General News
31 January, 2023
$50k could slow speed
By CHRIS EARLFIRST steps to improve safety in Inglewood’s Brooke Street could cost just $50,000. Businessman and president of the town’s tourism and development committee, Peter Moore, has obtained prices on speed checks signs currently used in...
By CHRIS EARL
FIRST steps to improve safety in Inglewood’s Brooke Street could cost just $50,000.
Businessman and president of the town’s tourism and development committee, Peter Moore, has obtained prices on speed checks signs currently used in Queensland towns.
“The suppliers say each sign costs $6000 - we would want two at each end of town,” he said.
“They run on solar power and the only other cost would be poles to mount to the signs and installation.”
Official Department of Transport figures show more than 3000 vehicles, including 500 trucks, travel the Calder Highway on average each day.
But the data is two years old and Mr Moore believes traffic has increased since COVID restrictions and lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.
He says it is not unusual to see trucks come into town and quickly be “on the tail” of a vehicle in front.
And when drivers are alighting their cars to shop in Brooke Street, vehicles have to veer across the centre dividing line of the narrow heritage street.
Mr Moore, who owns the town’s IGA supermarket said he had given new Ripon MP Martha Haylett costings for the speed check signs.
Mr Moore is being backed in calls for a safer Brooke Street by Cafe 3517 owner David Smyth.
“We don’t want a bypass ... there are cheaper and better options to make the street safer for everyone,” he said.
Mr Smyth said speed check signs and a 40kmh speed limit were high on the list of options.
“With cars parked along the street outside shops, 40kmh feels safe and right when your are driving in Brooke Street,” he said.
“Sometimes it can be like Sesame Street out there, trucks that look to be doing 70kmh. If anyone gets hit, you’ve got no hope.”
Mr Smyth said Inglewood, mid-way between Melbourne and Mildura, was the ideal rest town for travellers.
“We need to develop more parking options to accommodate them and encourage them to stop for a while here,” he said.
Mr Moore has been a long-term campaigner for a safer Brooke Street,
More than a decade ago he was at the forefront of community calls for installation of a pedestrian crossing, concerned for the safety of students coming from the town’s two primary school.
Locals achieved action after blocking the Brooke Street corner to hold a protest meeting.
Mr Moore and Mr Smyth hope that form of protest is not needed in 2023 after Calder Highway traffic numbers have boomed in the 21st century.
“We want the options for a safer street looked at,” they said.