Now what else can we do to ruin Scone - a bypass, anyone?

In a political bid to involve the community in our 'high street' problems, signs have been strategically placed around town to alarm us about one of the proposed options apparently emanating from the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS).

Introducing the bypass...

...which clearly is not a political favourite judging from recent correspondence the town has received from our federal member for Hunter, the Hon Joel Fitzgibbon coupled with 'Pollyanna' quotes from current mayor and general manager in local rag. We all know that they've got their hearts set on an overpass on the northern end of our high street.

But as I said on the phone to Joel's office last week both ideas are rubbish.

Re the overpass, I'd really like to know why can't we go underground, and put the wretched coal trains underneath our beleagured town. It's not like this is a new idea - it's been looked at before and the feasibility plans have been with council for years.

Re the bypass, I'm totally opposed to it and have been for the entire 30 years that I've lived in Scone. This environmentally ruinous proposition has raised its ugly head many times and has never really gained any legs - sigh - is it really now or are we just being cast again as the usual bunnies in the point-scoring bluff-calling game between the powers that be?

But for argument's sake let's pretend that the bypass really is a consideration; for starters (a) it would kill our country town trade in our high street, (b) decimate our fabulous netball courts, hockey, soccer, & cricket pitches in our much treasured sports complex, and (c) drastically alter life as they know it for residents who-currently-live-in bypass' proposed pathway.

 ...& all that scary stuff about the town being cut off from emergency services blah-di-blah-di-blah...so we've got to have a bypass...Oh my!!



That's ridiculous...you can already get under the railway line and connect with the other side of town where emergency services hang out - I know because I did it with my 4 kids, 1 hubby and 6 horses in August 2000, and that same under-rail connection we used then still shows up on Google maps all these years later.

 So 'if I could say one thing'...

...'no' to the overpass option, a massive 'NO' to the bypass option, and a 'YES PLEASE' to an underpass option. 

Thanks!

Double lines = Double danger

The introduction of double lines to this part of my journey into town has caused me no end of problems.

Clearly Local Council and the Roads and Maritime Services were not thinking about cyclists when they donned their pinnies and opened up their cans of paints - probably more about hill crests, motorists, & wobble-free brushstrokes.

Anyhoo, now we have a situation comprising of a narrow road going up hill (or down depending on direction) and motorists strictly forbidden by highway code to cross the double lines...

...which translates into meaning that this 'council-sanctioned-paint-job' has made it virtually impossible for any motor vehicle except a motor bike to pass me legally.

So currently my road-sharing moments on this patch of road are either...

(a) comfortably 'illegal'

...or

(b) terrifyingly 'legal' 

(from Freedom Cyclist blog)