The residents of Treeview Estates Retirement Village have launched a petition asking for the installation of traffic lights to improve safety at the intersection of Col Drewe Drive and the Great Western Highway at Lithgow.
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Treeview Residents Committee secretary John Wiltshire has approached the different facilities that use the intersection, including the nearby school and hospital, to see if they would be willing to join a petition.
Mr Wiltshire said, after to speaking to many of the community members in the village, the consensus was that something needed to be done to improve safety for pedestrians and drivers.
“Although there have only been few accidents at this intersection, ‘prevention is better than cure’,” he said.
In evaluating the risks associated with the intersection, Mr Wiltshire put together a criteria for Roads and Maritime Services to consider.
The intersection services a church, a primary school, a motel, a doctor’s surgery, a retirement village, an Australia Post mail centre, a Notre Dame University campus, a public hospital, a nursing home, a specialist centre and a day surgery.
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Mr Wiltshire said one of the most important points was that there was no footpath on the southern side of the Great Western Highway.
“The topography and clearances mean a footpath can’t be built on this side of the highway,” he said.
“As a consequence pedestrians either have to walk with no footpath or cross the Great Western Highway at great risk.”
Another concern residents had was being able to have unobstructed vision for 200 metres for both pedestrians crossing the highway and drivers turning right towards Sydney onto the highway.
“I’m a pretty capable driver and even I have trouble seeing what’s coming, so it must be terrifying for the less agile,” he said.
Drivers exiting from Col Drewe Drive have difficulty differentiating the lane markings on the highway from the eastern direction, and are only able to determine at about 100 metre distance whether cars are in the left or right lane.
“It’s so hard to tell if they are in the left or right lane and by the time you work it out it may be too late to turn,” he said.
They have also had trouble with restricted vision to the east caused by vehicles turning right.
With the retirement village set to increase from the present 110 villas to 140 villas in the next few years, residents are concerned that the increase of the general population will cause more problems at the intersection.
“The amount of holiday traffic on long weekends, makes turning right towards Sydney practically impossible,” he said.
According to Mr Wiltshire all of these issues were accentuated by an increasing number of visitors to the area in line with the increase in its growth and with an increase in elderly drivers, especially given limited public transport options available.
Mr Wiltshire attended Treeview Estate’s happy hour to discuss the petition where all the attendees were happy to sign. Mr Wiltshire is waiting for confirmation from other organisations using the intersection as to whether they will open the petition up to members of the general public.
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