Victorian rest areas may be redesigned after head of VicRoads took to the road with transport safety advocate Rod Hannifey
Victorian rest areas may receive a facelift after the head of VicRoads took the road with transport safety advocate Rod Hannifey.
During his trip with Hannifey up the Hume Highway from Melbourne to Wodonga, VicRoads Chief Executive Gary Liddle noticed a lack of signage for informal truck rest areas.
While saying the possible installation of blue reflective markers may help, Liddle is adamant some rest stops need a redesign, such as space restrictions.
“Looking from a truck’s perspective, they need shade and they need some space away from other vehicles so that when they need to have a sleep they’re not getting interrupted sleep,” Liddle says.
“I think certainly from the design of a number of rest stops that probably could be improved by having space that’s away from other trucks and some shady areas.”
Liddle’s trip was only the second time he had been in a truck, but he says he came away from the five-hour trip with a new appreciation of what truck drivers face on the highway.
“I think generally the road is smooth but the problem is where there is a depression in the road it has a bigger impact on the truck than it would in the car, and that’s certainly something that showed up today. When I’m driving along in my car I probably wouldn’t have noticed,” Liddle says.
“One of the messages I’ll be taking back to our maintenance crews is try and put yourself in the truck drivers’ perspective as well.”