By Michael Doran
Yarra Glen has been selected as one of 100 rural towns that will form part of VicRoads ‘Community Gateways’ program with work scheduled to begin in March.
Community gateways are designed to alert motorists driving on high-speed roads that they are entering a regional town with a reduced speed limit and to slow down.
These new signs and markings will make it easier to see speed limit changes and slow down, improving safety for people living in and travelling through regional communities.
The Yarra Glen gateway will include large signs on green backgrounds, displaying the speed limit and town’s name and eye-catching painted lines on the road, leading into the gateway. They will be placed on the major arterial roads, including Eltham-Yarra Glen Road, Melba Highway and Healesville-Yarra Glen Road.
Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes said: “Country towns are all too familiar with road tragedy and close calls and these improvements are a fantastic addition to make the Yarra Glen community safer.”
“These small but significant changes will ensure drivers will alter their driving and take extra care knowing they are entering a township,” she added.
Evidence shows that these upgrades signpost a change in speed for drivers, increase alertness and improve road safety for regional communities. They are already in use in New Zealand and have been shown to reduce crashes by up to 35 per cent.
Yarra Glen, along with Garfield, Pearcedale and Koo Wee Rup, is one of the first towns in Victoria to receive this safety treatment with more than 100 locations to be rolled out across the state in the coming months.
The $8 million package of safety upgrades is part of the state government’s $1.4 billion ‘Towards Zero Action Plan’, being delivered in partnership with the Transport Accident Commission and VicRoads.
TAC Road Safety Director Samantha Cockfield said: “We’re creating a more forgiving road network by investing in infrastructure projects such as community gateway treatments that will help make regional road users safer.”
