Politician wants curfews, load limits, lane bans and targeted enforcement against trucks using suburban road north-east of Melbourne
By Brad Gardner | December 9, 2011
Trucks using a suburban road north-east of Melbourne are in the firing line, with a state MP demanding the introduction of new enforcement measures to reduce traffic numbers.
Anthony Carbines, who holds the seat of Ivanhoe, has warned people will be killed unless drastic action is taken against trucks and cars travelling on Rosanna Road, about 20 minutes north-east of Melbourne.
Providing a link between the Eastern Freeway, Greensborough Highway and the Metropolitan Ring Road, Rosanna Road is a popular route for cars and trucks, with traffic numbers rising considerably in recent times.
“VicRoads needs to reduce the load limits of the trucks, it needs to ban trucks in right-hand lanes, it needs to install noise detection cameras to put unroadworthy trucks off the road and it needs to establish curfews at night. It needs to protect the residents of Rosanna Road,” Carbines says.
One of the department’s regional directors, Nial Finegan, says VicRoads is aware of the community’s concerns but a curfew is not the answer.
“VicRoads is not considering a truck curfew on Rosanna Road as this could divert [trucks] onto other residential streets in the area,” he says.
“Rosanna Road forms part of the arterial road network and all vehicles including trucks can use this road.”
Finegan says the department is working with the local council on the issue and is open to discussing ways to encourage trucks to use the Greensborough Highway as an alternative to Rosanna Road.
Carbines has accused VicRoads of failing to address the community’s safety concerns.
“There are far too many trucks on Rosanna Road. Thousands of cars from the outer northern suburbs, where there are poor public transport links, are driving down Rosanna Road, fighting for room with many trucks on very narrow lanes,” he says.
Carbines claims a bend at the intersection of Rosanna Road, Lower Plenty Road and the Greensborough Highway is so poor that cars have run through the front fences of local houses.
“This is a dangerous road in my electorate. Lives will be lost — mark my words — as a result of the trucks and the cars that use Rosanna Road,” Carbines says.
With a recent report pointing to a 20 percent increase in trucks using the road over the last three years, the local council suggested curfews and traffic diversions.