{"id":690008,"date":"2026-05-23T19:13:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T19:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/690008\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T19:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T19:13:12","slug":"low-speed-zones-tipped-to-accelerate-national-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/690008\/","title":{"rendered":"Low speed zones tipped to accelerate national change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speed limits of 30km\/h could spread wider across Australia as one state hits the gas on more trials on busy local roads.<\/p>\n

The Victorian government has announced funding grants to four councils for more 30km\/h limit trials, including along Melbourne’s popular Chapel Street and areas in Brunswick and Coburg.<\/p>\n

City of Yarra has piloted 30km\/h limits in parts of Fitzroy and Collingwood since 2018, while the NSW government has had 30km\/h zones in Manly since 2020.<\/p>\n

\"Manly<\/p>\n

Manly’s CBD, Corso and immediate foreshore were designated 30km\/h areas six years ago. (Luke Costin\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

It is clear something needs to be done to protect vulnerable road users in busy areas, says Afshin Jafari, an expert specialising in computational methods to explore sustainable transport.<\/p>\n

“The rate of severe injury is one in four at 40km\/h impact speed and it’s one in two or one in three at 50km\/h,” according to the RMIT research fellow.<\/p>\n

Dr Jafari’s modelling on lowering limits from 50km\/h to 30km\/h indicates it would double safe riding over the course of an average journey while lifting typical car travel times by about one minute.<\/p>\n

It would also likely reduce rat-running.<\/p>\n

“The main barrier here is people’s perception of it increasing travel time by a lot and making congestion worse,” Dr Jafari said.<\/p>\n

“As we end up doing more of the trials and we see that it’s not going to increase travel time and make it safer for everyone, I believe we’ll get less of a pushback.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Reducing speed limits would double safe riding over the course of an average journey. (James Ross\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Lauren Pearson from Monash University’s Sustainable Mobility & Safety Research Group noted 30km\/h limits were used widely in Europe, as well as parts of the UK, North America and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

“In London, there was a 46 per cent reduction in fatal and serious injuries and then an eight per cent reduction in adjacent areas,” she said.<\/p>\n

“And in Wales, where they had a blanket 20m\/h as well, they had an increase in active travel to school from 47 per cent to 74 per cent.”<\/p>\n

Victoria’s speed zoning policy <\/a>was updated in August to make it easier for councils to create 30km\/h limits but final approval still rests with the state.<\/p>\n

Dr Pearson said complex policy hurdles had contributed to Australia’s slower and “piecemeal” uptake of ‘go-slow’ zones but suggested trial data could lead to a broader rollout.<\/p>\n

“That then enables people well outside of Melbourne … maybe regional towns, to think maybe this is something that’s applicable in our context,” she said.<\/p>\n

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said the government would monitor the latest trials to determine if lower speed limits improved road safety.<\/p>\n

\"Victorian<\/p>\n

Jacinta Allan’s government is hoping speed limit trials can deliver significant safety upgrades. (Con Chronis\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

“I want to make clear that no decision has been made,” she said.<\/p>\n

The default speed in build-up areas is 50km\/h in every Australian state or territory apart from the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n

It drops to 40km\/h in school zones except in South Australia where it is 25km\/h.<\/p>\n

Other busy areas, including shopping precincts and CBD zones, are subject to 40km\/h limits in Victoria, NSW and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

In September, Transport for NSW confirmed there were “no plans” to implement a 30km\/h zone across Sydney’s CBD after Premier Chris Minns previously declared pedestrians “could walk quicker than that”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speed limits of 30km\/h could spread wider across Australia as one state hits the gas on more trials…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,336749,44,16862,141969,165918],"class_list":["post-690008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dr-jafari","tag-news","tag-nsw-government","tag-speed-limit","tag-speed-limits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}