To the north of New South Wales is a strange land where everyone is trying to hurl themselves into the ocean at the first opportunity, or lie around outside and melt in the sun and/or turn their skins to leather. To the south of us is an equally strange land which thinks that it is the cultural capital of Australia but is actually so hyped up on lattes that it can not go to sleep. In reality the only culture which exists down there is Australian Rules Football on telly and taking up half of the newspaper, the occasional comedy show, and the utter hilariousness of Hookturnistan. The moniker 'Hookturnistan' is based on a set of road rules, a sign and a flag; which is completely alien to the rest of Australia. Or is it?
Hookturnistan's famous infamous hook turns, are the result of having tram tracks run down the centre of the road. Tram tracks by their nature direct trams where to go. They also by accident, influence cars, motorbikes, and especially bicycles, where to go as well; hence the hook turn. If a thing wants to turn to the right across traffic, the influence of tram tracks want to send that thing further up the straight line that it was previously going on; which for a motorbike or a bicycle, is absolutely disasterous. Get caught in a tram track while making a turn, and motorbikes and bicycles can fall over; which means that their riders very quickly join the ranks of temporary Australians and Grimaldi Reaper arrives to serve his bitter cup, hot and fresh.
A hook turn then, works by making traffic wanting to turn to the right, wait on the far left hand side of the intersection; so that the can cross tram tracks at right angles. In waiting on the far left hand side of the intersection, they actually cease to be part of the through traffic and wait upon the lights of the cross street's traffic before they can proceed. To the unsuspecting traveller who has never seen this before, they look as weird as all get out.
Once upon a time before the 1960s, the then Liberal Government decided that it wanted to slight the Rail, Tram and Bus Union and came up with the idiotic decision to tear apart and destroy what was at the time the world's biggest tram network. Curiously in the 2010s, another Liberal Government has decided that it wanted to slight the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, by selling off Sydney Buses which used to be government owned, and then installing private operators as well as building tram lines which are also to be run by private interests.
With trams returning to Sydney, this has necessitated the reinstallation of tram lines and highly pedestrianised streets and curiously, some quasi hook turns.
This looks very much like a hook turn. As far as I can tell, there are three of them in George Street; all heading in a southbound direction. They are not signposted as hook turns because the fair and decent people of New South Wales would be weirded out by such a thing but believe me, they function very much like a hook turn.
Firstly, the T light comes on for trams to pass through the intersection. Cars are held in the far left lane until the tram has passed. Then the red light comes on for the trams and a green right turn arrow comes on for the cars. Once they have had their turn, then the other direction in the cross street gets its turn. Now admittedly this is not exactly the same set of road rules as a hook turn but functionally it is very very close.
For practically the entire of the T1 line to Dulwich Hill, the T2 and T3 lines in the Eastern Suburbs and what will be the T4 line in Parramatta, trams run in their own separate reserved areas and do not share roads with regular traffic. This means that unlike the people of Hookturnistan, the fair and decent people of New South Wales never get the joy/frustration of doing 40km/h in a Fairway and have to share the road with trams. Nevertheless, for a very few select intersections in Sydney, they do have the opportunity to do something which looks very similar to a hook turn.
I personally see no reason why lanes 7 and 8 of the Sydney Harbour Bridge should not be reclaimed by tram lines and what would be a restoration of the Northern Beaches Tram lines, would once again use platforms 1 & 2 at Wynyard. Maybe if a tunnel was driven underneath Military Rd and then popped out onto a viaduct and giant bridge across the Spit, then the line could be extended to Manly, Dee Why, Newport et cetera.
Places like Strathfield, Kogarah, Bankstown, Bondi, Hornsby, Blacktown, and Penrith, would all benefit greatly from having a tram network complement their train lines. In some cases, trams could claim the existing T-ways for buses for corridors as this means that no new disruptive fairways would have to be built.
If Sydney were to reclaim its rightful place as the city with the biggest tram network in the world, then we could learn from Hookturnistan to the south. As it is, our sun-drenched neighbours to the north have already decided that trams are useful in the place that we export unruly teenagers to once a year. Bring back the trams and we could implement hook turns too.
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