Any one ridden to/from Freo via Preston Point Road between Wauhop Rd. & Petra St. in the last few days?
East Freo are ‘upgrading’ this section of road and are in the process of installing central reservation concrete kerb islands before re-asphalting. Unfortunately with the resulting narrow lane width due to retention of the existing kerb line, no allowance for a bicycle lane and the new central islands, they have created an accident trap for cyclists – as I discovered at 6.30 yesterday evening.
The Road Traffic Code requires cars / trucks to give a cyclist a 1 metre clearance when overtaking. With a ‘lone’ cyclist riding at approx 400mm out from the kerb line (me) – there is just enough room for a car to physically squeeze by – which although illegal is what happened yesterday evening; I reckon the cars wing mirror would have been 200-300 mm from my right elbow / handlebar. There is a slight right hand curve in that particular traffic island, forcing the back end of the passing car to swing out to the left in front of me; if I hadn’t braked hard the car bumper would have taken out my front wheel.
Riding in a pack wouldn’t be an issue – we’d pair up to go through the new central islands and simply hold up the traffic. Riding single file either alone or in a pack will tempt cars / trucks to take the challenge of forcing their way through – particularly where the traffic island is more than a few metres long; this presents a very high safety risk to cyclists.
As cyclist we need to lobby hard to get something done about this before its all too late. Can anyone who cares, have a look for yourself and then write a letter /email to the City of East Freo; Minister of Transport and anyone else who you think might listen to exert pressure on the Council to change the design by either removing the traffic islands or installing an on road bike lane (similar to the section of Preston Point road to the east of the Petra St roundabout).
23 thoughts on “Preston Point Road “Upgrade””
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totally agree. i rode this section on monday evening, and was amazed at the poor design. in addition to the total non consideration of cyclists by omission of bike lane, i thought that the non mountable kerbing was also a bad bad mistake. i can’t believe that in this day and age, whoever was commisioned to design this section gave no consideration to the non motoring public. and like mark, i felt like writing to whoever could fix the @#*&-up. if we write to the council or responsible department, advising that it is an “accident waiting to happen”, and say we’ll sue if an accident/serious injury occurs, they might feel obliged to do something about it, given that they have been given advice/warning and can’t plead ignorance, maybe maybe
seems alot of the innovation in ‘traffic calming’ – is hazard city for the growing population of road cyclists.
Less room for safe passage and more ‘road furniture’ to clip your front wheel on. I feel sorry for novice riders who may not see the potential hazards hiding in the shadows – until it is to late.
Maybe we should have a page dedicated to documenting ‘black spots’.
The “improvements” are detailed in all their glory here
http://www.eastfremantle.wa.gov.au/template.asp?Main=index&Parent=whatsnew#30
Preston Point Road – Improvements
In 2006 Main Roads identified the 2km long section of Preston Point Road between Petra Street and Alcester Street as a Black Section with a crash rate statistically greater than the norm. In particular rear end crashes, right turn against crashes and crashes at night were found to be overrepresented.
“Lowering of the speed environment by reducing lane widths and installing slow points.”
“Widening of the verges and embankments along the sporting grounds to provide a 2.5m wide clear zone on the straights and 3.0m wide clear zone on the bends to provide recovery width for errant vehicles.”
Perhaps the widened verges and reduced lane widths are euphemisms for “newly created bicycle hazard zones.”
Looking at the time effort and money that has gone into this upgrade, and not seeing a single word mentioning cyclists is sad. Also makes me think that it is way too late to have our say or influence the outcome.
On a roll now: I was also shocked on Tuesday morning to see how narrow the road has become.
The ToEF receptionist said me and everyone else wants to voice a concern over the roadworks on PP road, sounds like they are getting a lot of phone calls – although not clear what other peoples’ concerns are.
She told me that the best person to talk to is Ken Dyer Operations Manager.
9319 1462 – but I got no answer, has voicemail.
0400 082 291 is his mobile, straight to voicemail where I left a polite message saying I had a concern about how narrow the road has become and how cars will squeeze through with a cyclist and that is likely to become a hazard.
Nothing much will change without putting concerns in writing, but from here I have no idea what can be done.
davidp.
I have emailed mp adele carles and filled in hazard form at http://www.transport.wa.gov.au/cycling/2345.asp
urge others to do same/similar, and complain to ToEF as above..
2 or 3 saturday’s ago I saw a rider had gone down just the freo side of the Petra St roundabout. I missed the incident itself but police were at the scene when I rolled past, taking notes.
It’s really been an accident waiting to happen recently. Not only is it now narrower but there’s always loose bluemetal scattered out across the left of the lane.
But then, even further down towards Point Walter Rd where there is a clearly marked lane for bikes last week I had a driver honk me from behind then proceed to pass me to turn left in front of me, ending up with both of us screeching to a standstill halfway through the corner.
You would think that given the amount of cycle traffic around these riverside roads drivers there would have a bit more sense sharing their roads with us?
Your cycling advocate reporting back …
Ken Dyer returned my call and was pleasant to talk to and willing to listen to my concern.
The crux appears to be that once the safety runoff area is taken into account (there is a decent dropoff afterall) and a pedestrian safety area in the middle is catered for there isn’t enough room for a bicycle lane on both sides.
Whilst this doesn’t do anything to mitigate the risk of single riders along the 100m or so we are worried about, the road works should have the effect of slowing all traffic along PP Rd.
I doubt there is anything we can now do to widen the road or make it safer for lone cyclists.
Be extra careful and ride as far left as you feel safe and listen to what is happening behind you esp. if you are on your own.
As you can see from Nearmaps – there appears to be more than enough space on the south side of the road to be able to move the southern kerb soutwards by 3 metres and create 1.5 metre bikes lanes either side of the road. However I’m not surprised that this wasn’t put forward as an option by Mr Dyer ! The Council has installed the new kerb on the north side and what they should do now is re-locate the southern kerb line southwards – if they are insistent about installing the ‘traffic calming’ central islands.
I suspect that the same issue will arise on Burke Drive as part of that upgrade too. I still believe that we should individually write to who ever we can to express our concerns. As it stands the situation is dangerous for cyclists and I believe that as above there is a ‘safe’ design solution. The ‘sensible’ cyclist will have to be assertive & ride in the middle of the lane & block off traffic behind (as we do now along the Esplanade between Canning & Mt Henry Bridge – but at least on that road there is only a limited amount of traffic) and expect to get the usual ire and aggressive response from frustrated motorists that is unfortunately all too common.
I agree with the comments above.
I will be doing as Stuart suggest and lodging a Hazard Report and writing to the Town of East Fremantle and warning them of potential civil action resulting from road-design influenced crash injury.
I would also urge people to consider alternative routes (are there any?).
I personally know of one middle aged woman who lives on that road at that location who hates “F*#@!ing cyclists” (in her words) after she rammed her expensive car into the back of my Cervelo at the Petra St roundabout recently.
Her continued rants were embarrasing her teenage passenger son and didn’t endear me to her at all. It was only my outstanding bike handling skills that prevented my serious injury. (!!?)
A Police report led to it being filed “no action”.
Take care, avoid clashes with motor vehicles, seek alternatives and lobby for change.
Or her to me either …..
will definitely be shame to have Burke Drive ruined like they have ruined Melville Beach Rd!
Bump……..bump……………bump…………..bump……………bump…………
and it’s not like they dont know its a cycling route – there is a big flashing sign up at the moment saying “caution cyclists”…
Call me a cynic, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this plan is simply to get us cyclists to choose an alternative route. The design certainly has no allowance for motor vehicles and cyclists to co-exist. Before the upgrades there were man y places for motor vehicles to easily pass even the largest group of cyclists. Now, these “traffic calming” measures are going to do anything but… Drivers will get frustrated and start taking ill-advised risks simply to try and squeeze past. Someone will be killed, or VERY seriously injured, along that stretch of road due to the poor design. And don’t get me started on that squared-off curbing…
I’ve been following a few of the SPR members on Twitter and this issue has irritated me enough to register on here and voice my concern. Every group I know uses that stretch of road at least once a week in one of their group rides. It’s probably the most popular stretch of road of cyclists in Perth. Shame the Town of East Perth isn’t as progressive or understanding as the City of Wanneroo (http://www.bwa.org.au/better-biking/478/)
Is it worth us putting together a generic letter that people can use?
I’m thinking along the lines of the recent “stop cuts to medical research” – the leading representative body sent round example letters that we could use to write to our local MPs etc.
We got the cycling community to identify key roads that are part of our rides and then identify which MPs or councils we would need to contact.
I had no idea there was a hazard form you could fill out – can we promote this more widely as well?
If we lobbied cohesively and consistently, MPs and the like may become aware that large parts of the voting public see this as a major issue….???
If they want to slow motorists down (afterall, they’re study shows 94.7% of cars travelling over 50kph (which is the speed limit) and an incredible 265 vehicles per day travelling over 80kph), why don’t they put a fixed speed camera along that stretch? They are quite common in Sydney and very effective, plus, they could use the extra money to build better bike lanes!!!
David and Stuart have it right –
I submitted a Hazard Report and quickly received the Town of East Fremantle’s generic “Cyclist’s Complaint Letter” from Ken Dyer, Operations Manager.
The summary of it is “we considered a cycle lane but decided not too with our preference going to a median strip for pedestrians in the centre of the road. …..Slow traffic will benefit all road users including cyclists”.
Also, the “road calming” measures are to be extended all the way to Canning Highway (have a look at the marks on the road), including on the crest of the hill.
Definitely time to consider riding down Canning Highway to the lights at Petra Street as an alternative (or something else?)
I was struck on Preston Point Rd at 9.15am on Sunday whilst riding by myself. Furniture (i think it was a set of shelves) sticking out from a trailer towed by a V8 ute hit me on the right shoulder and knocked me into that big square kerb right at the very narrow bit near the Wauhop Rd roundabout. No injuries or bike damage. Close call.
faaaar q. close call indeeed
Some of you may have seen the cycle kit I wear with the road safety message “A-Metre-Matters” which is a key component of the efforts by the amygillett foundation to promote safe and mutually respectful road use between cyclists and vehicle users.
Have a look at amygillett.org.au
Cripes bill…. Just what u don’t need – another big stack! Rode the section this morning on my own and immediately had a car up behind me champing to get past…he was anything but calmed by the new road features. Will be taking the short cut north of the oval from now on.
Bill – sorry to that you were hit.
Can you please write to the “Mayor and Councillors” at East fremantle Council and let them know. If it was alongside one of their new central traffic islands – ie where the road has been narrowed – please confirm that in your letter.
I have been advised by someone who is a councillor in another council that its no good just writing to a public servant / engineer in the Council as the Councilors are likely not to be presented with the letter. You have to address it to the Mayor and Councillors for it to be tabled.
Also can you please send a copy to Colin Ward at Main Roads WA; BTA and BWA.
It is possible to get “poor design decisions” reversed if enough people get vocal.
Response from Adele carles office: “…….it would be more expedient for you to raise the same matter with your local MP and representative in the Legislative Assembly – John McGrath MLA. Mr McGrath should be able to bring the matter to the attention of Main Roads (or their Minister) who may be unaware of the heavy cycle use in that area.”
Looks like Mark_S and I (and ??) need to collaborate on some letters..
Hello Rouleurs, Bicycle Transport Alliance have written to East Fremantle Council
asking how they will manage the risk they have created with this approach to safe speeds that uses cyclists as human speed cushions. We will place the letter on our website in the next couple of days.
Steven McKiernan
Convenor
http://www.btawa.org.au
Will do as you request Mark_s and write to the people listed.
I did return email Ken Dyer, Operations Manager at the Town of East Fremantle with all the details but i take your point of “alerting those in power”.
I was quite explicit in informing the office bearers of the Council, their servants and all persons and companies involved in the design and construction of the road alterations that I would be pursuing all available remedies in the Courts to redress any loss (personal or financial) should they contribute to any disadvantage (ie. injury or damage) I suffer. That is: I will sue them personally and organisationally.
Don’t die wondering …..