Squaring up a Y-intersection in an urban area has many advantages, including:
✅ The speed of vehicles through the intersection is lower, providing advantages for pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and passenger vehicles.
✅ An improved observation angle for drivers on the non-priority leg (known to be especially important for older road users that have trouble turning their head on obtuse angles)
✅ The crossing distance can be shorter for pedestrians (depending on design)
✅ There is less opportunity for confusion of priority.
Congratulations to the City of Greater Bendigo for this low cost squaring up of a Y-intersection in Eaglehawk. The use of line marking and spike down features has created an effective kerb at minimal cost. There’s even enough space to ride to the left of the treatment (although a dedicated bike facility would have added to the design).
While we’d love to see raised intersections, mini roundabouts and wombat crossings the cost of all of these can be high and sometimes we need to spread road safety budgets across the network.
