Cr Aidan Greenshields

I might sound like a broken record, but today I’m talking about 40km/h zones again, sorry. Here’s what happened at the 8 September Council meeting, and why I moved it.

Council agreed to planning for 40km/h on our local roads, one precinct at a time. The first area is Precinct 1, bounded by Cross Road, Belair Road, the hills and our eastern boundary, plus Coromandel Parade between Boronia Avenue and the Council boundary.

The motion does not install a single sign, spend a dollar or change the speed limit on a single street. Every precinct gets fully consulted first and that consultation can decide what it looks like, what streets are included or whether it goes ahead at all. After that it still needs state government approval and another decision on funding through the budget process, it will be weighed against all of Council’s priorities. Nothing is a done deal.

Council's feasibility study counted more than 1,400 crashes on our local roads between 2020 and 2024 and 170 complaints about speeding in 18 months. The study also compared our own suburbs. Hawthorn and Westbourne Park, which have been 40km/h for years, recorded 20.65 crashes per square kilometre. Kingswood and Netherby, right next door at 50km/h, recorded 31.22 per square kilometre. That is 51 per cent higher.

Elsewhere the ‘Victoria Walks’ study found crashes in Toorak and Prahran fell 46 per cent and injuries 42 per cent. The City of Charles Sturt saw injury crashes drop 29 per cent at Bowden and Brompton and 79 per cent at Woodville West. The economics hold up too, at roughly five dollars of benefit for every dollar spent.

I’m a paramedic. I attend car versus car, car versus bike and car versus pedestrian on suburban side streets. This is pretty close to home.

There’s also an inconsistency to fix. The state government has dropped main roads past schools to 40 for safety reasons, while Mitcham still allows 50 on the side streets those same kids walk down. It doesn’t make sense.

And it is not only about crashes. Slower streets are friendlier streets. People walk more, ride more, strike up conversations with neighbours, potter about on the verge, let the kids go for a ride or kick a footy in the front yard. In Perth's City of Vincent, 14 per cent more people were walking and riding within a year after a 40km/h change. Over time we can reshape the road itself, claw back some hot asphalt for garden beds and cool our suburbs down.

Climate, Safety, Community.

The usual objection is delay. Realistically, we’re talking under 20 seconds on a trip. The other is that nobody enforces it, but evidence shows speeds DO drop when limits drop and SAPOL have been enforcing new 40km/h zones elsewhere.

The best way to make policy is via a strong evidence base. The evidence points one way.

I promise I’ll touch on a new topic next article. Enjoy the warming weather.

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