30kmh Zones Introduced to NSW Speed Standard

Sydney, NSW

Updated NSW speed limit guidelines have formally included 30kmh speed zones for the first time, with the inclusion heralded by a prominent road speed advocacy group as a win for “child-friendly streets and connected communities”.

The revised NSW Speed Zone Standard was released by the NSW Government last month and includes a section on 30kmh zones, recommending them for roads with large numbers of pedestrians and low traffic levels.

The inclusion was celebrated by the founder of 30Please.org and Safe Streets to School, Lena Huda, who said: “Previously, there wasn’t even a mention of 30km/h in the guidelines.

“This is a win for all of us who have been advocating for child-friendly streets and connected communities.

“Now we have some work to do to see all these new policies coming to life on our streets.”

The new standard recommends “30kmh speed limits be applied in places with pedestrian attractors and generators such as foreshore and tourist destinations that have limited through movements of vehicles”.

“Unlike 10 km/h and 20 km/h speed zones a 30 km/h zone may have limited through movement of private motor vehicles. Movement corridors or main arterial routes should be avoided,” it states.

It says 30 km/h speed limits shall:

• Only have a single lane of travel in each direction including intersections (parking lanes are excluded from this).
• Be a self-explaining road environment using engineering treatments appropriate for a 30 kmh speed zone, to slow vehicles to that speed. Treatments include gateway traffic calming, and vertical and horizontal deflection through the treatment area. In some cases, traffic lanes may be reduced, additional pedestrian crossing facilities, additional tree planting, to differentiate between a 30 kmh zone and a 40 kmh zone.
• Have parking controls always permitted to ensure only one lane of travel in each direction is maintained.
• Ensure the crossing distance for pedestrians across a roadway is limited to two lanes of traffic (single lane of travel in each direction).