Furious residents living on Morrow Avenue have vented their frustrations at the new traffic lights installed at the end of their street, calling for immediate action to fix broken wait times and address safety risks.
Local Member of Parliament Tony Piccolo has received a wave of complaints regarding the intersection since it was opened by Marshall Liberal Government Transport Minister Stephan Knoll.
“It is no secret that the opening of the intersection by Mr Knoll and the Marshall Liberal Government was bungled, to put it lightly,” Mr Piccolo said.
“To get to the nub of the issue, I contacted the residents of Morrow Ave to find out from those directly affected what they perceived as the greatest hurdles to overcome and the areas that are in dire need of addressing.”
The Light Electorate Office received a number of responses to its inquiry, all of which mentioned the time available to drivers to turn onto Main North Road as being vastly inadequate.
Russell and Emma Wotton were one amongst a number of respondents who focused their attention on the inevitable and constant gridlocking of traffic, stating that only two or three cars per rotation can turn left at a time.
“Even when traffic is light and merging would be safe, one looking to enter Main North Rd is prevented from doing so by a red arrow,” they said.
“Rotations are quite drawn out and if you miss the green arrow you can expect to wait quite some time for the next opportunity.”
Sandy Maynard explained that she is forced to drive through four separate sets of lights to reach Tulloch Rd from Morrow Ave, while Wendy Weaver stated that she is now avoiding trips to the shops on weekends due to the bedlam.
Dale Perin is another local resident who echoed the sentiments of Mr and Mrs Wotton in her response.
“Traffic became gridlocked during school peak times and also throughout the weekends because the lights at Potts Road were not in sequence with the Tulloch Road lights, hence creating long traffic queues on Tulloch Road, Main North Road and Morrow Avenue,” she said.
Ms Perin raised the possibility of a ‘turn left at any time with care’ signal (outside of red lights) with the Gawler East Project Team but was told that such a signal was not legal at signalised junctions.
“The lights are also too high and cannot be seen easily by the driver in the first vehicle waiting at the lights, [which is] a problem that mainly affects the normal size vehicle.”
Mr and Mrs Wotton also referred to the arrows being “set too high on the pole” on Morrow Ave and that they cannot be readily seen whilst in a vehicle.
Mr Piccolo said some respondents complained about the dust being kicked up by the construction work affecting their homes.
“During the last 12 months we have been continuously cleaning inside and outside, only to see the dust return the next day,” Ms Perin said.
In much the same vein, Mr and Mrs Wotton claimed that despite being located some way from the roadworks, “almost every morning [their] outdoor area is covered in dust.”
Mr Piccolo stated that something had to be done about this issue urgently, as it was proving a significant disruption to people’s lives.