GRIFFITH’S traffic-choked main street will need a radical overhaul “sooner rather than later” to ease the parking problems plaguing it, a local road safety expert has claimed.
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Council road safety officer Greg Balind said insufficient parking, slow-moving traffic and reversing nightmares – all signs Griffith is rapidly outgrowing its main street – had worsened in recent years as the city expanded.
The gridlock in Banna Avenue in peak periods had become so severe, a local professional driver has even proposed council reclaim part of the footpath and introduce 45-degree parking on the kerb.
Mr Balind said drivers were waiting longer than ever to pull out of centre parking bays as traffic banked up and the roundabouts at Ulong Street and Jondaryan Avenue were regularly clogged with stationary vehicles.
“We are going to get to a situation where, in the next five, 10 or 20 years, we are going to have to change the parking situation in the main street,” Mr Balind said.
“It is getting more and more congested – I was down there at 7.30 this (Friday) morning and the traffic was moving slowly even then.
“When someone comes up with a good solution that maintains the same amount of parking, I would be very happy to hear it.”
In 2006, then-councillor Allan Bennett endorsed the idea of changing the centre parking in Banna Avenue to 45-degree angle parking, with an additional lane set aside for vehicles to reverse into. The proposal never came to fruition after it was determined the move would reduce the number of bays by 30 per cent.
Goulburn has adopted a similar system in its main street, while Wagga solved the problem of outgrowing its CBD by cutting Baylis Street back from four lanes to two.
Wade Transport courier driver Nathan Ross, who until recently was allocated Banna Avenue as his “patch”, had his own ideas to improve traffic flow on the main street.
He believed 45-degree parking along the kerb would increase parking spaces and reduce the number of vehicles driving up and down looking for a spot.
“You’d get more cars in there and the street is probably wide enough to do it,” Mr Ross said.
“Even if it’s not, you don’t need a 12-foot wide footpath, we could make that a bit narrower and have more space for parking.
“As well as increasing parking, we need to educate people how to use roundabouts. All our congestion problems start at the roundabout near the ambulance station.”
While Mr Balind said council was open to ideas to improve congestion in the main street, he said angle parking along the kerb wasn’t the answer.
“The street’s not wide enough for that and narrowing the footpath isn’t on our radar at all,” he said.
In the meantime, he called on drivers to be courteous while navigating the main street.
“Letting people out when they are looking for an opportunity to reverse is just the considerate thing to do,” he said.
“We all know full well what it’s like to be stuck for a long time trying to reverse and what goes around, comes around.”