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Chapter
1 Background to the Report
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The Victorian Parliament has a lengthy history of involvement with road safety inquiries, commencing in 1967 with the establishment of the first Joint Select Road Safety Committee. This Committee operated until 1982 when, following the restructuring of the Parliamentary committee system, the road safety inquiries were conducted by the Social Development Committee. In 1992 the Road Safety Committee was re-established.The last inquiry completed by the Social Development Committee was the Inquiry Into Speed Limits In Victoria and the report was tabled in Parliament in November 1991. That report was significant in that it stressed the need for credible and uniform speed limits and initiated the establishment of procedures to implement a speed revision program throughout Victoria.
A concern of the present Committee however is that whilst the Government responded to the report (as required by the Parliamentary Committees Act) and advised the Parliament as to which recommendations will be taken-up there is no other follow-up mechanism. In fact there is no direct accountability to the Committee by Government agencies as to the actual state of implementation of these recommendations. To overcome this deficiency the Committee initiated this inquiry to review progress and report its findings to the Parliament. Under the provisions of the Parliamentary Committees Act the Government is then required to respond to the Parliament on this report and it is by this mechanism that the accountability to Parliament is maintained. Through this accountability the Parliament and the community is informed of the status of implementation of the recommendations, the results to date, details of any evaluations carried out and any lessons to be learnt from the process.
In 1985 the Road Safety Board of the then Road Traffic Authority recommended a review of speed limits on urban divided arterial roads and gave consideration to adopting 110 km/h speed zones on high standard freeways.To implement this review the Road Traffic Authority in 1986 established a specialist task force to examine all aspects of speed management and to recommend a package of measures for implementation. The task force report entitled A Speed Management Strategy For Victoria was released in March 1987 and attracted wide praise from the road safety community.The most obvious change in speed limits following this Strategy was the increase in speed limits on selected freeways from 100 km/h to 110 km/h. However the road toll in the late 1980s was climbing and the Government announced in 1989 that the speed limit would be reduced to 100 km/h and that the Social Development Committee would be requested to conduct an inquiry into the lowering of speed limits[1]. The Social Development Committee felt that the terms of reference pre-empted the outcome of the inquiry and did not proceed with the inquiry. Following negotiations the inquiry was changed in June 1990 to an inquiry into speed limits in Victoria and the Social Development Committee was requested:
To address the social and economic issues of relevance to Victoria in relation to the setting of appropriate speed limits, either across the board or in specific areas and make recommendations on these matters, including designation of these speed limits. [2]
On 13 November 1991 the Social Development Committee tabled its report and the Government response was tabled in Parliament on 19 May 1992[3].
Appendix A contains a list of the relevant Social Development Committee recommendations.
The Committee stressed the need to have credible and appropriate speed limits in Victoria and strongly supported the use of the VLIMITS computer software program in determining appropriate and uniform speed limits[4]. The Committee recommended that speed limits commence with 40 km/h for residential streets; 75 km/h speed zones be phased out and replaced with speed limits based on 10 km/h increments; speed limits on rural arterial roads remain at 100 km/h; and after further study a 110 km/h speed limit be applied to high quality freeways and expressways. The Government supported the thrust of the recommendations and under the auspices of VicRoads a speed revision program was established.
The Road Safety Committee is aware that the speed revision program has now concluded (with the exception of a lower general urban speed limit) and the Committee considers it is now appropriate to review the implementation of the program and report its findings to the Parliament.
In particular the Committee was interested in:
As this is a self initiated inquiry the Committee agreed to the following terms of reference:
Pursuant to section 4F (1)(b) of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1968 the Road Safety Committee resolves to inquire into, consider and report to Parliament on:
(1) The Social Development Committee's report upon the Inquiry into Speed Limits in Victoria tabled in Parliament on 13 November 1991; and
(2) The Government response to this report tabled in Parliament on 19 May 1992 pursuant to section 4O (2) of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1968.
The Committee shall examine:
(a) The implementation of the revision of speed limits on all Victorian roads;
(b) The order of magnitude of the lengths and speed limit categories of roads where speed limits have been revised;
(c) The history of casualty crashes on roads prior and subsequent to speed limit revision;
(d) The reasons for exempting any classes of roads from the speed limits revision program;
(e) The procedures for the ongoing evaluation of the speed limit revision program;
(f) The procedures for the ongoing monitoring and review of travel speeds, traffic offences and casualty crashes to identify roads where speed limits need to be revised; and
(g) The procedures for the ongoing monitoring and review of travel speeds, traffic offences and casualty crashes on roads where speed limits have been revised; and
(h) Any other issues relevant to this Inquiry.
The Committee invited submissions from organisations likely to have information relevant to the terms of reference. Some interest groups also made submissions. The Committee received a total of 12 submissions: one from a local government association, one from a municipality, three from government agencies and seven from non-government organisations. A list of the organisations making submissions is given in Appendix B.
A total of 10 witnesses gave evidence at a hearing held in Melbourne on 24 October 1994. Appendix C lists those who gave evidence.
Whilst this report concentrates on the effect of speed limit changes invariably other issues arose. The content of each chapter is described below.Chapter 2 summarises the submissions and evidence.Chapter 3 discusses the evidence submitted on the effect of speed limit changes.Chapter 4 examines evaluation and monitoring procedures.Chapter 5 covers other issues.
Footnotes to Chapter 1
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