Low speed limits in residential areas in Melbourne, Australia

Abstract

Objective: This study set out to provide pretrial data for use in evaluating the benefits of lower speed limits in a local residential area in Melbourne.

Methods: An online survey was conducted to assess community views among residents to the proposed trial on a number of relevant issues, along with speed measurements at more than 70 road sites in the region.

Findings: The findings showed a degree of support for reducing the speed in local streets in the trial region, even though most respondents thought the current speed limit (40 km/h, 25 mph) was about right. Most agreed that reducing the speed limit in the region was good for safety and would make the area more pleasant. The average travel speed was 28.3 km/h (17.7 mph) and the 85th percentile speed was 35.0 km/h (21.9 mph) from onsite speed measurement (42% of the individual speeds recorded at the test sites were over 30 km/h or 18.75 mph).

Conclusions: These findings give support to the expectation that lower speed limits on local streets may be possible with good community support.

Keywords:

• Speeding
• crashes
• safety

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the City of Yarra for their support and encouragement in this initiative and are grateful for the added support from the Nottingham council in the UK. We further appreciate the assistance from the reviewers of this article.