Asquith Town Centre Improvements
Matthew Stephens

Re-configuring road space to enhance pedestrian and traffic safety

Asquith is growing in population and this has brought about a number of challenges with pedestrian traffic safety; particularly around Asquith station. This project seeks to address the following challenges:

1) The lack of pedestrian storage at the Pacific Highway mid-block signalised pedestrian crossing. Disembarking rail passengers quickly overload the footpath which leads to footpath crowding/blocking and jay-walking behaviour. Footpath widening is proposed at this location to allow more space for pedestrians which is important in the current Covid environment.

2) The give-way intersection of Pacific Highway and Amor Street struggles to manage the growing traffic demands exiting Amor Street. This has led to risk-taking behaviour and/or traffic diversions via Wattle Street (a narrow access lane behind the Asquith shops). We propose to signalise this intersection to facilitate the movement of traffic exiting Amor Street. Other benefits include improved safety for all road users and the provision of a pedestrian connection across the Pacific Highway where there is currently none.

3) The acute angle of the southbound merge of Wattle Street with Jersey Street North is dangerous. Merging traffic from Wattle Street has great difficulty seeing the Jersey Street traffic over their left shoulders. Additionally, if the merging car in front stops, it can lead to a rear-end collision. We propose that southbound traffic from Wattle Street has its own exit lane onto Jersey Street.

4) A new southbound bus queue jump facility on the Pacific Highway

Space for these proposed interventions is available and a concept design is submitted with this application.