Recently, the West Tamar Council passed a motion to request a lowering of the speed limit for the highway between Riverside and Acropolis Drive from 100km/hr to 80 km/hr. To clarify, this is a highway within the state road network, not a council road.
Under the law of Tasmania, speed limits on any road or highway are determined by the Commissioner for Transport, an independent statutory officer. It is not determined by councils or even state MPs.
As Liberal Member for Bass (which includes the West Tamar communities of Legana, Exeter, Bridgenorth, Beaconsfield, Beauty Point and Greens Beach) I want to ensure that speed limits are set for both safety and efficiency of our highway. I am concerned that this highway has been built to a standard to allow 100km/hr and raised the matter in Parliament today as a Constituency Question.
I also asked for consideration of any improvements that could address the safety concern that has been raised regarding this stretch of highway.
When an answer is received from the Minister, I will share it here.
What do you think?
I disagree with any decision to reduce the speed limit between Riverside and Acropolis Drive The new infrastructure in Legana now requires a reduction of speed limits adding to the horrendous bottleneck for traffic between Legana and Acropolis Drive occurring between 7am and 9am
Thank you very much Michael Ferguson to follow through on this matter on behalf of many residents and road users of the West Tamar Highway (like myself). No matter what people have said about you in the past, you have proven here to be loyal to the electorate of Bass, and it is great to see that you do not support the speed reduction. Any reduction in speed only negates the positive work in having the new duplication of the highway from Acropolis Drive through to the top of Muddy Creek Hill. This is great to see, and I thank you once again for your tremendous effort.
West Tamar Council needs to stick to its lane – focus on lowering rates, and maybe a weekly garbage pick up! The highway is safe, the speed is fine. Now with the current works in Legana it will all flow so much better. There won’t be idiots banking up in the right lane all the way to the wetlands heading towards Legana.
Well said Mick’ may common sense prevail it’s a perfectly safe divided barrier protected highway,that in infrastructure terms isn’t even that old, we have just spent millions upgrading Legana currently to improve efficiency not to make it go backwards.