A community campaign to cut truck traffic in the inner-west has clawed two new curfews from VicRoads.
An overnight curfew will be in place from early next year on non-local trucks on Footscray’s Moore Street from 8pm-6am, along with new truck curfews during morning and afternoon school crossing times on Somerville Road in Yarraville.
A new 40km/h school speed zone backed by electronic speed limit signs has also come into effect on Francis Street in Yarraville, which carries about 6000 trucks a day.
Residents campaigning to get trucks off local streets have welcomed the new curfews but insist there is still a long road ahead.
Announced at Wednesday night’s third Trucks and the Inner West forum, the curfews were driven by extensive community pressure over a number of years including a series of disruptive road blockades.
VicRoads chief executive John Merritt said the issue has no easy fix but the Moore Street curfew could cut the approximately 900 trucks on the route each night by almost half.
“We are aware of the noise impacts on Moore Street and anything we can do to reduce the impact of trucks at night, we will.”
Maribyrnong mayor Grant Miles said the curfews are a good start but a number of issues remain.
Maribyrnong Truck Action group president Samantha McArthur said the school crossing curfews will improve safety for students of the three nearby schools but concerns are still held over the health impact of thousands of diesel trucks passing the schools each day.
Williamstown MP Wade Noonan described the new partial bans as “a cynical exercise” by the state government to mask the fact they have no real solution to remove trucks off local roads.
“History shows that if you place a truck ban on one road then the problem shifts to another. Will VicRoads be given additional resources to police the curfew? – I suspect not.”
He said the only real solution was to build a permanent truck bypass in the inner west from the port to the West Gate, which Labor plans to do.
Western suburbs Greens MP Colleen Hartland said it took a strong community campaign, including blockading roads, to force the government to act on school crossing truck bans.
“It shouldn’t have to be a battle to implement a simple measure to keep our kids safe.”
Ms Hartland said curfews are a great short-term remedy for some residents but risk transferring the problem.
“I don’t see the curfews delivering an overall reduction in trucks in the inner West. Only moving freight onto rail and building the Westgate Ramps truck bypass will get container trucks off our residential streets.”
The Victorian Transport Association said it accepts the new curfews in the spirit of compromise but wants the state government to provide permanent infrastructure solutions including both the West Gate Distributor and the western section of the East-West Link.
