Speed limit cuts on 11 region roads | Gympie News | Local News in Gympie

Renee Pilcher

GYMPIE Region drivers are headed for big speed limit cuts on 11 major and increasingly busy roads, but council Works and Services Committee chairman Larry Friske says the process has been both practical and democratic.

He says the new speed limits are based on what 85 per cent of drivers are doing anyway.

Council Engineering director Bob Fredman told this week's Works and Services Committee meeting that the new speed limits had been planned with a view to simplifying the job of drivers, by making speed limits fairly constant through particular areas, with signed exceptions.

The new council decision will impose 80kmh limits on seven of the roads , all of them previously subject to 100kmh limits.

They are Tandur-Traveston Road, Tandur Road, North Deep Creek Road, Tamaree Road, Enterprise Road, Hood Road and Old Goomboorian Road.

The Traveston Road and Sandy Creek Road limits will be cut from 100kmh to 90kmh and maximum speeds on Old Veteran Road and Fisher Road will be cut from 80kmh to 70kmh.

Cr Friske said that the new limits were an important safety measure and were based on detailed scientific testing of speeds already being done by a majority of drivers on the roads.

“It makes sense and shouldn't make much difference to most drivers,” he said.

The committee recommendations were adopted at the council's general meeting on Wednesday.

They arose from a Traffic Advisory Committee meeting, at which council was represented by Crs Friske, Ian Petersen and Donna Neilson, council staff members Stuart McLeod and Ross Chapman, with attendance also by Graham Alder of the Queensland Fire and Rescue Authority, Gympie Traffic Branch chief Peter Webster, the Department of Transport and Main Roads officials Luke Kidd, Rowdy Goudens, Samantha Green, Pamela Goodchild and Jackie Smith and bus service operator Mark Polley of the Bus Operators Association.

Council also resolved to write to the Department of Environment and Resource Management about the straying of brumbies onto Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Beach Roads.

Sgt Webster told the advisory committee that up to 50 horses were believed to be straying from Forestry Land, resulting two years ago in the Transport Department erecting warning signs.

Mr Fredman told councillors it would be “very hard to justify not changing speed limits in some areas,” but said progress on making the changes would be “ongoing for another two years or so.”