Proposed Tomerong "Local Area
Traffic Management Scheme"
Tomerong Community Forum advice to Shoalhaven City Council
You can download our submission of 3 November 2004 here
or
Return to Tomerong resource page
The notion of a 'Local Area Traffic Management Scheme' [LATMS] is not so much about managing cars, buses and trucks as about providing for people.
Ours is a village based around a small store and post office, school and union church and School of Arts hall. We have no boutique heritage commercial heart. Not wanting mail delivery service – very happy, thank you, to walk to the post office, collect the mail, eat the ice cream, nurture the gos... We have only 120 dwellings now, but lots of people say they reckon they should move to Tomerong, and multiple subdivisions under way or on paper will multiply population swiftly. As a community, we are responding to this by a number of steps to emphasize our identity, history and current social and cultural assets. We want to make sure new arrivals can see these things, join in and help us avoid becoming an isolated and under-resourced dormitory suburb.
We have a sense that local government is aware of this and perceptive of its value. We need support as well from state government, not least in enabling us to have a physical basis in roads and paths and cycling and disabled routes through the village. We want to be pro-active, establishing a set up which allows new arrivals to see a pedestrian-supportive environment and make the most of it.
The main road through the village is Hawken Rd, the old Princes Highway, a good surface, built to get trucks through, not to park them so well. In the picture below, looking south along Hawken Rd, the septic pump-out truck is hard against the kerb, but right-hand wheels are in the carriageway, so that passing it legally is difficult. In the foreground are the blisters marking the northern end of the 40km/h school zone. At the crest beyond (poor visibility, just on the southern corner of the school) is a second set of blisters. Council has decided (and Tomerong Community Forum supports and urges rapid completion of work) to alter road markings, narrowing the carriageway, encouraging slowing, making for safer parking, legal passing. There is also a need for signage and speed humps at key points such as this.
These are the southern blisters (picture below) between school and church on the east [right of picture] and School of Arts on the west. At the inspection on 26 October, council officers noted that there have never been safety markers placed on these blisters. The northern blisters pictured above are near the yellow car in the distance.
The Tomerong Community Forum 'plan' for Tomerong [.pdf download from here] adopted in May 2004 proposed a 24 hour slow speed zone throughout the centre of Tomerong. Ideally we would like a shared pedestrian-vehicle zone, but that being hard to get, we argue for a 40km zone, at least as big as the school zone, preferably also embracing the crossroads visible up the end of the road below, and some distance beyond.
The sign on the blisters is part of early reading at the school
– here it is close up (below) – they need to be good readers early.
A pedestrian crossing was ruled out long ago
because of line of sight problems on the crest.
The only safety with increasing traffic lies in speed restraint and calming.
The trouble with a sign like that is that it educates children to the supremacy of the vehicle,
early bad driver training.
Fortunately sensible and considerate drivers recognise the importance of giving way.
Here (below) we see a courteous driver giving way and a wise bus driver
accompanying children to the crossing to see them across.
We need a system which supports and endorses that situation.
But in the event of an accident, who is liable?
This picture below shows a very common situation.
Through traffic has a sense of hastening uphill on a highway kind of road,
drivers come over the crest at the southern blisters and encounter
slow moving vehicles, parking or moving off.
This truck brakes, rage behaviour is not uncommon.
This articulated bus below has no hope of getting its wheels off the road.
And again, another large bus unloading onto a narrow path, big truck coming.
State Government funding is being sought for a pedestrian exit from the school
to allow students to get to the bus through this fence below,
down to a safer and more substantial space than is provided by the footpath.
The school has asked parents delivering and collecting children to drive off Hawken Rd and along Church St to a parking area at the southeast of the school. Here below a car exits Church St into Hawken Rd. A question has also arisen as to whether Church St should be continued through into land to be proposed to be developed under SF9585 (Watt subdivision). The Tomerong Community Forum has conveyed general community opposition to this proposal (and in favour of handsome pedestrian access to the subdivision along this way!). Our submission on this is here.
We urge Council to seal this short road as soon as possible,
to reduce dust nuisance to neighbours and improve use of the road by school traffic.
We urge some improvement of landscaping on the nature strip corners
while road making vehicles are present for sealing.
We also draw attention to the fact that the intersection is awkward as is.
If any major new through traffic were to be considered,
substantial upgrade would be needed and impact on the community of all that would need study.
The car is turning to the south. Adjoining the corner, on the left, is the church, then the school.
Walking back to the north, we need to look at the crossroads at Hawken (north-south),
William Bryce (to the west, formerly the Turpentine Rd) and
Pine Forest (to the east) Roads.
This young cyclist awaits his chance to cross Pine Forest Rd and proceed up Hawken Rd to the north.
Once through the intersection, he has no footpath,
needs to ride on the road (heading out of the picture on the left).
Council has approved a subdivision of 20 houses to the left up there (Bryce subdivision)
another (Parnell subdivision) is anticipated to the right.
In addition to travelling to school,
safe crossing from one subdivision to the other will be important.
William Bryce Rd comes to the crossroads at a disadvantage, uphill, poor visibility.
With new residential blocks down here, and to the left,
more safety will be needed, especially for children crossing.
This picture below is taken in Pine Forest Rd, from the crest visible in the picture above.
There is little preparation for the intersection.
This below is in the opposite direction, looking east on Pine Forest Rd.
Two subdivision proposals will see
three entrances to sixty + blocks between the two vehicles travelling east. We propose that the 50km/h zone be at the bottom of the hill, the 40km zone where the 100km (red car) is now.
