New 40km/h speed limit rolls out in North and West Melbourne

The City of Melbourne is lowering the speed limit across North and West Melbourne in a bid to improve safety for all road users and pedestrians.

A new 40km/h speed limit will be rolled out from early April on all local roads bordered by Dudley St, Peel St, Flemington Rd, Macaulay Rd, part of Dryburgh St, Boundary Rd, and Footscray Rd; however these arterial roads will remain unchanged along with King and Spencer streets.

Busy roads like Errol St, Queensberry St, Arden St, and O’Shanassey St will also drop to 40km/h, including those roads where there is not an existing 40km/h limit.

Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the council had worked closely with the state government to reduce speed limits across the municipality.

“Melbourne’s streets are among the busiest in the nation, with hundreds of thousands of people moving through the city on any given day,” she said.

There is always more that can be done – that’s why we’re continuing to work closely with residents, businesses and the community to explore ways to boost pedestrian safety in our city.

Chair of the North and West Melbourne Association Kevin Chamberlin said, “The community always welcomes these traffic calming measures as they help restore amenity, air quality, and safety”.

Executive officer of Victoria Walks Dr Ben Rossiter said while they were “very supportive” of the reducing the speed limits, he believed consideration should be also given to reducing to the speed limit to 30km/h in some areas.

“We welcome 40km/h, it’s very good,” he said, but added, “in high pedestrian areas where there’s lots of walkers around activity centres and that sort of thing, we think the speed limit should be lower,” Dr Rossiter said.

“The state government is often a barrier to safer speeds. In inner areas that are really dense, they’re people places, people streets; we should have safer speeds to give people more options of getting around.

“Safer speeds mean there’s more street level activity, which is important for commercial businesses. People are more likely to stop and enjoy kerbside dining for example.”

North Melbourne resident Sandy Melnikoff, who was almost bowled over by a car at a zebra crossing earlier this year after a driver was distracted using their mobile phone, said the reduction in speed limits was welcomed.

However, she expressed reservations about how a “happy medium” could be achieved for all road users and pedestrians, particularly with the use of e-scooters, which “do quite a speed”, and more of the devices expected to hit the roads after the state government lifted a ban on private scooters.

“Being a high-density area, there’s still going to be risks involved,” she said.

“For the people I see walking and not looking [when crossing the road], it’s fantastic.”

Electronic traffic signs will be displayed at different locations to advise motorists of the new speed limit

The council said residents had received information in their letterboxes, and that the online Neighbourhood Portal would be updated soon.

Meanwhile, the council is undertaking a study to identify a range of pedestrian improvement projects to be constructed in Kensington and North Melbourne, after public consultation closed on March 20.

Concerns raised by community reference groups included:

• Lack of pedestrian crossings.
• Footpath condition and connectivity issues.
• High vehicle speeds on local roads.
• Vehicles using local roads as short-cuts to avoid congestion on arterial roads.