A controversial effort to lower speed limits to 30 km/h in Brisbane residential areas has been met with outrage from suburban residents who are angry and will drag their daily commute.
Brisbane City Council will vote Tuesday on whether or not to slow traffic on ‘neighborhood streets’ in the local government area.
Greens councilor Jonathan Sriranganathan has filed the motion to discourage motorists, claiming it will promote “vibrant public spaces and hubs of social activity”.
Identical schedules have also been tried in other Australian cities, including Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
A controversial effort to lower speed limits to 30 km/h in Brisbane residential areas (pictured) has been met with outrage from suburban residents making the daily commute to work
Cr Sriranganathan said he expects the council to vote for the change by an overwhelming majority.
“Not only do they reduce the risk of serious injury to pedestrians and cyclists, but they promote streets as vibrant public spaces and hubs of social activity (so lower speed limits are great for small businesses too),” he wrote on Facebook on Monday.
“When traffic is slower, not only does it encourage more walking and driving by improving safety, but it’s also more comfortable to hang out and socialize on the sidewalk.”
But those who live too far away to walk or bike to work and are not near easy public transport say the proposed change will only benefit the affluent residents of the suburbs.
“Sounds like an idea that 30 km/h my car stalls so slowly, you really hate cars,” one commented.
Another wrote: ‘Reducing car use should be about increasing density and making alternatives viable, not just painfully inconvenient for car use in vast Australian suburbs where driving is necessary.’
Brisbane City Council will vote Tuesday on whether or not to slow traffic to a ‘neighbourhood’ streets in the local government area
Greens councilor Jonathan Sriranganathan has filed the motion to discourage motorists, claiming it will promote “vibrant public spaces and hubs of social activity”.
Others question Cr Sriranganathan’s claim that the change would cause fewer accidents.
“We have the safest cars we’ve ever had and we’re slowing down for no reason. Where is the data supporting pedestrian injuries on the streets of the local population? That’s a lot of nonsense. Stop keeping us alive,” said one person.
Another person said they had seen a similar crackdown on cars in their home country.
“I understand why it’s good in theory, but after experiencing it in practice when I visited (France) last month, it was a pain because it was applied to the whole of the city centers,” the person wrote.
“You have to go at a snail’s pace, but most of those streets were empty of pedestrians or bicycles, so the positive effect was not visible.”
A third joked: ‘Why not 5 km/h!? LOL. Why not make it zero? ff.
Identical plans have also been followed in other Australian cities, including Sydney (pictured), Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
Cr Sriranganathan asked Brisbane LNP Mayor Adrian Schrinner at a council meeting in November what it would take to test a 30km/h speed limit in the inner city of Brisbane, a West End suburb.
Cr Schrinner declined the request to test a speed limit of 30 km/h, describing the idea as a “socialist Greens policy that motorists hated”.
“If you push 30 km/h, you hear – read between the lines – that they really hate motorists and they want to punish them and they want them to get out of their cars,” he said.
‘That is Green policy almost everywhere in the world.
“So whether it’s a socialist mayor like the socialist mayor in Paris, or Green Councils elsewhere, it’s a classic sign that you have a Groenraad if they hit 30km/h limits.”
