Some Sydney speed limits could be dropped to 40km/h or even 10km/h

The NSW government is considering reducing the speed to 40km/h in parts of Sydney, with some roads possibly dropping to 10km/h.

The NSW government is reportedly considering reducing the speed limits around Sydney, with a push to reduce some roads to 40km/h and others to just 10km/h.

NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance is speaking with councils across Sydney about reducing speed limits to 40km/h in high pedestrian zones and 10km/h in pedestrian-motorists zones.

The push to change the speed limits is reportedly in response to a recent concerning rise in pedestrian related deaths across the city.

Transport for NSW Deputy Secretary for Safety, Environment and Regulation, Tara McCarthy, said introducing a 40km/h speed limit has proven to reduce fatalities in those areas.

“A vehicle that hits a pedestrian at 50km/h is twice as likely to cause a fatality as the same vehicle travelling at 40km/h,” Ms McCarthy said.

“Since the 40km/h zone was introduced in parts of the Sydney CBD in 2014 there has been a 46 per cent reduction in pedestrian serious casualty crashes.

“That’s why the 40 km/h zone was expanded in Sydney, Barangaroo, Dawes Point and Millers Point last year.”

Minister for Transport and Roads Andrew Constance is reportedly discussing with Sydney councils about changing the speed limits in some parts of the city. Picture: Gaye Gerard/NCA NewsWire

However, there has been some resistance to the idea of reducing speed limits, with NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury saying each road needed to be inspected individually to determine is cutting the speed limit is the best option.

He told 2GB’s Ben Fordham that the state of the road, it’s effectiveness and congestion were other aspects that needed to be taken into account when determining an appropriate speed limit.

Mr Khoury urged against “making arbitrary changes to whole sections of Sydney”, saying many motorists would be less than impressed with the idea.

“It becomes particularly frustrating for the public when they change the speed limit they don’t tend to do a great job of educating the community and then pop up the speed cameras straight behind it,” he said.

“I don’t want to dismiss the idea of making it safer for pedestrians. We have seen 42 pedestrian deaths in NSW this year. It is more than last year, it is way too many. The frustration is they go straight to ‘let’s just slash the speed limit and put up cameras’.”

Mr Khoury said there were “small sections” of the CBD that have a 10km/h speed limit, saying there are some instances where this is necessary.

Some areas could be reduced to 40km/h, while others could drop to just 10km/h. Picture: Eugene Boisvert

“There is some areas where if you do have built up pedestrian areas, people crossing from some shopping mall to another, there may well be a valid argument for it,” he said.

“We are not against that. What we are saying is lets be consistent with how we look at these speed limits and lets apply the most sensible approach.

“We have to save lives, we have to keep people safe. We also need to make sure we getting goods and services delivered safely and efficiently and effectively as possible.”

Mr Khoury noted there had also been a recent push to reduce speed limits in the CBD to 30km/h.

“Very soon we are going to run out of speed limits to cut and we are going to have very few options left when it comes to pedestrian safety,” he told the radio program.

“You need to look at the performance of the individual road to determine the speed.

“What we have seen in the past is that there have been some instances where speed limits have fallen because that was a safe and sensible thing to do. There were other cases where the speed limits have increased because it may have been that there were improvements to the road or there might have been a motorway built nearby that took a lot of traffic so it was safer to increase the speed limit.”

Originally published as Some Sydney speed limits could be dropped to 40km/h or even 10km/h