Off the Record: Albany’s pro-traffic light movement, and another car takes the plunge

SEEING RED There are some among us who would like to see Albany lose its unofficial title of Australia’s biggest city without traffic lights. You might have thought — as Off the Record once did — that we were all on the same page on this issue, that we took pride in our ability to get from A to B without coloured lights telling us what to do. In Albany, we love roundabouts, and what better way to show our love than by putting a five-way doozy at the entrance to our city? Right? But it can’t be denied — the pro-traffic light movement is alive and well within our ranks. Today’s front page features a story about the 2022 RAC Risky Roads survey, which yet again has identified the Chester Pass Roundabout as the riskiest intersection in regional WA. That ranking would have taken into account the undeniably dodgy South Coast Highway turn-off. But the part of the survey that caught OTR’s eye came under the sub-heading “issues”. “Area requires lights,” the survey said. Apparently, these “issues” come from members of the public who take part in the survey. It’s fair to assume that would include locals who use the roundabout on a regular basis. Intrigued, OTR dug back through previous editions of the RAC Risky Roads survey to see if it was an anomaly. However that only confirmed OTR’s suspicions — the pro-traffic light movement has been here for years. Take this suggestion from members of the public in the 2014 RAC Risky Roads survey: “Co-ordinated traffic lights for roundabout and South Coast Highway intersection.” And this from the 2017 survey: “Inadequate traffic light system.” Granted, traffic lights are not without their merits. Peak hour in Perth’s CBD, for example, would be a nightmare without traffic lights. A more relevant comparison would be the traffic lights at Bunbury’s massive Eelup roundabout, which have reportedly been a road safety success story. But Albany has a good thing going with its low-stress, lights-free lifestyle. Other places use their lack of lights as a selling point. Toodyay, with its population of 4500, has made a lot of noise about having no traffic lights. Blenheim, a town of 28,000 people on New Zealand’s South Island, proudly claims the title of New Zealand’s biggest town without traffic lights. Bhutan, with almost 800,000 people, claims to be the only country in the world without them. And if the Indian city of Kota completes its mission to be traffic-light free by the end of next year, it would have to go close to being the world No. 1 with a population of more than 1.2 million. So, all things considered, are traffic lights the answer to Albany’s risky roads woes? In this writer’s not-particularly- humble opinion, the South Coast Highway turn-off is the main problem. The intersection is too close to the roundabout, leaving little margin for error if someone is not paying attention or a driver exits the roundabout with too much speed. The long-awaited final stages of the Albany Ring Road will alleviate some of the congestion in the area — most importantly, the road trains — and therefore reduce the risk. Regardless, the South Coast Highway turn-off could do with being moved further north. In 2019, Main Roads WA flagged that relocation as a possibility once the Albany Ring Road was complete. However since then, the Regional Joint Development Assessment Panel has approved the development of a service station at that very intersection. It will be the sixth service station along a 1.5km stretch of Albany Highway. Swings and roundabouts — or should we say, servos and roundabouts. IN THE DRINK One road safety issue traffic lights certainly won’t solve is people ditching their cars into Princess Royal Harbour. OTR has attended enough crashes to know that drivers can get things staggeringly wrong, whether it is caused by inattention, intoxication or something else. But plunging into the ocean is an especially dramatic way to come unstuck. All you can hope is that no one is seriously injured — as was the case in Albany at the weekend. A crowd gathered at the water’s edge on Sunday afternoon as a white sedan slowly sank into the harbour off Princess Royal Drive. The wreckage had to be retrieved by crane. It was a bizarre scene but it was a familiar one. On a Monday night in September last year, a 22-year-old man crashed his friend’s ute into the harbour after leaving a local pub. The driver and his two passengers managed to get out of the ute and onto dry land without serious injury, but he later lost his licence for drink-driving. One key difference on Sunday was that the driver was rescued by an onlooker. Kudos to the onlooker for jumping into the water in chilly conditions and carrying the young woman back to shore. In the spirt of the Commonwealth Games, give that man a medal.