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Business View Australia - November-December 2015
congestion. As part of this program,
Yarra became the first municipality
in Australia to implement a 40km/h
speed limit in all local residential
streets.
This step was initiated as studies
had shown that a pedestrian is
three times more likely to be killed
if struck by a car travelling at
50km/h than at 40km/h. Council’s
long-term vision for local streets
has been to slow traffic enough to
create a safer environment for all
road users. The lower speed limit
does not apply on Bridge Road,
Swan Street, Victoria Street and
most major arterial roads.
Yarra’s ongoing work to implement
40km/h speed limits on all local roads
has received a special commendation
in the Safe Speeds category of the
Towards Zero Awards presented by
the Transport Accident Commission,
Victoria.
Traffic management has been a
focus of Council for over two decades.
The Local Area Traffic Management
Program was established over
20 years ago. It uses community
feedback and data collected in traffic
studies to analyse local traffic trends
and then help implement different
treatments to help manage local
traffic.