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APPENDIX
I
The National Road Safety Strategy has identified speeding as one of the key priority areas to be addressed and there is focus on speed management within the road safety strategies of individual States and Territories. From the national perspective there is a need to ensure a consistent approach and to emphasis speed management as a significant national road safety initiative. The National Road Safety Action Plan requires that Governments implement a nationally harmonious urban speed management policy which recognises the specific needs of traffic routes and local access streets.
The Austroads Road Safety Program includes a project specifically addressing this issue of urban speed management. Its purpose is to review the relevance of the present general urban speed limit in the context of developing an urban speed management strategy for adoption nationally. The study aims to determine whether a lower general urban speed limit, alone or in association with a regime of other speed zones, would present a better approach to the effective management of urban speeds. The output from the project will be a recommended policy and guidelines for national implementation of an urban speed management strategy.
The approach adopted in the study has been to review and consolidate existing
speed management practices; to consider emerging issues of concern and to develop
appropriate concepts of defining national best practice. The study is examining
the potential for changes to urban speed limits to deliver improved safety and
amenity, and to encourage more consistent practice in speed zoning without unduly
restricting access or relying on greatly increased levels of enforcement. The
implications for public education are also being addressed, options for changing
the present general urban speed limit from 60 km/h are being examined, and a
Technical Concepts Paper exploring these issues has been circulated among jurisdictions
and technical institutions.
1 The text is the abstract of a verbal presentation by Mr P Croft, Roads and Traffic Authority (NSW) and Manager of the Austroads Urban Speed Management Project, at the 1994 Road Researchers and Enforcement Conference, 30 November 1994.
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