Maribyrnong council is backing calls for an independent health study into the effects of truck traffic on residents.
The council’s Truck Action Advocacy Plan, presented at its city
development special meeting last night, also pushes for filters on
trucks as well as more speed cameras and school-time curfews along busy
truck routes.
The draft plan notes that despite growth in truck traffic, there
are unlikely to be any major infrastructure improvements in Melbourne’s
west in the next seven years.
The council will undertake an origin-destination study of trucks
running through Yarraville and Footscray, push VicRoads to review the
feasibility of extending curfew hours on Saturday mornings and school
peak times on Somerville Road in Yarraville, and support an independent
health study into the effects of long-term exposure to noise and diesel
particulates.
The plan highlights the “unreasonable, unsafe and unhealthy burden
from the impact of trucks” on Yarraville and Footscray residents,
noting that “rapidly increasing truck traffic going through
Maribyrnong’s residential areas has reached unsustainable levels”.
Newly released VicRoads data shows a decline in the 12 months to
March in the number of trucks on traditionally choked streets including
Francis Street in Yarraville.
VicRoads acting regional director Damien Afxentis said the total
number of trucks using Francis Street was down by about 15 per cent.
“We had previously seen an increase of trucks using Moore Street,
which doesn’t have a curfew, but again we have seen total truck numbers
slashed by almost a fifth since last year and a reduction of 7 per cent
at night,” Mr Afxentis said.
Maribyrnong Truck Action Group president Samantha McArthur said
the drop in truck traffic might reflect the work of the community
pushing for trucks to consider alternative routes as well as local roads
reaching saturation point.
“You just can’t move along some of these streets at times,” she said.
Greens MP Colleen Hartland said results of EPA air quality and noise testing remained cause for alarm.
“Both the state government and the EPA have been well aware of
this problem for more than a decade and it gets worse every year,” she
said.
Ms Hartland said diesel exhaust had been shown to cause cancer and
affect respiratory health in children, yet thousands of trucks
continued to drive past schools every day.
The Roads Minister did not respond to requests for comment.
