Coronation Drive, Brisbane

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coronation Drive
Length 4 km
General direction North East - South West
From Pacific Motorway
Brisbane, Queensland
Major suburbs Milton
To High Street
(Moggill Road)
Toowong, Queensland
Allocation State Route 33

Coronation Drive , popularly known as Coro Drive, is a road in Brisbane, Queensland which connects the Central Business District to the suburb of Toowong. It follows the Brisbane River from the Riverside Expressway, through the suburbs of Milton and Auchenflower, until it terminates in Toowong at Benson Road and High Street.

Coronation Dive is six lanes wide for the majority of its length, with the Bicentennial Bike Path also for pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

[edit] History

Coronation Drive started out as a rough track named 'River Road' that developed along the river during the 1840s. In 1937 the River Road was renamed Coronation Drive in honour of the new King George VI. Coronation Drive developed as the major transport route for the western suburbs along with Milton Road. The flood of 1974 a landslide due to flood waters closed Coronation Drive due to cracking and subsidance. The flood caused the redirection of Coronation Drive so that traffic inbound to Brisbane City turned left at the Sylvan Road intersection, and then right down Land Street.

Heritage listed terraced house on Coronation Drive at Milton.
Heritage listed terraced house on Coronation Drive at Milton.

In 2004 Coronation Drive was completely redeveloped into its current day form, with the redirection removed and widening to allow 6 lanes of traffic. Former Lord Mayor Jim Soorley inaugurated a series of "tidal flow" traffic lights in both directions, as well as a dedicated bus lane, in order to ease congestion along the road. Upon the election of Campbell Newman, the bus lanes were changed to T3 Transit Lanes with three occupants required. In March 2007 the T3 transit lane restrictions were removed after Campbell Newman requested the change based on analysis showing that only 5% of vehicles actually use the T3 lane. The Labor opposition did not block the change.[1]

[edit] Tidal Flow System

The Coronation Drive Tidal Flow System was implemented to improve traffic flow along the routinely congested road. It comprises:

  • overhead gantries displaying white arrows or red crosses to indicate which lanes can be driven in.
  • LED signs on approach that indicate current lanes open.
  • LED catseye markers embedded in the road that are turned on and off to move the median line.
  • Boom gates that swing into the lanes when closed to stop use of the closed lane.

The Tidal Flow System has been heavily criticised by the public for the following reasons:

  • The lane system is confusing and causes road accidents, especially when drivers are required to make turns on or off the tidal flow system. Lights in the road meant to guide drivers are often broken and during daylight hours are hard to discern. In particular, the right hand turn from Coronation Drive onto Land Street (outbound) has two lanes and drivers are routinely confused as to which lane on Land street they should turn into.
  • The Tidal Flow System was well over budget, with the cost of the system far higher than originally planned.
  • The system is prone to vandalism, in particular the boom gates used to block off lanes are routinely hit by vehicles.
  • Critics claim that the tidal flow system has not been effective in improving traffic flow. The primary reason given is due to traffic in both directions being high at peak hour due to the University of Queensland bound traffic balancing the city bound traffic.
  • The tidal flow system does not close lanes due to traffic accidents or roadworks, instead, traditional vehicles and signage are used, leaving a much touted feature of the system unutilised.
  • Out of state or overseas drivers tend to not understand the system and its dynamic lanes, thus are likely to end up driving in T3/Bus lanes or not merging when they should be.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Courier Mail Article on Removing T3 lanes
 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)