Implementation of Area 40s in Maribyrong - its journey and outcomes
Eng Hwa Lim, Lisa Steinmetz & Sanket Kargathra
Maribyrnong City Council, Victoria
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ABSTRACT
Population forecasts anticipate an 80% population growth of Maribyrnong i over the next 25 year period from 2016 to 2041. In order to accommodate the additional demand and pressures on the local transport infrastructure, consideration should be given to alternative transport solutions. One approach successfully tested in other countries is encouraging the community to adopt sustainable transport by creating attractive and safe environments which are conducive to walking, riding and using public transport.
In Maribyrnong's 2016 Annual Community Survey Report, 76.5% of residents indicated being “dissatisfied with the speed of traffic on local roads and considered that the speed was too fast”. Hence Maribyrong Council, being in an inner city urban environment, is keen to improve the safety of its road environment as well as support increased walking, cycling and public transport. A benchmarking exercise was carried out to benefit from the experience of other Melbourne Metro councils who have already implemented 40km/h speed limits on their local roads. In October 2017, Council endorsed the staged approach for implementation. The City was divided into 7 areas where the sequence of Area 40 implementation generally aligns with the Local Area Traffic Management Program.
To date, 3 out of 7 areas have been reviewed, approved and speed reduction implemented between FY2018/2019 and FY2019/2020.
Post-implementation evaluation forms part of this overall program. The evaluation of the first Area 40 has been completed, involving a short-term evaluation (undertaken less than 12 months after the implementation of the treatment) to provide insights into impacts the reductions have had on safety, driver behaviour and operations. The evaluation found that reduced speed limits resulted in a reduction in actual vehicle speeds (both mean and 85th percentile) for most streets. The expected change in casualty crashes was also modelled to assess the expected impact on road trauma.
Author(s)
Eng Hwa Lim | Maribyrnong City Council
Eng is an engineering specialist and transport management with strong urban planning background for the past 30 years in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, India, United Kingdom, Middle East and now Australia.
Diverse and broad experience in managing various infrastructure projects including land acquisition, privatisation of tolled highways, strategic planning and precinct structure plan, road safety, parking, traffic management, transport modelling, environmental studies, large township masterplanning, axle load studies, public transport and bus priority studies, traffic operations/traffic management centre and research into traffic signage.
Awards: Overseas Scholarship Scheme for Engineers from the Confederation of British Industry in 1995, Best Finance Student Bank Muamalat Award for MBA degree in 2001 and President's Award for Best Student in Transport for MSc degree in 2006.
Lisa Steinmetz | Maribyrnong City Council
Lisa has over 19 years of experience in traffic and road safety engineering. She joined O’Brien Traffic in 2019 as a Senior Traffic Engineer after 17 years with the Australian Road Research Board. Her career has encompassed research, evaluation and risk assessment projects focussed on improving safety on state and local government roads, as well as managing and contributing to national research, provision of expert advice in road safety engineering (including Safe System road infrastructure, design and implementation, risk assessment, speed management and engineering guidance development), traffic management, road design and local government placements. She is an accredited Road Safety Auditor and a highly experienced Safe System Assessor (over 100 Safe System Assessments)
Lisa is motivated by the aim of helping deliver safe roads that also meet the mobility, amenity, accessibility and environmental needs of the community.
Sanket Kargathra | Maribyrnong City Council
Sanket is currently working as a Senior Transport Engineer at Maribyrnong City Council. I have more than 12 years of experience in traffic engineering and transport planning, land-use planning and delivery of transport infrastructure projects. I am highly motivated Transport Engineering professional who is passionate about working on traffic and transport engineering challenges to deliver safe and sustainable infrastructure to community.
