road was blocked for three hours, with a concerned locals woman having to direct traffic.

Requests to Council for signs to warn trucks of the tight hairpin bend – and to try another route – have fallen on the usual deaf ears. The local woman who has warned truck drivers of what lies ahead has stopped doing this due to the abuse she received from those she was trying to help. An official sign is long overdue.

REQUESTS FOR ACTION

Some years about our Neighbourhood Committee, as it was then, wrote to Council seeking to have a mirror installed on the first bend so up and down traffic would have some idea of what was coming in the opposite direction. This request was turned down due to the fact that the type of mirrors used distorted the sense of distance, and were considered dangerous. So – nothing was done!

More recently, and concerned with the regular narrow misses as four wheel drives miss each other by a hair’s breadth, our local Neighbourhood Forum (CCNC/NF2) once again requested Wollongong City Council to take some timely action to reduce the risk of a dangerous collision. Some suggestions were also put forward, but basically we looked to the Traffic Committee – as the experts in such matters – to come up with a professional solution.

This request was referred to the Traffic Committee, which considered the matter at its November 2009 meeting. CCNC/NF2 met last night (Wed 3 Feb, 2010) and we were informed of the outcome:

THE PROFESSIONALS SPEAK:

This is their decision:

WOLLONGONG CITY COUNCIL
INFRASTRUCTURE DIVISION (STRATEGY & PLANNING)
TRAFFIC, TRANSPORT AND ROAD SAFETY SECTION
MINUTES
CITY OF WOLLONGONG TRAFFIC COMMITTEE
WEDNESDAY 18 NOVEMBER 2009

COLEDALE
20 Cater Street – blind corners
The Neighbourhood Forum has requested improvements to visibility on Cater Street, Coledale. Community members mentioned the blind corners and people swinging out when they corner.
Painted white lines have been suggested to try to guide cornering cars and keep them on their side of the road.
Traffic Committee is requested to consider traffic calming measures.
The pavement is too narrow for centreline or edge lines to be legally installed. As a direct result, no action is proposed.

(http://wcc.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/BusinessPapers/Traffic%20Committee%20Minutes%2018%20November%202009.pdf – accessed 4-2-2010)

NO ACTION

That’s right – no action is proposed!

Not even better warning signs to alert people to the danger. The present warning signs are totally ineffective – one being partially obscured by vegetation – and any driver coming up the hill has enough to deal with without looking at the vague signs.

What is really required is the hill on the southern side to the first bend to be cut away to improve the visibility and widen the road at that point. Better signs (for the first bend) should only be a temporary measure in the interim, until such serious remedial work can be budgeted for and scheduled.

REAL COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT

Cater Street is a small example – a fractal image – of a much more extensive problem.

What is really required is local people – working through their Neighbourhood Forum – to be empowered to:

* have the power, subject to reasonable advise from professionals, to get such signs put in place in a timely manner.
* have the power, subject to reasonable advice from all quarters, to set local funding priorities in relation to crucial road and footpath works.

This is what genuine and down-to-earth community empowerment is all about – getting sensible decisions made in a timely manner, rather than having decisions made by remote ‘professionals’ which really have no idea about the on-the-ground reality.

The present arrangement means that people with no real idea of the problems are called upon to make life and death decisions. That arrangement is not working.

A new 21st century design for our organisations accepts and acts on the knowledge that local people are best placed to make many of the decisions presently made by those who are not well placed to understand what they are talking about.

There can be no mistake what is being said here. It is not a matter of remote decision-makers allowing locals to ‘have their say’. Those days ar over – they result in bad decisions as the Cater Street example clearly demonstrates.

We can no longer afford to spend years lobbying remote decision-makers in an effort to get them to see common sense in relation to relatively small local matters. We have other pressing challenges to spend our scarce energy resources on as well. We have to get far more real decision-making power into the local community level – and to get this in place in ways which ensure it is used responsibly. This is a major design challenge.

The new design has, as its foundational premise, re-centering decision-making itself firmly in the centre of our local communities.

These reforms will not come from those who are presently empowered by the old paradigm.

These reforms will only result from the active engagement of local people in working together to wrestle decision-making power back into the core of our communities and, as a result, some local government sanity back into our lives.

Bruce Reyburn
4 Feb 2010