Victoria’s 70km/h and 90km/h speed limits are set to stay after the Andrews government scrapped plans to progressively remove them.
The state’s 70km/h speed limit zones were steadily being lowered to 60km/h zones in a VicRoads plan to simplify speed limits, while 90 km/h zones were being changed to 80km/h and 100km/h zones.
But the government has abandoned the speed limit changes after a community newspaper campaign and complaints by the RACV that the changes were unnecessarily penalising motorists.
Scores of suburban and regional arterial roads have had their speed limits altered in the past few months, mostly to slower speeds.
Roads where the speed limit has recently been changed will not revert to their old limits, but all other 70km/h and 90km/h speed zones will stay as they are.
Roads Minister Luke Donnellan said the speed limit changes were halted to give the community certainty.
“On coming to government, Labor is reviewing the former Coalition policies and this is an example of a policy that created community anxiety unnecessarily and needs to be changed.”
From now on speed limits would only be altered on a case by case basis, he said.
“VicRoads will continue to assess all roads on the basis of the road condition, accident data, volume and type of traffic and feedback from road safety partners and the community.”
Robert Morgan, a veteran road safety engineer who was part of a VicRoads speed limit review in 1990, said the plan to remove all 70km/h and 90km/h zones was an attempt to solve a problem that did not exist.
“It was safe last week when it was 70, why isn’t it safe this week?” he said.
Roads that were designed to a 70km/h standard – there are about 1800 70km/h zones in Victoria – could potentially become less safe if traffic was forced to drive at 60km/h, he said.
“If you reduce it to 60km/h it’s quite likely that cyclists or pedestrians will be expecting everyone to be going at 60, pedestrians crossing the road expect everyone to be going at 60, you’ll get some people going faster and the pedestrians will get themselves into trouble,” Mr Morgan said.
The speed limit review was instigated by the former Coalition government as a way to make the state’s speed limits simpler and more consistent.
This story first appeared in The Age
