Traffic Calming

As I currently live in Belconnen, I am amazed at the lack of traffic calming infra-structure in what is already a well populated urban area. In my home city of Brisbane, there has in recent years been widespread installation of speed bumps, street scaping and other traffic calming measures to force traffic to slow on what would otherwise be quiet residential streets. There seems to be precious little of this implemented in Canberra. Therefore we have lunatic drivers constantly speeding along quiet residential streets like Hennessy Street in Belconnen. And the lack of pedestrian crossings and other infrastrucure on College Street is an absolute disgrace. I have frequently witnessed pedestrians virtually risking their lives to cross this road amid the speeding traffic. I do not believe that Canberra is a particularly pedestrian-friendly city and after nearly ten years in power I really cannot see what, if anything, the Stanhope(less) government has done to address this. I would really like to see local environment groups advocate for the goal of making Belconnen and other Canberra suburbs a more pedestrian friendly place.

This brings me of course to the issue of urban density. I am amazed that approval has apparently been given for the construction of an 18 storey apartment block in Chandler Street, Belconnen, next to the Labor Club building. If this proceeds, then like the recent construction of multiple apartment blocks along College Street, it will simply add to the traffic congestion and hazards for pedestrians. I cannot see how the existing road network is going to cope with the additional traffic created by an 18 storey building. Have the consequences for traffic flow from these large scale developments even been considered in the process?