Bird’s Eye View

BIRDS EYE VIEWbyCarol Messenger

But is not about revenue raising

It’s not about revenue raising - how often have we heard that? However, the timing of Main Road's latest sneaky little speed changes could have you thinking otherwise.

Just in time for a WA Day public holiday (which carried double demerits), Main Roads changed the speed limits on a number of the Kwinana Freeway exits as well as other roads in the Peel region.

No prior warning, no explanation, no ‘change of speed limit ahead’ sign, nothing - just whipped out the 80 km/h signs and replaced them with 70 km/h.

These speed limits have been 80 km/h since Adam was a boy, and yes we should all be more vigilant and notice the signs but let’s be realistic - do we notice every speed limit sign when we are used to a speed limit on a regularly travelled route? Also, a truck could be going past and block the sign for a second (bloody trucks - blame everything on them).

In its defence, MRD spokesman Dean Roberts says, “The speed limits were changed to comply with Main Roads’new Speed Zoning Policy and Application Guidelines which indicate that the maximum speed limit through traffic signals is 70 km/h.”

Instead of Main Roads putting out a publicity campaign to advise motorists of this and give them some fair warning, they put this new change on their website. Do they think that reading their website is on everyone's ‘must read’ list every day?

To find this latest change just Google Policy and Application Guidelines for Speed Zoning WA. This policy was developed in April 2020 and came into effect on May 6th, 2020. Trolling through the regulations is a mind-numbing sleepinducing procedure so I will save you the effort and it is at section 5.1.1

Traffic Signals

“The maximum speed limit through Traffic Signals in Western Australia is 70 km/h. Where the approach road has a Regulatory Speed Limit of 80 km/h and above, the approach to the intersection shall be speed zoned to 70 km/h or less, for a distance of not less than 10 seconds of travel time at the preceding higher Posted Speed Limit before the signals. *Traffic Signals speed zoned at 70km/h are to have a minimum length of 0.3km. This comprises of 200m on approach to and 100m on departure from the intersection. Similarly, roundabouts, railway level crossings, and single-lane bridges on a road with a posted speed limit greater than 80km/h may have short sections of Posted Speed Limits applied on approaches.”

So be prepared, all of our traffic light intersections will be changed to 70kph –

Instead of Main Roads putting out a publicity campaign to advise motorists of this and give them some fair warning, they put this new change on their website

and it will be rolled out intersection by intersection. So coming up the Roe Hwy from Thomas Road it will be up and down up, 70-100-70-100-70-100 all the way along. You barely get the speed up and you have to slow down again.

Interestingly, this same legislation talks about speed zone transitions signs, “A Speed Zone Transition is intended for use where there is a significant reduction in the speed limit along a carriageway. Where there is a significant reduction of the speed limit, two sets of Speed Limit Ahead Signs (G9-79) shall be placed in advance of the start of the lower speed zone in accordance with AS 1742.4, Section 2.3.5”. Sounds ok - until you read the next page where there is a table that shows where and when they don't have to use them and that pretty much covers all cases (see table 3 below).

Main Roads are slanting this whole thing on safety. It is safer to go through intersections at 70 km/h rather than 80 km/h. I do not doubt that intersections are major black spots and reducing the speed

Table 3: Speed Zone Ahead Signage

Speed Zone Difference

10 km/h

20 km/h to 30 km/h

40 km/h and above

Speed Zone Ahead Signage

Not to be used

Optional (site-specific) Mandatory (other treatments likely to be required), except at Freeway off-ramps

could reduce crash intensity but I have two questions. 1) Why has it suddenly be deemed 70 is the safe speed when it has been 80 for like forever? And, 2) Why the secrecy? Why not inform the public that you are changing the speed limits?

There are simply millions of dollars in the road safety fund to be spent on ‘exactly’ this purpose - informing the public - so why not put up an ad campaign to let everyone know about the changes? Couldn't be that they want to catch motorists out ‘speeding’ could it? Surely not - that would be Revenue Raising.