Turner Rd and Bernard St - Proposed speed limit, safety and traffic signal changes

There's a much better way of controlling traffic around the shops on Bernard St and making it safer in my opinion.
No speed humps please, NOBODY likes them, especially emergency vehicles.
Please see the diagram I've sent to "info@kingston.vic.gov.au"
Also I believe incorporating Turner Rd into (a wide) Bernard St / Chesterville Rd intersection would alleviate a lot of the safety concerns.
Thank you.

I have lived in area for 30 years. In this time Southland has doubled in size, there has been a large increase in population, more take away shops and a new IGA Supermarket at the Bernard Street shops, which has impacted on traffic volume to the area.
The current traffic islands near Parnell Street and Rosewarne Avenue are dangerous, particularly for elderly and disabled people and those with dogs and children. Also, cars run into the traffic island signs frequently.
I frequently turn into Parnell Street from Bernard Street and cars can currently pass on the left side, which allows traffic to flow on Bernard Street. The proposed change to traffic management will block the ability to pass on the left.
Visibility is poor for cars reversing from car parks at the shops due to the current 90-degree angle parking and the shops are at the top of the hill. Reversing cars frequently reverse over two lanes of traffic or perform a U-turn. This is dangerous and holds up traffic in Bernard Street.
Some suggestions to consider: -
- Installation of a formal pedestrian crossing (with lights and high visibility) at or close to the Bernard Street shop area.
- No need to keep the current pedestrian lights closer to Chesterville Road
- Reduced speed limit of 40 or 50 km/hr around Bernard Street shops rather than the whole of Bernard Street.
- 45-degree angle parking at the Bernard Street shops to improve visibility and ease for reversing traffic
- Construction of two small roundabouts at Parnell Street and Rosewarne Avenue to provide a means for cars to turn around safely either end of the shops (instead of performing U-turns and reversing over two lanes) and to enable safe turning and slowing traffic without reducing flow.
- No speed humps because this increases car noise and air pollution, from cars decelerating and accelerating and wears out car suspension.

I do not support the speed reduction for either Turner road or Bernard Street. Both streets are major link roads governed by traffic lights at both ends and play an important role in moving traffic from Nepean Highway to Warrigal Road and lots of locations in between including shops, schools and residential homes.

I believe reducing the speed limit in Turner Road will make ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE to traffic congestion. The issue we are facing is that cars are constantly parking on both sides of the road with no ‘cut-outs’ so that traffic approaching from opposite directions can pull in to allow another car to pass. I believe there should be a couple of ‘no parking’ areas on either side of the road to allow traffic in both directions to pass. Nobody can travel at 60 kmh anyway. In regard to Bernard Street, the only problem is at the shops where cars reverse into busy traffic. Perhaps angled parking would assist in this area.

I fully support Turner Road, but Object strongly to Bernard Street apart from Centre Dandenong Road and Keys Road, Bernard Street is the only link between Warragul Road and Chesterville Road, you cannot include Argus Street as it is already overloaded with Restrictions.
Permanent 40 kph near Le Page School, speed humps and Friendship square. It would be an injustice to reduce speed limits in Bernard Street. Believe Chesterville alongside Southland should be 50 kph, including Karen and Tennyson. Also Charmain Road through Cheltenham should be 40 kph.
The speed enforcement features in Wilson Street appears to have dropped limits to 40 kph.
Bernard Street could have management features that means cars/trucks cannot speed, but to drop to 50 kph 24/7 is WRONG, when its wrong it's wrong

As residents one street away from Turner Road in Alfred Street for more than 45 years we have seen drastic changes with the traffic in and around Turner Road. Now more vehicles take Alfred Street in preference to Turner Road for the travel between Nepean Highway and Chesterville Road and it has become a lot more dangerous in our narrow street which is constantly full of cars parked on both sides especially near the bend.
More should be done to police the speed limits in the streets as no matter what the signage is the drivers will continue to ignore them.
Also the Highway Service Road needs one way direction and speed limit signs and Alfred Street could do with a traffic island similar to that at Turner Road to slow down speeding vehicles swinging off Nepean Highway into the service road.

Speed reduction will not work as Bernard st is far too busy and is used buy locals , traffic to and from Southland , and the three schools and two kinder gardens in the area . I believe speed humps and reduced speed would work better, the biggest problem is parked traffic at the shops backing out into
constant heavy traffic and people trying to do U turns to head back west in Bernard st causing road rage and frustration to all concerned .

The Bernard Street shops zone speed limit needs to be reduced to 40km/hr 24/7. It has become extremely dangerous when going into out of the shops' car spots. There is not a time you can be there and cars are not beeped for pulling out into speeding inpatient drivers heading down Bernard street. Traffic around the shops needs to be slowed down for the safety of all.
Around Cheltenham SC 40km/hr during school zone hours. No more speed humps, please. Cheltenham North is inundated with speed humps and doing damage to our cars.

Reducing the speed limit to 50km on such a long stretch of road like Bernard St is ridiculous. It is not a narrow road and allows for multiple purposes, including access to other areas of the Shire - hence is not a residential road. Having a school zone is appropriate, as is any fix to existing pedestrian lights. If pedestrian safety is the key priority, then an "informal" cross makes no sense as this will only allow more misuse to those already abusing laws. Adding additional pedestrians barriers around heavy usage areas may encourage them to take more care themselves. But I'm sure the shire have already made a decision to implement these changes and any "community input" is just a smoke screen.

No to reduction in speed limit. Bernard St is not a residential street it is a through road taking traffic from one major pad to another. 50kph were originally designed for residential streets only, they have increasingly been used on main roads. If the reason is to protect pedestrians, how about pedestrians take more care when crossing roads. Sick of drivers been made the scape goat all the time. Reducing speeds will only cause more congestion make travel longer from a to b and create more frustration for drivers. Over it

With regard to the traffic lights , would it not make sense to relocate these to be nearer to the shopping strip?

Changing Bernard St to a 50km zone would seemingly have little impact given it is a 40kph zone during the peak school time anyway. I agree with Gerald, that driver behaviour in the area suggests that changing speed limits will do little to improve safety. Time and money would be better spent addressing the large trucks on local streets including Argus Street and Friendship Sq, vehicles driving the wrong way around Friendship Sq and vehiles speeding through the children's crossing on Argus street, particularly during busy school times and sports days. There is little adherence to the 40km speed zone around local schools, so reducing the speed limit on Bernard st to 50km seems pointless.

In regards to Bernard St pedestrian lights.

Council says... "Due to the lack of pedestrian volume, drivers don’t expect the signal to turn red, which leads to a large number of drivers failing to stop at the signal."

I say... - New lanterns would be great but simply pointing the current lanterns at the drivers would be even more of a sensible response (this is basic maintenance).

We just want to see working signals, this entails:
- buttons that work first press, and can be operated by the elderly and children
- lanterns that are bright enough and can be seen by drivers
- - other than that, I'd like to see ripple strips 50m before the crossing to warn drivers of the lights ahead.

Council says... "Due to the lack of pedestrian volume, drivers don’t expect the signal to turn red, which leads to a large number of drivers failing to stop at the signal."

I say...

- New lanterns would be great but simply pointing the current lanterns at the drivers would be even more of a sensible response (this is basic maintenance).

We just want to see working signals, this entails:
- buttons that work first press, and can be operated by the elderly and children
- lanterns that are bright enough and can be seen by drivers
- - other than that, I'd like to see ripple strips 50m before the crossing to warn drivers of the lights ahead.

No to reducing speed limit. Yet another example of local government overreach where it is not necessary. Leave your ratepayers alone.

NO to reducing speed limit. It will only annoy the good drivers while the bad drivers will just continue to speed just like they've ignored the 60 speed limit. What make you think they will slow down when they see 50 when they dont even care about the 60?

Turner Road, putting speed limit to 50 wont change anything, the problem with Turner Road is the Football Oval when they use the oval for football and further up towards Nepean Hwy, Too many cars parked on the street.

There is NO point putting the speedlimit down to 50, It is the Impatient Drivers, The Terrible Drivers who can't understand the driving law,
you can put the speed limit down to 20 and it wont change Bernard street.
The only way is to put speed humps down like you did in Herald and Willson Street.
As I Live on Bernard street and see it Every Day.

As a resident of Peace Street, who utilises Turner Road every single day, I believe that changing the speed limit along Turner Road is not the answer to the significant congestion issues we are facing, particularly on weekends due to the football games at the Highett ovals. The width of the road only allows for one vehicle to safely pass through parked cars on either side, which results in traffic weaving in and around each other. Twice I have had my side mirror hit due to oncoming traffic attempting to squeeze through. Reducing the speed limit is not going to help this issue as the traffic is already crawling due to the congestion. I believe that it would be best to restrict the parking in specific sections along Turner Road in order to provide "pull out zones" for vehicles to pass each other safely.

Thank you Kingston Council for consulting with your residents.
Please do not reduce the speed limit to 50km/hr as the residents of Bernard St will cop up endless speeding fines for driving 54 or 55kms/hr in their own street. We already have the school with 40kms/hr during school times. It is useless to have the speed limit reduced to 50 on Bernard st.
Also, we don’t want speed cushions: there are buses and high volume of cars driving 24/7 on Bernard St. the reverbations, shaking and movement will affect the households at close proximity of the speed cushion. This is very de-stabilising for households and the stumps. It’s like having mini earthquakes at repeated frequencies 24/7.
Traffic Islands are welcome as they deter cars from hooning or speeding.
We need pedestrian crossing white lines marked on the asphalt, as well as to mark lines on Bernard st outside the shops so the traffic coming does not collide with cars reversing out from outside the shops.

Please change the open lids on top of the bins outside the shops on Bernard St,
to have the bins with a dome as the crows ravage through the food through the opening of bins. The dome on top of the bin will deter the crows from making a mess in the driveways and on top of our roofs.

Thank you and kind regards,
C.E. Bernard St, Cheltenham