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Green light for speed limits review

Posted on September 2, 2011

CHANGING SPEEDS: Speed limits change from 60km/h to 40km/h and back up to 50km/h within one kilometre in Deakin Avenue during school zone periods.

By BEN PISCIONERI

SUNRAYSIA residents are being asked if there are too many different speed zones on the district’s roads.

The Victorian Government announced this week it would call for community input as part of a review of speed limits, including roads with too many speed zones.

Many motorists contacted by the Mildura Weekly this week listed Deakin Avenue, between 15th and 13th Streets, as a prime example.

During designated school zone times, the speed limit within a one-kilometre stretch of Deakin Avenue changes from 60km/h to 40km/h and back up to 50km/h.

Motorists also said there appeared to be inconsistencies in the application of speed limits, claiming some seemingly dangerous or congested areas appeared to have higher speed limits than more open, less congested areas.

Mildura Rural City Councillor Glenn Milne welcomed the review this week, claiming there were to many different speed limits and not enough consistency on the municipality’s roads.

“I can tell you I would be more than happy to see Deakin Avenue cleaned up and probably a number of other streets where there are so many confusing speed limits,” Cr Milne said.

He said constantly changing speed zones, particularly in Deakin Avenue, often caused more problems than they solved.

Cr Milne said drivers were forced to concentrate more on keeping within Deakin Avenue’s fluctuating speed limits than what was happening on the road.

“They’re constantly looking out for signs and watching speedos and not watching what the cars, the pedestrians or the kids on bikes are doing on the road,” he said.

“On Deakin Avenue, where you have the electronic school crossing signs, you’ve got to keep an eye on whether you’re still in a school zone, you’re checking your watch to see if it’s within the school zone times, it’s just ridiculous and really needs to be cleaned up.”

Cr Milne said there were also inconsistencies in the highway speed limits around the district.

He said some highways had 110km/h limits while others were restricted to 100km/h.
Mildura Police Traffic Management Unit Sergeant Mark McDonald said he didn’t believe there were major issues with speed restrictions in Deakin Avenue.

“As far as Deakin Avenue is concerned, people just have to concentrate when they’re driving and drive to the conditions,” Sgt McDonald said.

“The 40km/h school zone is not a short distance – it runs for a long distance before you hit the 50km/h mark again, so again, people just need to drive to the conditions and pay attention.”

Sgt McDonald said the majority of drivers adhered to Mildura’s speed limits, though he said the beginning of the school year often caught out drivers travelling through Deakin Avenue’s school zones.

“The biggest increase is when school comes back after holidays as people have been used to travelling at 50km/h or 60km/h and all of a sudden it’s 40km/h,” he said.

“We enforce speed limits in that area pretty heavily at those times just to try to get drivers back to the 40km/h speed limit.”

Victorian Transport Minister Terry Mulder indicated this week Sunraysia residents weren’t the only drivers fed up with fluctuating speed limits.

“Many Victorians have expressed confusion and frustration at roads with multiple speed limit changes, school zones, shopping strips and town centres,” Mr Mulder said this week.

Sunraysia is subject to all of the above with school zones limiting traffic to 40km/h on many of the district’s major roads including Deakin, San Mateo and Ontario Avenues and 11th, 12th and 14th Streets – even the Calder Highway at Red Cliffs.

Mr Mulder said VicRoads would conduct the review to make speed limits simpler, more consistent and easier to understand.

“If you have something to say about roads with too many speed zone changes, speed zones at schools or shopping strips, or you have a suggestion to make speed limits easier to understand, we want to hear from you,” he said.

People interested in making a submission can check the terms of reference on the VicRoads website at www.vicroads.vic.gov.au.

Submissions are open until October 11 and can be sent to speedreview@roads.vic.gov.au or posted to Speed Limit Review, 60 Denmark Street, Kew, Victoria, 3101.

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