Road safety

Traffic calming measures

Traffic calming measures to control speed include speed humps, chicanes or intersection narrowing.

Councils Traffic Calming Measures - Policy and Application Criteria

Council receives many requests from residents to install traffic calming measures.  The concerns usually have 2 main issues:

• motorists travelling faster than the permitted speed limit
• vehicles using their residential street as a thoroughfare.

The street is assessed street using council's policy criteria.  The criteria includes the following:

The street should  -

• be a local residential street
• have a recorded accident history
• have the issue happening along the length of the street, not at one particular location
• have the support of at least 75% of affected residents

The street should not -

• require treatment over a length greater than 1km
• be a road with a speed limit over 50km/hr
• be an unsealed road
• be a major traffic route - arterial or collector road like Ormond Road etc
• be on the bus route
• be in the industrial subdivision area
• be a residential road, which is excessively steep and the installation of traffic calming measures would cause difficulties for service vehicles such as refuse & recycling trucks, fire and ambulance vehicles

While the street may not meet all the criteria above, it must meet the requirement of having the support of 75% of residents to be recommended for further investigation.

The application goes through quite a lengthy process before any calming measures may be installed.

The policy document helps investigate the merits of each request, determines whether traffic calming measures are appropriate and explains the funding criteria.