Cairns Post’s Your Say on the Far North survey shows traffic lights are a bugbear

A GROWING population means growing traffic woes and Cairns residents have not held back on their opinions about the city’s most frustrating intersections.

Mama Coco manager Dan Stacey at the lights at the Mulgrave Rd and Aumuller St intersection PICTURE: ANNA ROGERS

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A GROWING population means growing traffic woes and Cairns residents have not held back on their opinions about the city’s most frustrating intersections.

More than 82 per cent of respondents in Cairns Post’s “Your Say on the Far North”survey agreed there was a problem with traffic lights, and it is citywide.

The main pinchpoints however were identified as the Aumuller St and Mulgrave Rd intersection, lights on Sheridan St at Mother of Good Counsel, the ubiquitous obstacles to getting a smooth run down Abbott and Lake streets and the Captain Cook Highway.

Other areas that caused grievances were the Bruce Highway at the southern entrance to the city, the intersection of Pease and Hoare streets and the Captain Cook and Kennedy Highway roundabout at Smithfield.

Lynette Heweston and her sons Oliver 6 and Hugo 4 on Sheridan St at the Mother of Good Counsel School in North Cairns PICTURE: ANNA ROGERS

Mama Coco manager Dan Stacey said he witnessed plenty of disgruntled drivers stuck at the traffic lights from his vantage point on the northern corner of Aumuller St and Mulgrave Rd.

Cairns Post timed the changes and found the green light lasts for between 6 and 12 seconds. Traffic is stuck waiting on the red signal for up to three minutes.

“I definitely notice early in the morning all the tradies in their V8 utes running the orange and red lights. In the morning everyone is usually in a rush but these lights are really slow. If you miss them, then you’re waiting ages,” Mr Stacey said.

“In the morning, traffic is backed up and you have to wait two to three rotations to get through.

“It’s always quite busy because it is a main thoroughfare between suburbs like Brinsmead and Redlynch and Portsmith.

“We get a lot of customers complaining because a lot of people want to turn left at the lights on to Mulgrave Rd, but they don’t want to wait so they zoom up the bike lane and people getting out of their cars to come in are nearly getting wiped out.”

But Mr Stacey wasn’t sure of the best solution.

“It is tricky because the road is already wide enough so you don’t need extra lanes,” he said.

“It might speed them up a bit, but it’ll still be more people, stopping more often. It’s much of a muchness.”

Taxi driver Noel Beitzel routinely traverses the city and said the problem was not as big as others made out.

“I think they are co-ordinated, they just trip at different times of the day,” he said.

“What I do find is in the main CBD district, like Shields St, when I’m going down Abbott St, it is too long a wait because there is too much foot traffic.

“Otherwise I think it’s working very well.”

There are others, however, who think traffic lights should slowly be abolished.

McPeake Town Planning owner James McPeake said the underlying issue in traffic light complaints was vehicle congestion.

“From a planning sense it’d be better if people cycled everywhere or walked or used public transport,” he said.

“Cities around the world are moving away from having more cars in CBDs and slowing the speed limits. Other cities introduce congestion taxes to charge you a premium to drive into the city.”

Taxi driver Noel Beitzel near one of Cairns’ busiest areas.

LAST month, Cairns Regional Council announced another set of traffic lights would be built in the CBD to improve cyclist safety.

The council will apply for $1 million to replace the existing roundabout at the intersection of Florence and Lake streets with traffic lights.

■ Another $495,000 will be sought to continue widening roads and for specific treatments to provide safe passing opportunities and increased awareness of cyclists.

■ A final $372,000 is being sought to make the city’s roundabouts more cyclist-friendly.

■ Cairns Regional Council has agreed to participate in a State Government working group looking to lower inner-city speed limits to 40km/h.

■ Lights installed at the new $34.2 million Bill Fulton Bridge in Redlynch were reportedly not helping the commute along Cairns Western Arterial Rd past the Loridan Drive intersection in Brinsmead.

■ A “smart crossing” was installed in response to concerns about traffic flow at the intersection of Loridan Drive and Cairns Western Arterial Rd earlier this year.

It detects when pedestrians have cleared the crossing and fast-tracks the signal phase, allowing more green time for Loridan Dr traffic.

■ In 2015, Cairns Regional Council announced it would spend $176,000 on an upgrade of software used to operate 53 of the city’s traffic-light installations, and $210,000 to roll out more pedestrian crossing times at CBD intersections.

■ The council and Department of Transport and Main Roads are able to monitor the city’s traffic for congestion hot spots.

Originally published as Cairns Post’s Your Say on the Far North survey shows traffic lights are a bugbear