After verbal and online reports about illegal and dangerous operations at the Hamilton shuttle bus operation seemed to be falling on deaf ears, formal written complaints to the police and council compliance units were lodged yesterday.
A visit to the site this morning revealed that someone had come up with an ingenious "solution" to at least one of the dangerous and illegal standing issues.
As previously reported, shuttle buses had been continually stopping in the No Stopping zone on Beaumont St between the Stand A shuttle bus zone immediately north of the rail line and Fern St.
The solution: just remove the sign!
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| Solving traffic dangers at Hamilton the Baird-Berejiklian way. |
No sign, no problem!?
Of course, the reason for the No Stopping sign being where it was was to ensure the safety of drivers and pedestrians trying to negotiate the Fern St and Beaumont St intersection.
But when did the Baird-Berejiklian shonky shuttle ever have anything to do with reason?
No matter that removing the No Stopping sign doesn’t remove the danger that it was put there to reduce.
No matter that – sign or not – the traffic conditions are the same and a vehicle stopping in this area (especially a bus) still dangerously obscures key driver and pedestrian sight-lines.
The Baird-Berejiklian shonky shuttle shemozzle was implemented in Beaumont St without any apparent formal assessment of the risk it presented at what was already officially the state’s third most dangerous level crossing, so it was probably too much to expect that they’d give much regard to safety when it came to their obstinate, bloody-minded, costs-be-damned determination to cut the Newcastle rail line.
But I suppose we should be impressed by the relative alacrity with which authorities have responded on this matter - only three days after it was raised.
Look out for this same “solution” being applied where other illegal standing was still evident today in shuttle stand-by bus zones in Beaumont St and Fern St.
Drivers are still being required to undertake illegal and dangerous activities to create the impression that the Baird-Berejiklian Shonky Shuttle Shemozzle system works.
Meanwhile, Newcastle councillors still haven’t received the “urgent” briefing from council officers or the state government on these and other changes to traffic conditions that they called for more than six weeks ago (25 November last year).
Yet another farcical episode in the ongoing saga that is the Baird-Berejiklian Shonky Shuttle Shemozzle.
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