News / Road Safety
MP backs 40kmh in Melville Road
Boost for campaign to reduce speed limit
Mark Phillips
Updated: September 1, 2024
PASCOE Vale MP Anthony Cianflone, whose seat takes in part of Brunswick West, has backed a push to reduce speed limits in a section of Melville Road.
Cianflone said he would support a 40kmh speed limit being introduced between Moreland Road and Victoria Street to make the road safer for students at two nearby primary schools.
But he said a major hurdle to overcome would be to convince the Department of Transport that school speed zones need to be extended beyond the immediate vicinity of schools. Cianflone has also indicated he would be open to a reduced speed limit for the full Melville Road corridor.
Melville Road is the only north-south link between Dawson Street and Bell Street that currently has an uninterrupted 60kmh speed limit, and is heavily used by motorists seeking to avoid CityLink tolls. It is also part of the #58 tram route.
It is part of a road network that also includes Grantham Road where one-in-eight of Merri-bek’s pedestrian injuries take place. Melville Road forms the border of the Pascoe Vale and Brunswick electorates.
Last year, an elderly man was killed when he was struck by a car crossing Melville Road at Hope Street, and earlier this year a female drive was seriously injured in a two-car collision at the Albion Street intersection.
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Many students attending Brunswick North West Primary and St Joseph’s School must cross Melville Road each day to and from school.
“For St Joseph’s families, the biggest topic of conversation is road safety for families along Melville Road,” Cianflone said.
“I am advocating for [40kmh] school speed zoning for families that access St Joseph’s and Brunswick North West in that stretch from Moreland Road to Victoria Street.”
The speed limit would operate during school drop off and pick up times.
St Joseph’s Principal Matthew Davey confirmed he had recently spoken to Cianflone about lowering the speed limit in a section of Melville Road, and the school was preparing to officially request a review of road safety in the area.
“There have been two fatalities on Melville Road in recent years, one approximately 50 metres from the school,” he said in an email.
“Currently there is no speed restriction at all on the section of Melville Road near our school, meaning traffic is able to travel at 60kmh at all times of the day, including the morning and afternoon peak times when many children are walking, riding, scooting to and from school. We are therefore of the opinion that Melville Road presents as dangerous to students travelling along or across Melville Road.”
Andrea Bunting from Walk On Merri-bek said any reduction of speed limits was welcome, but a 40kmh school zone would have little impact in making Melville Road safer for pedestrians.
Walk on Merri-bek is calling for the entire #58 tram route to be reduced to 50kmh at all times, with 40kmh near shopping centres.
“There definitely ought to be a school zone, but the whole road should not be 60kmh,” she said.
“There’s no other road up to Bell Street which is 60km. It’s a total anomaly. The other issue is the intersections; people are getting hit when vehicles are turning.”
(In an email to Brunswick Voice subsequent to the initial publication of this article on August 31, Cianflone said he would also support a 50kmh speed limit along the entire length of Melville Road to Bell Street.)
Read more:
Two deaths at intersection spark calls for new safety measures
Earlier this year, Cianflone was a member of a Victorian Parliament committee inquiry into road safety that was critical of the restrictions that limit the designation of 40kmh speed zones.
It said councils should be given greater flexibility to lower speed limits in areas with high volumes of vulnerable road users to keep pedestrians, bike riders and school children safe.
Cianflone said he had personal experience as an MP of how difficult it can be to have school speed zoning introduced outside the immediate vicinity of a school.
“Coburg High were campaigning for a long time to introduce 40km on Bell street out the front of the school but the Department of Transport said because the school is not on Bell Street itself, they couldn’t support the introduction of a 40 km zone.
“The committee recommended the department look at school zoning and speed zoning from a catchment point of view about how students go broadly to and from school in the neighborhood and not just starting where the school is located.”
Cianflone said he was pleased that the state government had recently allocated $217,000 to upgrading pedestrian crossings where Melville Road and Dawson Street meet, although that area is technically not in his electorate.
He said he knew the intersection well as he used to pass through it most days when he was a teenager to go to school or to soccer training.
“It’s a very hazardous crossing,” he said.
The funding will be used to install a “wombat crossing”, a slightly raised zebra crossing that forces motor vehicles to slow down, on the southern side of Dawson Street.
This story was updated on September 1 to correct an error made during editing which omitted the word ‘West’ from Brunswick North West Primary School. Anthony Cianflone has also clarified that he supports a 40kmh speed limit during school drop off and pick up times between Moreland Road (not Albion Street) and Victoria Street.
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