Valley at the crossroads

FROM MY CORNER .... With Ann Brunswick
Seeing I have a certain expertise about such things, I believe I am quite entitled to make the following plea: can’t the relevant authorities do something about the intersection at Brunswick and Ann streets in the Valley.

Having experienced that corner from both sides – as a motorist and then a local businessperson plying one’s trade - it’s a corner almost possible to navigate safely, especially when those tens of thousands of sweet young things have made their way into the entertainment precinct.
As a motorist in my trusty LandRover Recovery, I’ve found it almost impossible to turn left from Brunswick Street onto Ann on the busy nights because the drongo line of inebriated revellers never seems to stop., and here’s my suggestion as to how to fix things.
Change the lights pattern to the same as the other end of the mall: i.e. a criss-cross flow of pedestrians in both directions at the same time for a reasonable amount of time, and then a stern “No Walk” sign while first one, and then the other, direction of traffic is allowed to proceed.
Yes, I can hear what you’re thinking. The young kids who are bullet-proof and unkillable don’t obey the signs any way! Still, it’s just an idea, and I wonder if the traffic-light experts somewhere in our transport bureaucracy have at the very least thought about trying it for a while?

***

Your favourite columnist’s trusty LandRover was up on blocks the other day, so I was forced to take a train to visit a client on the northside. After our transaction had been competed, I returned to Toombul railway station, only to note on a faded information sheet right next to the steps leading down to platform level that the next train inbound was “express from Bowen Hills to Central”.

Of all the inbound services shown Monday to Friday, a number were so designated, including the one due in a few minutes. The next service after that was some time away so I made my way over to the ticket window. I told the earnest young woman behind the window of what the sign said, adding my tuppence worth that I’d never heard of any trains that stopped at Toombul not stopping at such an important railway station as the Valley as well.
“No, dear, it stops at the Valley,” she smiled. “They all do.” “But your sign says....” I stopped and decided, why bother. It’s like talking to a window counter. I took a chance and grabbed that train, and sure enough, it kindly dropped me off at the Valley. Thinking about it afterwards, I suddenly realised that maybe that sign was there from when the Valley station was being revamped: when each half of the station was closed for six months - a time when there definitely were a number of services that were express from Bowen Hills to Central.
Why, then, do they still have the bloody sign right there beside the steps down to the station. Do they like confusing people? Don’t answer that!

***

Now that our new $8 million plus plus Chinatown Mall has been officially opened, I thought I might just share with you a little experience I had there a few months back.

After the entire mall had been blocked off for months, the council made quite a deal out of the fact that a midway pedestrian crossover point had been reopened. Good idea, your Ann thought. Welcome news too for restaurant owners midway along the mall, because up to then it was a long and hot walk to get to their venues so many people didn’t bother trying.
So on this particular day, your Ann followed the pedestrian arrow signs and entered this newly opened walkway. A few seconds later, she was surrounded by heavy machinery doing work on the grand arch overhead. Beyond these machines, the other side of the pathway was sensibly sealed off.
I made my way back to the other side, warned off another pedestrian who had just entered the passageway as I had done, and found a workman inspecting some recently laid tiles nearby. When I explained that I had gotten half way across the mall only to find it blocked, he said that was because they didn’t want the public to get too close to the heavy machinery I had just encountered.
In the sweetest voice I could muster – and you will have to take my word for it, dear readers, that I didn’t lace it with the slightest hint of sarcasm – that, yes, I agreed with him, but wouldn’t it be a good idea then for both sides of the walkway to be sealed off, so any conflict of interest between m-ann and machinery could be avoided.
Making no effort to get up and act on my sensible suggestion to close the walkway off, he continued to inspect his tiles and offered, in a fairly abrupt manner, the immortal words: “Give us a break here. We’re dong this for you!”
Six months late, mind, but can I now belatedly offer this worker my very sincerest of thanks for his attitude that day and everything he and his fellow workers did to ... I mean.... for us over this long and frustrating building process.
In some places in the world, entire skyscrapers were probably built from scratch in the time it took to revamp this funny little mall cum carpark entrance.