A LETTER to the editor published in Saturday’s Central Western Daily has re-sparked the debate about one of the city’s most contentious thoroughfares.
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Brian Keighran penned a piece which labelled the zebra crossing outside Woolworths on Anson Street “very annoying”.
“People just straggle across … as they see fit, regardless of traffic,” Mr Keighran wrote.
In December last year signage was installed which encouraged people to cross in groups to minimise congestion.
Orange City councillor Glenn Taylor also suggested pedestrian traffic lights – similar to those at the post office on Summer Street – could be added as a longer-term measure.
Readers commenting on the Central Western Daily’s Facebook page had a range of suggestions to ease the likelihood of banked-up traffic.
Fred Davies suggested closing the block to cars and turning it into a pedestrian mall “with vehicular access for deliveries and seating and shade would be an asset”.
Candi Oliva argued “pedestrians need give way to cars or walk a few metres and use the lights that are already there”.
Andrew Baker said the crossing should remain but “it should be like Bathurst [where] pedestrians give way to the car”.
The crossing was installed in 2008 and in August of the same year councillor Reg Kidd said the mix of a loading zone, a taxi rank, driveways, speed humps, the pedestrian crossing and merging lanes in the block “made for a potentially deadly combination.”
“I can’t think of anywhere else I have travelled where there is such a potpourri of things working against each other,” Cr Kidd said at the time.