25 April 2012

Unley Drivers Flout Speed Limit

The following story appeared in the Eastern Courier this week. This follows up on the recent blog about streets in Goodwood South. The comments at the link make interesting reading and show little support for Unley's 40km speed limit.

24 Apr 12 @ 07:30am by Emily Griffiths
AT LEAST every second motorist is breaking the 40km/h limit on 19 Unley streets, a council survey has revealed.
More than a decade after Unley lowered the limit - and despite an extensive publicity campaign including posting “check your speed” stickers on household bins - people are continuing to speed.
Information gathered between March and August last year showed more than half the drivers on 19 streets exceeded the limit.
The worst road was Frederick St, Unley,where 81 per cent of drivers sped at up to 53km/h.
The council has forwarded a list of the 19 worst streets to police and urged them to increase their patrols.Other speeding hotspots included Marlborough St, Malvern, Aroha Tce, Black Forest,Regent St, Millswood, and Jellicoe Ave, Kings Park.

Parkside resident Cindy Groth said there was still confusion about the 40km/h speed limit. She said many locals assumed the speed limit was 50 km/h on wider streets.
Unley Councillor Michael Saies said he was not surprised.“(Frederick St) is wide and an obvious thoroughfare,” Mr Saies said. He believed many drivers trying to avoid Unley Rd used the street as a “rat-run” and warned accidents could easily happen.

Unley chief executive Peter Tsokas said the council was not concerned by the report.
“Traffic speeds were recorded on 101 streets and 19 were identified as requiring further investigation - so in overall terms that is not a significant issue,” Mr Tsokas said in an emailed statement.
“There have been numerous studies of Unley’s 40km/h speed limit and they have come to the conclusion that the streets are safer because of the lower speed limit.”
The link to the comments is below;

Is the 40km/h speed limit on Unley backstreets working?


1 comment:

  1. Notwithstanding that the speed limit may have been exceeded at times by a certain % of the population I support the 40kph limit in suburban streets and I suspect most of the residents do too. There may be an argument to increase the limit on Leah St & Victoria St but that would come from the commuters and probably not from residents in those streets. If the Council was to consider changing any of the limits it should be based on community consultation and evidence.

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