3 minute read
Bird’s Eye View
BIRDS EYE VIEW by Carol Messenger
NONE OF US LIKE TRAFFIC JAMS
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Ithink it's fair to say that none of us like traffic jams - stuck there barely crawling along and usually when you are in a hurry or late for something.
But what is more annoying is when there is no need for it. It's bad enough when you are in a car and worse still in a truck with cars cutting in and changing lanes because they see a spare six feet that may advance them in the queue.
Apart from the traffic snarls due to roadworks, the most common cause is from accidents and the resulting holdups as [in bad accidents] Police need to take measurements and photos, tow trucks jockey for position to claim the load, emergency service vehicles attend to injured patients and Rubber Necker’s crawl past hoping to get a glimpse of something gruesome.
One of the major problems is the sheer length of time that it seems to take to clear an accident scene on WA Freeways.
Obviously, the first priority is to attend to injured people but the second priority must surely be to drag the vehicles clear of the road and get the traffic moving again. Why is it such a long drawn out process in WA?
With all the new technologies we have such as drones, cameras etc. it should be an easy matter for attending Police to get the photos done and quickly get the vehicles cleared away.
A couple of weeks ago, there was an accident on the Freeway near Berrigan Drive involving a truck and a diesel spill. It took over four hours to clear and get traffic moving again. Four hours is just ridiculous.
The Freeway is a traffic jam most days all by itself, without any accidents, but when you get a bingle like this, traffic can be banked back over 10 kms and no-one is going anywhere in a hurry.
With this accident, one of the major problems was that no-one was advising oncoming traffic that was planning to enter the Freeway that there was a problem ahead - so they had the opportunity to consider an alternative route.
Would it not make sense for the authorities in charge of traffic management to put up signs advising entering traffic of a major incident ahead ‘well before’ drivers committed to the Freeway route and added to the bank up?
In this case, traffic could have been diverted off onto South Street or Karel Avenue for an alternative route. For those that had come South from the city, would it not make sense to divert them off before they even get to the queue? Yes, you might have to travel a few extra kms round the long way but it's better for everyone than being stuck in a traffic snarl for hours.
I was lucky with this accident that I was going the opposite way but traffic was backed up some seven to eight kilometres and getting worse by the minute.
When the traffic jam is that bad, people get frustrated and then the stupid behaviour begins. Before you know it, you have two more accidents to contend with.
I warned a number of trucks to get off at South Street but that's not my job to do so. Why weren't our traffic management authorities doing that?
These authorities need to be a lot more proactive and see what they can do to ease the situation before it gets any worse. Have a look at where traffic can be diverted off if possible and reduce the number of vehicles that are heading into the existing jam to give it a chance to clear out a bit.
So many times, you go past an accident scene and there is more congestion caused by all the attending vehicles than by the actual accident itself. Get the clean-up crew vehicles, tow trucks and Police and whoever else is there to get off the road and into the emergency lane – that’s what it’s there for. Drag the vehicles off the road if necessary and get the traffic moving again.
In America, if there is an accident on a Freeway, a helicopter comes and picks up the offending vehicle and flies it away. Maybe this is something that we could look at too. Getting traffic moving again has to be made a priority not just (as it seems) an after-thought.
