Traffic Accident Commission’s head of research has quashed claims speed limits on Wimmera’s rural roads will be lowered without public consultation. TAC research manager Michael Nieuwesteeg told the Wimmera Mail-Times speed limits will only be lowered on roads following community input.
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“Any decision to reduce a speed limit on a road in Wimmera will not be done without consultation,” he said. “It will be done on a case by case basis. There are concerns these changes will just be thrust upon the public and that’s not case. It will be done in collaboration with communities and different levels of government including councils.”
He said alternatives to reducing the speed limit included installing rumble strips, roadside barriers, widening roads and increasing the width of centre lines of roads.
“We are trying to move the conversation towards a focus on fixing the system itself,” Mr Nieuwesteeg said. “The approach to effectively responding to a problem after crashes occurs is a system that needs to change.”
It comes as the state government releasing its Towards Zero 2016-2020 road safety strategy. The strategy aims to reduce deaths on Victorian roads to less than 200 within four years.
It found accidents rural roads contribute significantly to the overall road toll in with about 40 per cent of deaths occurring outside of metropolitan areas. The government plans to establish safer travel speeds on narrow, rural roads, which involves lowering the speed limit from 100 kilometres an hour.
Concerns were raised by West Wimmera councillors last week that arguing the state government’s plan would target the wrong roads. However, Mr Nieuwesteeg said VicRoads was pushing for guidelines which would allow speed management to be more community based.
“There is a fear we will do widespread changes and we have no intention to do that,” he said. “We would hope, through community engagement, it will be the community requesting speed limit changes to roads where they think it needs to be lowered.”