[bikeqld] Miskin St/ Milton Road Roundabout crossing

[kim]

Hi Bob,

I think the risks there are the squeeze you get on milton road just 
before the left onto Miskin. There is the standard kink in the road to 
slow traffic down entering the roundabout and most traffic (especially 
the long trucks) iron out this kink by going far to the left, you can 
witness the state of the kerb there as a testimony to this. This squeeze 
on the motorists blind side is pretty risky for cyclists. Once you turn 
onto Miskin you don't get to see what is behind you coming off the 
roundabout and they do come off fast there. You then have to move 
diagonally across miskin to the refuge or perhaps into the bus lane if 
you get the break in the traffic coming down miskin. I think you have a 
better chance crossing miskin directly, its probably more likely that 
the motorists would be expecting it that way too. You probably get a 
faster run along the shared path from Sylvan than getting onto Milton Rd 
during the afternnoon peak anyway.
If you still prefer the milton rd option I would suggest that you 
continue up to dean st and skip the miskin crossing as that stretch in 
my view is safer. The journey through the roundabout is not that bad if 
you don't get left turning motorists from milton rd onto miskin. I did 
try that for a while but it was that squeeze before the roundabout that 
put me off and I did not fancy taking the lane at that point on milton rd.
If you turn into the park and ride car park between miskin and dean, it 
is now a bit dubious about where the bikes can ride as you are faced 
with no entry signs now and seemingly no exemption for bikes.
The bike bits in that area are council but MR does control the first 50m 
up the adjoining roads so in theory council has to get the nod from MR 
to change anything. I doubt very much that they actually do that tho 
when you look at what they did when they put down a traffic calming 
feature at the bike crossing point and then ripped it up. I am sure MR 
would not have give the nod for that.
The fact that the shared path is all but blocked on the corner there now 
and has been that way for several weeks does not make things any easier 
for cyclists but it does not seem to bother Council too much.

cheers
k



Bob Wagner wrote:
> I am wondering if there is a simple solution to this intersection. 
> Could bikes coming from Sylvan road stay on the road on milton road 
> then swing up miskin Street and across into the bike/bus green lane?
>
> It is a pretty poor excuse for a crossing so close to the entry of the 
> western bike way and Mt Cootha.
>
> Who do we contact with ideas?
>
>
> Bob Wagner
> b.wagner at ozemail.com.au
> b.wagner at staidan.qld.edu.au
>
>
>
>
>
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