BRISBANE will slash the speed limit of one its busiest streets from next week after a trial trying to reduce accidents proved successful.
The speed limit on a 780m stretch of Ann St in the CBD, stretching from Creek St to the Riverside Expressway, will be permanently slashed from 60km/h to 40km/h on November 5.
The Brisbane City Council will announce the change today and will send the message out via electronic billboards.
In the past five years, there has been 10 serious accidents involving pedestrians on the same stretch of road.
In May, Brisbane mum Anne-Marie Stent died after she was hit by a city bus while crossing Ann St.
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk announced a review into the city’s road safety in July, calling for a year-long trial of slow speed limits.
The review came after 16 cyclists and pedestrians were killed on Queensland roads in the past six months.
The Ann St change leaves Turbot St the only CBD street with a speed limit of 60km/h. The rest of Brisbane’s streets saw speed limits cut to 40km/h back in 2009.
Harold Scruby from the Pedestrian Council supported slashing speed limits — even if it were to increase gridlock in the already notoriously slow packed city.
Brisbane is well-known for having some of the worst CBD traffic in the country.
“We’ve got to find ways to minimise the harm our roads. We were here first, pedestrians were here first,” Mr Scruby said.
Previously, the state’s peak motoring board RACQ said it would not support a blanket speed reduction.
RACQ’s head of public policy Dr Rebecca Michael told 2GB the council shouldn’t be rushing the solution.
“We would consider, on a case-by-case basis, looking at a reduction, particularly for those areas where there’s high pedestrian or high cyclist activity,” Dr Michael said.
“Most important, we’re keen not to rush towards a solution before we really understand what the problem is we’re actually addressing.”
The proposed changes were also previously discussed on Studio 10 where co-host Angela Bishop applauded the speed limit drop.
“The sad reality is pedestrians are getting more dangerous to themselves and it has a lot to do with mobile phones,” Bishop said.
“Pedestrians are becoming less and less alert and if you combine that with drivers also playing with their phones, the slower you’re going the better.”
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