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Mark Hinchliffe·
NewsMotorbike news
··12 Comments·2 min read

City speed limits to drop even further

30km/h speed target in Global Road Safety Week city

City speed limits used to be 60km/h, then they dropped to 50km/h, then 40km/h and now a Melbourne council wants to reduce speed limits in a special zone to 30km/h.

Interestingly, the Yarra Council cites crashes involving “vulnerable road users” including motorcyclists as the reason for the speed drop.

In fact, they point out that 12% of crashes in the Collingwood and Fitzroy area involve motorcyclists. (See stats at the end of this article.)

However, a council spokeswoman says they do not have the vital details on who caused the motorcycle crashes.

City speed trial

Yarra Council will begin their 12-month 30km/h trial in September on 8km of locals roads in the area bounded by Nicholson St, Hoddle St, Alexandra Pde and Johnston St. The area currently has a 40km/h speed limit.City speed limits drop even further

If deemed successful (and no doubt they will find a way to declare it a success), no doubt other councils around Australia will also apply for 30km/h speed zones.

There is equally no doubt police will be out in force to catch motorists breaking the speed limit.

It’s already difficult enough trying to stick to slow speed limits around busy urban areas.

But having to concentrate on traffic and pedestrian activity while keeping an eye on the speedo at 30km/h with very little allowed margin will be a fine nightmare!

Click here to read about the dangers of speedo gazing.

Apart from shopping centre carparks and malls with 10km/h speed limits, the only slower limits in Australia are 25km/h in some roadworks.

See also

How soon will we have to add 30km/h to our already burgeoning number of speed zones?

Austroads says we already have too many speed zones and too frequent changes in speed.Speed limits 30km/h city

Trial funding

The Yarra Council’s 12-month speed zone trial has received a $250,000 grant from the Transport Accident Commission.

Surely the TAC could have held on to their money and the trial could have been funded by speeding fines!

VicRoads crash statistics for Fitzroy/Collingwood

YEAR CRASHES INVOLVING BICYCLISTS INVOLVING PEDESTRIANS INVOLVING MOTORCYCLISTS TOTAL VULNERABLE ROAD USERS
2012 21 12 4 4 20
2013 23 14 2 4 20
2014 22 18 2 1 21
2015 19 13 3 2 18
2016 15 10 2 1 13
2017 4 4 0 0 4
Grand Total 104 71 13 12 96
YEAR CRASHES INVOLVING BICYCLISTS INVOLVING PEDESTRIANS INVOLVING MOTORCYCLISTS TOTAL VULNERABLE ROAD USERS
2012 21 57% 19% 19% 95%
2013 23 61% 9% 17% 87%
2014 22 82% 9% 5% 95%
2015 19 68% 16% 11% 95%
2016 15 67% 13% 7% 87%
2017 4 100% 0% 0% 100%
Grand Total 104 68% 13% 12% 92%

 

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Mark Hinchliffe
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12 Comments

  1. Instead of cutting the speed limit why not just ban bicycles from city roads? They are overly represented in all crashes according to your statistics & they don’t even have registration.

    1. Have you considered that the real agenda here may be to make it so inconvenient and expensive to drive a car that people switch over to riding bicycles?

    2. Ban bicycles? A better idea would be to educate Australian motorists. I’ve done a lot of cycling in California and always felt completely safe. In Australia, I find cycling is a scary proposition because of the appalling attitudes and low standards and capabilities of Australian motorists.

  2. I don’t get it. By the VicRoads figures, crashes involving vulnerable road users have been steadily declining. Now Yarra Council feels compelled to do something about that, aided by the Transport Accident Commission.
    There does not seem to be a breakdown of what collided with what if there was more than one vehicle or pedestrian involved per crash.
    Are car vs car collisions increasing instead? Did single vulnerable user crashes involve items of infrastructre such as trams or their tram lines? No information and not enough justification.

  3. As the limits get lower the accidents will increase as the perceived danger of the roads will drop you will get dropkicks just walking out into traffic because they think it’s safe.
    Not to mention all the rear Enders that will happen.

  5. by reducing the speed limit to ridiculous speeds like 30km/h we are promoting to pedestrians that it is now safe to walk on the roads (with your headphones on) as the traffic is moving that slow they will have plenty of time to see you and stop. This will mean people will become lazier and lazier. No wonder drivers are on their mobile phones! they are travelling that slow they need something to entertain themselves with!
    Pedestrians are hit ON THE ROADS! not on footpaths so has anyone bothered looking at the statistics for why and when are pedestrians are on the ROAD when they shouldn’t be. Maybe more emphasis could be put into this area.

    1. Roads are for road users. Road users are drivers, bicyclists, motorcyclists, pedestrians, mobility scooters, horse-riders, horse and carriage, the list goes on. It is a public road space for people, not *only* drivers of motor vehicles. Oh, and using slow speeds as an excuse for mobile phone use is disgraceful.

      1. You forgot dogs and cats! Ha!
        Seriously I don’t mean crossing at traffic lights and pedestrian crossings. By lazy I mean j-walking….oops I forgot that’s illegal too isn’t it?

  6. Motorists will just avoid the area, then shop keepers will complain because their passing trade drops off, there will be a review at significant cost (again) etc, etc,

  7. Agreed, there are far to many speed zones, and changes on the same route.
    With modern technology one would have thought it be easy to install a warning signal every time the speed limit changes.
    But better still train better drivers, make sure driver supervisor are properly trained, do a test after coming of probation , and a further test , advanced/defensive driving training few years after that. And recognise that some are just not mend to be drivers, like others are not mend to be nurses, no matter how much the desire.

  8. In Canberra City (Civic), there is a shared 30k zone and I reckon it works well. It discourages cars that don’t need to be there to go around another way, pedestrians are safer, short term parking is enforced for the small shops, delivery drivers get easier access and best of all, the boys still get to drive/ride their toys through the city on Friday night trying to unsuccessfully impress the girls, which is always good for a laugh.

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