Pressure is building on VicRoads to expand inner-west truck curfews after new data revealed more than half of all trucks in the area are using it as a shortcut to other destinations.
A draft report of the Inner West Truck Surveys, released at a forum at Maribyrnong Town Hall last Wednesday, shows at least 56 per cent of the thousands of truck journeys in the Yarraville area are on a through journey without local business. The bulk of these are container trucks heading to and from the port.
More than 8800 trucks enter Footscray via Footscray Road each day, with about 4500 ending up on Francis Street and Williamstown Road.
VicRoads chief executive John Merritt said the data would be used to model the likely impact of any new change, such as on overnight curfew on Moore Street, Footscray and a school-time curfew on Somerville Road in Yarraville.
“There is a particular sensitivity about this school drop-off and pick-up time,’’ he said. ‘‘Somerville Road in particular has so many schools along the road.
“People are not saying get rid of everything, they’re saying it’s quite intimidating around that time.”
Maribyrnong Truck Action Group president Sam McArthur said the survey simply confirmed what residents had always known.
“There’s no solution being presented. It really requires infrastructure spending and it requires industry and the port coming to the party and recognising this traffic on residential streets is their responsibility.”
Western Metropolitan Greens MP Colleen Hartland said the state government should have acted when the community first called for a curfew on Moore Street in 2010.
“Since then, night-time truck traffic has doubled. It’s having an unacceptable impact on the community.”
She said a short-term response was needed to tackle the issue now, with port container traffic increasing every year.
“Telling the community to wait another decade before this issue is dealt with is offensive. Relying on [East West Link] which is unlikely to ever be built, would be at least a decade off before one truck could use it.
‘‘Truck numbers are projected to double to 42,000 per day in 2025. The inner west will be choked with trucks.”
