Bayside has a very interesting item set down for decision at its March 19th council meeting. A major development on Bay St. has been given the go-ahead by VCAT. Concerned about potential ‘rat-runs’ and other traffic problems for neighbouring streets as a consequence of this development, Bayside queried the developers’ Traffic Management Plan and did its own research and consultation. We’ve uploaded the full officers’ report, (minus photographs and diagrams) but wish to highlight here the extent that the community has been involved in shaping the outcomes for their neighbourhoods. Of course, nothing like this ever happens in Glen Eira!
Please note the extent of the following consultation –
Glen Eira Debates 
March 15, 2013 at 1:26 PM
None of this was done with any major development including C60 and for sure not when they decided to turn Centre Road into a 40 k speed limit. Was having coffee with friends yesterday in the little cafe on Mahvo. Couldn’t hear yourself talk with the volume of traffic racing off Centre Road and going down this narrow street. No planning should be the motto for this council.
March 15, 2013 at 1:29 PM
We note that there’s another item on traffic management in this set of agenda papers that includes the creation of a 10 person resident reference committee. Again, what a contrast to Glen Eira!
March 15, 2013 at 4:08 PM
Funny thing about Glen Eira Traffic Management – when it comes to residents complaining about the traffic speeds and volumes in residential streets the residents are expected to substantiate their claims and their knowledge of traffic in their streets is brushed off. Yet when it comes to reports on developments (eg. the latest 10 storey Glen Huntly Road planning permit) the Traffic Deparment feels free to use, and Councillors accept, anecdotal evidence.
The Traffic Department does not care about residents as no one in the Traffic Dept. is an employee of Glen Eira Council. The entire Traffic Department is contracted out to CK O’Brien therefore their sole interest is in furthering their career in O’Brien’s by ensuring that Council renews O’Brien’s contract. Who decides if the contract is renewed – the pro-development CEO who is never questioned by Councillors. Ergo residents concerns are way down on Traffic Departments priority list.
March 16, 2013 at 11:59 AM
You can FOI traffic data, as I did a few years ago. Glen Eira failed to meet the statutory time limit for a response and when they did eventually respond it was delivered in a font so small they clearly hoped it would be illegible. It was so pathetic that I felt sorry for the officers who had that attitude toward the community.
Far from doing something about ‘rat runs’, Glen Eira seems to have designated certain roads as ‘rat runs’. Nothing happened even when I pointed out that their own data showed that 300 cars exceeded the speed limit in my street every day. One in seven cars speeding was not enough to prompt any action, leading me to conclude that council has designated my street as a ‘rat run’. Inaction speaks louder than words.
March 15, 2013 at 7:19 PM
The Traffic Department doesn’t have the expertise to do the job that has been delegated to it. This can be seen from the vague, evidence-free, unquantifiable statements it makes in support of multi-unit developments, oblivious of the general requirements supposedly placed on it (and all other departments) by SPPF. That’s why net increases in vehicle movements are always treated dismissively (“it is considered that the local road system can cope” or “the increase in traffic is considered negligible”). These are religious beliefs, not statements of fact. They represent pseudo-science, of the kind that one of the world’s greatest physicists, Richard Feynman, was so scathing. Where are the results of traffic flow modelling? How much longer is the predicted travel time for a resident’s vehicle to enter or leave their suburb of residence? To what extent are existing congestion problems exacerbated? What is the cumulative effect of this decision and all future decisions that emulate it? Should vehicles really be driving down the wrong side of a road to dodge congestion? You will never find answers to these questions in officer reports or developer submissions in Glen Eira.
March 16, 2013 at 9:33 AM
Well said Reprobate. I’d just like to add 3 things
1) As per a previous post, Council rubber stamps planning permit extensions and hads admitted it does not track them. Ergo they are excluded from any purported traffic analysis. Take the Cnr. of Balaclava Road and Kambrook Road (4 storeys of residences with ground floor shops) – approved about 10 years ago, currently fenced off vacant land – it’s impact on the already clogged intersection will be huge but the development is never factored into any traffic analisys.
2) If the traffic department does do some genuine traffic analysis (volume and speed counts), it fobs residents off with the 85th Percentile Rule (ie. if 85% of the vehicles are at or under the speed limit then the speed limit is considered appropriate) and the Vic Roads determinied residential street acceptable volume of 3000 vehicles per day (the acceptable volume being raised from 1,500 vpd to 3,000 vpd some 2 years ago – another case of problem sovling by doing nothing other than changing the standards). In the case of the 85th percentile rule the traffic department refuses to accept that if 85% are at or under the speed limit then 15% are over the speed limit. In my street 300 vpd are over the speed limit yet this is acceptable because of the 85th percentile rule – forget width of street, forget issues of pedestrian safety, forget issues of residents vehicular access to property, forget existing traffic treatments are not longer working.
3) Council has abandoned the concept of Local Area Traffic Management (which is based on the concept that a change in one street will have a flow on impact to other streets, therefore, effective traffic management requires a review of localised road networks) preferring to adopt an isolationist view (ie, one street at a time). The dropping of the speed limits in Glen Huntly Road, Elsternwick and Centre Road, Bentleigh, are cases in point – both have had signficant, well publicised rat run impacts on surrounding streets. Council did not consider flow on impacts when implementing the reduced speed limits and is now doing it’s darndest to ignore them.
March 15, 2013 at 8:50 PM
“Nothing like this happens in Glen Eira” Well Glen.Eira wrong again.Murray St Caulfield was designated a rat run more than 10 years ago and blocked midway turning it into a No Through Rd. You need to check your facts before you embarrass yourself.
March 15, 2013 at 10:40 PM
If you had interpreted our comment correctly you would have seen that we were referring to the extent of community consultation and not whether rat runs were identified a decade ago. The more pertinent question of course is how many rat runs exist currently and what has this council done about them? How many are a direct result of their traffic management decisions? What research was undertaken prior to implementing these traffic management ‘solutions’ and the most vital question – what community involvement was there?
March 16, 2013 at 8:39 AM
10 years ago and one street – hardly cause for acclaim.
In past 10 years multi unit developments have streaked ahead and rat runs have become the norm. Council only budgets 4-5 traffic calming treatments per year (usually in the form of speed pads – the cheapest and most ugly traffic calming treatment available) – this can hardly be considered a serious attempt to address the issue.