B-Line causes Collaroy residents to lose access to Eastbank Ave
MORE than 70 residents are battling bureaucracy after a ‘crazy’ decision to install a No Right Hand Turn sign at the end of their street in order to help the B-line express buses run on time.
Manly
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MORE than 70 residents are battling bureaucracy after a “crazy” decision to install a No Right Hand Turn sign at the end of their street.
Transport authorities are banning cars turning right into Eastbank Ave from Pittwater Rd, Collaroy, during peak periods to help the B-line express buses run on time.
No vehicles heading south on Pittwater Rd can turn into Eastbank Ave — a dead end — between 6am and 10am or from 3pm and 7pm on weekdays.
But residents’ spokeswoman Kelly L’Estrange said they have been pushing Transport for NSW (TfNSW) to, instead, install a turn right bay on Pittwater Rd instead of shutting off right turning traffic for eight hours a day.
“Because of this decision, we have to make a detour of more than one kilometre, down Pittwater Rd and turn into Brissenden Ave and then loop around back onto Pittwater Rd at Ocean Grove, just to get into our own street,” Ms L’Estrange said.
“We’ve been fighting this for about 18 months”
She pointed out that Transport for NSW was installing six right turn bays for southbound traffic on Pittwater Rd including at Stuart, Ramsay, Frazer and Jenkins streets as well as Homestead Ave and Ocean Grove.
Ms L’Estrange said TfNSW did not take into account the opening of a new block of apartments on Eastbank Ave, with 50 car spaces, which opened in 2017.
“More people will need to use the street and it will make it worse,’ she said.
“It just seems crazy. They haven’t thought this through.”
TfNSW said it received submissions from 16 people opposed to the right turn ban, but the residents were told that it was designed to improve traffic flow, safety and efficiency on Pittwater Rd.
They were also advised that a study showed only seven vehicles made that turn each day and that there was not enough space to build a turning bay that allowed vehicles to safely decelerate in this area.
“As a result, a turning bay would present a safety risk, increasing the likelihood of rear end accidents,” a TfNSW document said.
A TfNSW spokesman told the Manly Daily that the AM/PM peak restriction on turning into Eastbank Ave was one of a number of initiatives aimed at improving traffic flow along Pittwater Rd.
“A right hand turn can be made at all other times,” he said. “The right hand turn restriction sign will be installed by the end of this month.”
Other traffic changes include installing ‘No U-turn’ signs for northbound traffic on Pittwater Rd at Eastbank Ave and Collaroy Surf Lifesaving Club; closing the existing median gap on Pittwater Rd at Birdwood Ave and at Hay St and; banning northbound motorists from turning right into Ocean Grove from Pittwater Rd.