A review will consider whether lowering the road speed limit in the Ipswich CBD could improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers.
Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding said Ipswich City Council has received funding from the State Government’s Vulnerable Road Users Program (VRUP) for an investigation into reviewing the speed zones within the Ipswich CBD.
“We are asking all sections of the community, including pedestrians, people with disabilities, cyclists, business owners and operators, and drivers to assist with our investigation on the suitability of slowing the traffic here in the Ipswich CBD,” Mayor Harding said.
“The area to be considered in the review encompasses the Ipswich CBD bounded by Bremer Street, Milford Street, Roderick Street and Darling Street East.
“Brisbane Street from Top of Town down to East Street is currently the only 40km/h zone within the Ipswich CBD, and this grant provides the opportunity to explore the potential to lower speeds in other streets within the Ipswich CBD.”
Ipswich Central Redevelopment Committee chairperson and Division 3 Councillor Marnie Doyle said the ongoing CBD revitalisation would see more people walking, cycling, and scootering in Ipswich Central.
“Lower speed limits can increase safety for all road users and increase trading opportunities for CBD businesses by facilitating additional footpath dining and making window shopping a more enjoyable experience,” Cr Doyle said.
“Many people would think this would mean longer travel times through the CBD. However, in most instances the travel time difference would be insignificant, averaging less than 30 seconds extra time.”
“We understand that potential speed limit changes can prompt strong opinion and that’s why we want to hear what the community thinks about these potential changes in our city’s centre.”
Division 3 Councillor Andrew Fechner said other city centres with comparable pedestrian volumes had lowered speed limits to improve safety.
“We know it takes cars longer to stop the faster they are travelling, and this study will consider road safety initiatives to implement lower speed limits in high walking and riding areas,” Cr Fechner said.
“I encourage everyone who uses CBD roads and footpaths to have their say on Shape Your Ipswich”.
Community feedback is currently being sought for the proposal on Shape Your Ipswich here.
The opportunity to provide comment ends on Friday 28 February 2022.
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40 is slow enough.people need to use crossings.
All the streets should be 50km Ipswich
Build another bridge and reduce congestion in the CBD for starters. It is such a bottleneck already and often you cannot even travel at 40km/h. Congestion and therefore driver frustration is the major issue. The trouble is there is no way around the CBD – only throufyit
hallelujah
100% agree with the 2nd bridge. It’s ridiculous that we only have the one main bridge. Seems like Brisbane gets a new bridge every year. I avoid the CBD for that reason in peak hour.
Exactly.
What are our local MPs doing about the bridge.
Probably plenty of talk and as usual not much action.
Yes
Crossing from ex. RiverLink Bridge to the Ipswich Showgrounds takes far too long. and many people dont need to go through town centre at all.
No
The speeds currently do not need to be altered..some actual enforcement of the current ones would be welcomed…as per the red light runners and the multitudes who have forgotten the meaning of a Stop Signs and give way rules.
The road system around these areas are poorly designed and need to be altered and the abortion of the one lane onto the Trumpy Bridge from East street which was a disaster from day 1.
Fix it ….don’t just take the cheap cop out of slowing it all down even worse than it is.
I would love to see the rat runs around Blair Street and Ipswich Grammar schools such as Cribb, Syntax and Darling Street East etc to be permanently reduced to 40.
All CBD streets should be 40.
Scooters have become a menace in many cities that have introduced them. We have enough going on without adding yet another road/path user.
It’s a road, it’s meant for cars. 50km/h is slow enough. Don’t tell me that traffic will flow through just as quickly at 40km/h. It’s getting to the point of ridiculous.
50 KM is OK NO SCOOTERS PLEASE.
As stated by other people on this web site, what is the point of reducing speed limits, when you cant even maintain the current speed limits due to traffic congestion.
We need the new bridge built over the river to take the traffic away from the city centre, this bridge has been talked about for years, as Ipswich is a safe Labor seat, nothing ever gets done all we hear is its waiting for Federal Funding.
But the State Labor government can spend billions on a cross river rail service for Brisbane, without federal funding, because there are marginal seats in this area.
Also we need to get the state government to get the old Herbert Street Railway Line Bridge re opened as well, this will also take some of the traffic away from Brisbane Street, West Ipswich, leading down to the Bunnings.