Letters to the editor

A short term fix for Capalaba congestion would be for some over-paid, under-worked bureaucrat to synchronise traffic lights on Redland Bay and Finucane roads. Even a meerkat would find this simple.

Anyway, do not hold your breath hoping for Redland City Council to curb this trend to put a housing estate on all vacant land. It just is not going to happen while the current councillors are in control.

What of alternative transport I hear you ask? Trains are next to useless unless you live next to a railway station.

Buses? Huh. We have a Capalaba park and ride that is serviced only by outgoing buses from 6am to 8.30am. That is okay for going into Brisbane but useless for your trip home. The nearest you can alight on your homeward trip is 1 kilometre up the road opposite Capalaba Park Shopping Centre.

Try walking that distance to your car in heat or freezing rain and you will soon be cursing the twit that thought that up.

After 8.30am there are no buses that will take you into town. Our locals will transport you to Carindale where you are then at the mercy of Brisbane City Transport.

This means that on your homeward trip you will arrive at Carindale in time to see a 250 leaving for the Redlands which means a 30 minute wait for the next one

If you live in the Redlands I’m afraid you are stuck with delays on our inadequate roads for years, especially if you think that there is any one warming a council seat that gives a hoot. Suck it up.

- D. Cotton, Alexandra Hills

THE purpose of my letter is to have drivers understand merging rules.

Once again today someone with little or incorrect knowledge of merging cut me off, not the first and probably not the last.

Where Manly Road intersects with Green Camp Road heading towards Capalaba the left lane finishes. Most vehicles just push their way in completely against the rules.

I hope that your paper could place this merging instruction to your valued readers so as to prevent incidents. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has had this occur and then get the wrath of the driver that cuts you off abusing you for not letting them in.

There are two different give-way rules for merging. A car in a lane with a line at the end of the lane gives way to a car that is in the lane it is moving into. On roads where there are lanes marked – if your lane comes to an end, you must give way to traffic already in the lane you are moving to.

- T. Lane, Birkdale

CONGRATULATIONS to S. Farley (RCB, Jan. 31)  for identifying one of the major headaches for Redlands motorists – those impeding traffic lights.

It is interesting to note that the closer one gets to Cleveland, the capital of the Redlands, the fewer traffic lights there are and the more roundabouts there are and traffic seems to move more smoothly and safely.

Perhaps policy makers that meet in Cleveland on a regular basis might exercise their influence and replace most of the traffic lights that seem only to frustrate and delay journeys.

Roundabouts are a much safer and logical option for traffic, allowing motorists to approach each roundabout intersection with caution and self regulate their ingress and egress without the primitive tri-coloured robot second guessing and unnecessarily wasting precious time and frustrating drivers who often have to wait for few or no cars, especially off-peak.

Accident statistics show that fewer fatalities and less serious accidents have occurred at roundabouts while traffic lights have a notorious history of fatalities and accidents as frustrated motorists take the plunge and race an amber and even a red light. Motorists cannot race at dangerous speeds through roundabouts as most are designed to allow a driver to travel at less than 30 kilometres per hour. Traffic lights on the other hand encourage motorists to speed through.

It is not that long ago that even the local police were reported to have had a serious accident at a Capalaba intersection. 

I implore policy makers to eliminate as many lights as possible and replace them with roundabouts.

- F. Swientek, Capalaba

WHILE I appreciate there are many worthy causes, I wonder who is behind the wheel at Redland City Council as our councillors are off spending their time (which we pay for) and council resources (which we pay for) making pledges and such, which are not council responsibilities but more state and federal government’s.

Either they are so on top of their work that they have loads of free time to spend on extra-council activities or pressing local issues have been put on the back-burner while other, more important issues are addressed?

If our councillors could channel their zeal into finding efficiencies and removing non-council activities, perhaps our rates could be halved? Probably not sexy enough to get on the front page but I’m sure ratepayers would appreciate it.

- F. Cop, Wellington Point

AFTER a recent fierce storm and within less than 24 hours of my reporting a large tree branch across my nature strip – far too big for me to deal with – Redland City Council workers arrived and quickly removed it, leaving the site spotless. Well done and thank you.

- L. Watson, Redland Bay