Charles Sturt Council commissions review into 40km/h speed limits
More than half of the streets in Charles Sturt Council have a 40km/h speed limit. Should they?
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Residents of Charles Sturt will be given the chance to have their say on the low speed limits that dominate the district under a review launched by the council.
Every resident and business in the 18 suburbs that have been hit with 40km/h speed limits in the district since 2012 will be sent a letter to ask their opinion of the go-slow.
The council will also use telephone polling if it does not receive enough responses from the letter drop to form an accurate sample size.
The effectiveness of the speed limit reductions will also be studied by the University of Adelaide’s Centre for Automotive Safety Research based on crash and traffic data.
The surveys and studies will help dictate whether 40km/h zones should continue or be rolled out further across the district.
More than half of the streets in Charles Sturt have had their speed limits cut to 40km/h since a push for lower speeds began in 2012.
Low-speed zones have historically existed in Grange, Tennyson, Woodville West and the Bowden-Brompton area.
The process is expected to cost $100,000.
A report written by a council transport engineer said the 40km/h zones had been introduced to “improve road safety and reduce crashes, while improving local amenity”.
It also said another “driver” of the zones was to slow traffic without the need for expensive infrastructure such as speed bumps or chicanes.
Cr Tolley Wasylenko told Monday night’s council meeting that lower speed limits promoted better community spirit and the review was necessary to “get (the residents) on our side”.
“If we get a good result we bring the residents on board because as we all know we need to reclaim our neighbourhoods and our streets … rather than be concerned about whether they’re going to interact with their neighbours because there’s going to be fast cars going up and down,” Cr Wasylenko said.
The public consultation will be conducted from February till April 2020.