Slower speed limits urged to boost safety

By Darren Linton

Jan 21, 2021

Health promotion charity Victoria Walks is calling for 40 km/h zones to be universal in urban areas as part of a strategy to continue to cut the road toll by 2030.

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The organisation said speed limits were increasingly out of step with the rest of the developed world.

Shepparton has only recently adopted a 40 km/h speed limit in the central business district.

After consulting road safety experts, Walking Victoria is pushing for default speed limits on local streets to drop from 50 km/h to 40 km/h and 30km/h to be allowed in busy pedestrian areas.

“We know 66 per cent of Victorians support lower speed limits in neighbourhood streets,” Victoria Walks executive director Ben Rossiter said.

Dr Rossiter said a rethink of school speed zones, which reduce speeds only outside designated school entrances, would support initiatives like the Walk to School program.

“Current school zones protect kids who are being dropped off at the school gate, but they don’t do much for children actually walking to school through the wider neighbourhood,” Dr Rossiter said.

Dr Rossiter said historic improvements in road safety came off the back of visionary leadership that brought in compulsory seat belts, speed cameras and previous reductions in area-wide speed limits.

“Further action on speed will be the key to saving lives,” he said.

By Darren Linton

Shepparton News chief correspondent