[author]Chris Dobney[/author]
The Pacific Highway from Bellingen to the border is one of three roads on the north coast that is to have its speed limits reviewed as part of a state government audit of 100 roads across the state.
Also included in the audit will be The Coast Road at Ballina and the Dunoon to Lismore Road.
‘As part of our audit of speed zones we committed to reviewing the top 100 roads, as nominated by the community, by the end of March 2012,’ roads minister Duncan Gay said in a media release yesterday.
The NSW Centre for Road Safety will conduct the review based on their own reviewing guidelines and report back by March next year. Some of the speed zone changes will be implemented before then.
A spokesperson for the minister said that ‘it’s not so much about increasing or decreasing speeds but rationalising speed zones so people are not constantly having to look out for speed signs’.
Minister Gay said, ‘We had more than 27,000 people visit our Safer Roads NSW website and more than 2,600 submissions from across the state’.
Local communities and councils will be notified before the changes but there will be no further opportunity for input.
People can also sign up for an email alert about changes in their area by visiting the Safer Roads website.
The minister’s spokesperson told Echonetdaily, ‘There is no guarantee the speed limits will change in all of these zones: the Centre for Road Safety is the appropriate expert organisation to do this and we will go with its decision’.
‘In the case of the Pacific Highway there could be an overall increase or decrease over the whole area or for longer stretches,’ she added.
People who wish to can sign up for email alerts to be notified when the changes are about to take place. Visit https://www.saferroadsnsw.com.au/ for details.