WalkSydney

This week Inner West Council and Transport for NSW reduced the speed limit of local roads in large parts of Enmore, Marrickville, Sydenham and Tempe from 50km/h to 40km/h. Some State roads within the same area, including Enmore Road and Victoria Road, have been reduced from 60 km/h to 50km/h. Inner West plans to extend local reductions to 40km/h across the rest of its council area within the next few years.

We commend Mayor Darcy Byrnes and his team for implementing these speed reductions, which will reduce the number and severity of crashes, and save lives. Council’s report showed that as well as fewer deaths and serious injuries, these changes would bring economic benefits, make streets more liveable and potentially improve bus journey times, without any meaningful impact on travel times by car. The works to change signs and linemarkings, which were paid for by Transport, cost $1.8 million, a drop in the ocean for the agency’s approximately $7.4 billion operating budget.

Speed reduction is popular with the community: 80% of submissions supported it. The total number of submissions was small and these speed reductions have not attracted major controversy. However, several community members and groups, including WalkSydney, called for a reduction to 30km/h instead of 40km/h. 30km/h on local streets is one of our key asks because as Transport’s own data shows, the likelihood of a fatal crash drops significantly at this speed.

We call on Mayor Byrnes to go further and implement 30km/h across all local streets, an outcome which was explicitly referenced in Council’s report.

WalkSydney wants Transport for NSW to prioritise speed reduction in other council areas and on state roads, and progress with a default 30km/h on local streets across the state. NSW lags well behind best practice on speed limits, and Transport is lacking leadership in this domain. In pushing for speed reduction, we are simply asking Transport to implement its own policies.

Multiple stakeholders, including Transport staff, have told us that speed reduction is becoming harder to achieve and is increasingly politicised, including direct approvals from the Minister (and public opposition from the Premier). We thank Inner West for listening to the evidence and delivering this cheap, straightforward action to improve safety for all.