“If someone steps out like that guy just did and I had’ve been going 40km/h, well I may not have missed him,” Cr Wood said.
Speed limits in the Mildura CBD will be cut to 30km/h as part of a 12-month trial after an amended motion was passed at a recent council meeting.
I joined the mayor for a drive around our city streets on Friday to gauge just how these reduced limits might impact on drivers. Or whether they will make any real difference at all.
We cut laps of Eighth Street between Deakin Avenue and Pine Avenue, where we fortunately missed the elderly pedestrian, drove along the Feast Street end of Langtree Avenue and then along Pine Avenue between Seventh and Tenth streets.
At no point during our little test drive did Cr Wood hit 30km/h. This had nothing to do with any speed limit restraints, rather Cr Wood wasn’t able to go any faster given the pedestrian crossings, cars moving in and out of parking spaces and the slow-moving traffic.
JOIN THE MAYOR ON A DRIVE AROUND THE CITY: VIDEO
“As you can see, you just can’t do 30km/h, let alone 40,” the mayor said as he drove along Ninth Street. “We are currently going 26km/h, now 23, now we’ve stopped.”
So why the need for the council to change the limits then?
Cr Wood explained the trial speed reduction was only one small part of the Mildura CBD Access and Mobility Strategy, which also proposes the development of more bike paths in the CBD, safer roundabouts, more carparks and an urgent upgrade of Benetook Avenue so it can become the city’s main freight link.
But safety remained the major focus.
“It literally comes down to safety,” Cr Wood said.
“We have to remember that not everyone lives here.
Cr Helen Healy proposed the trial period at the recent meeting, arguing that most drivers already travelled at 30km/h or less through the CBD.
“I feel it’s much safer … and I’d like to see a trial period to see the feedback from Victoria Police, drivers on the road, CBD businesses and our staff who are on the roads, to really be sure it’s what we want,” she said at the meeting.
But not all councillors saw the need for change.
“There’s no evidence of accidents,” Cr Glenn Milne said. “Previously the road safety committee have suggested to drop the whole of the CBD down to 50km/h and that was rejected but now we’re going down further – on what evidence?
Cr Wood said he understood why people got stuck on these issues, but implored them to read the document to understand the bigger picture the council was trying to achieve.
“It is also about opening extra car parking spaces, it’s access for disabled, it’s changing taxi zones to multi-use so people with disabilities can get dropped off, there’s the loading zones after 11.30am that will go to multi-use.
“I also don’t think anyone would disagree with the need to get trucks off Deakin Avenue, which has been a long-running issue.
“The speed limit trial is one layer of the whole masterplan and I think that is an issue that we probably haven’t done the best of explaining as council. There are a lot of aspects to reinvigorating the CBD because we want to see it flourish, simple as that.”
Asked whether he thought drivers would notice the difference when the 30km/h limit comes in, Cr Wood replied:
“You know what, I hope not. When you put a spotlight on things that have been self-governing themselves already, people go what? And they don’t realise they have been doing it themselves anyway.
“If all the speed limit changes came in and you drove from Mildura to Red Cliffs, you’d lose 18 seconds of your life, so it is miniscule and there are a hell of a lot of other things we could be focusing on. It will end up being part of the fabric and people won’t realise it has even happened.”
The start date for the trial has yet to be announced.
