The Victorian Government has backed a recommendation outlined in the parliamentary inquiry into the increase in Victoria’s road toll to reduce speed limits on unsafe regional roads.
It recommended the Victorian Government review speed limits on all rural and regional roads to identify unsafe roads with low traffic volumes where limits could be reduced and prioritise spending for roads with high traffic volumes, along with the development of a spending and construction program.
The Department of Transport is developing a Network Safety Plan to identify which roads would require infrastructure investments and which could be managed with lowered speed limits.
The recommendation has been made in an attempt to minimise road trauma on country roads, outlining the correlation between speed and the likelihood of severe incidents.
Victorian Member for Euroa and Deputy Nationals Leader Steph Ryan described the policy as “lazy” and said the state government should focus on fixing country Victoria’s crumbling road network.
“Reducing speed limits on regional roads doesn’t fill potholes, doesn’t fill cracks and certainly doesn’t stop roads completely falling apart. It just means the government has to do less,” she said.
The inquiry found about 30 per cent of fatal crashes and 15 per cent of serious injury crashes in Victoria happen on the 180,000km of lower standard and lower-volume rural roads that are currently limited at 100km/h.
It stated the vast majority of the particular roads were local government roads where infrastructure solutions, such as barriers, were not feasible in the next 30 years.
A Victorian Government spokesperson said there were no plans for a blanket speed reduction of 80km/h on arterial country roads.
“Local roads change at the request of the local council and any speed limit changes will continue to be assessed on a case by case basis,” a spokesperson said.
“Once again, this is cheap political point-scoring by the Victorian Liberal and National parties on the important issue of reducing the number of lives lost on our roads.”
Speed limit reviews take into account factors including types of road users, the surrounding road environment, crash risk and history, council recommendation, community sentiment and traffic volume to ensure set speed limits are appropriate.
33°C