Community
7 August, 2024
Thousands have their say on state roads
THE Princess Highway between Colac and Stonyford was the second worst rated road in the south west region in the recent RACV Road Safety Survey.
The results, released last week, also included the Princes Highway between Warrnambool to Portland.
More than 7000 Victorians provided data on the safety of regional roads across the state.
Potholes and poor road condition were the top issues identified, with an overwhelming 64 per cent of participants identifying these as the primary safety issue; up from 46 per cent in 2021.
Overall, 14 per cent of participants supported a ‘lower or more appropriate speed limit’ as a measure to improve road safety.
However, the figure rose to 56 per cent on the top 12 worst roads.
RACV will use the survey data to encourage the state government and local councils to make commitments which deliver safer regional roads.
RACV head of policy James Williams said the data from the survey indicated the condition of regional roads has become a major safety concern for Victorians.
“Over 7000 Victorians have provided us with data from the survey indicated that the condition of regional roads has become a major safety concern for Victorians,” he said.
“As a safety advocate, it’s important that RACV closely examines what Victorians think are the factors contributing to unsafe road conditions, so we can provide that information to all levels of government and encourage action.
“The number of responses received is a strong indicator that Victorians are concerned about safety on regional roads and are calling for urgent improvement.”
Mr Williams said 60 per cent of survey respondents think improving the road surfaces should be the priority road safety solution.
“While in 2021, dangerous driver behaviour was the biggest safety concern on regional roads, this year poor road conditions received more than double the number of responses as dangerous driver behaviour,” he said.
The survey used an online interactive map which showed high-speed roads with large concentrations of crashes causing death or serious injury in regional Victoria.
The map highlighted roads with speed limits of 80km per hour or higher where there have been fatal or serious crashes for the five-year period between 2018 and 2023.
Participants provided feedback by clicking on one of the highlighted roads and filling out a survey.
Participants were also able to nominate another road in regional Victoria that they felt posed a risk to drivers.
The number of responses to the 2024 My Country Road survey increased by more than 75 per cent from the 4000 responses to the 2021 survey.