Every morning I drive from Wiangaree to Lismore (via Kyogle).  Normally this is a pleasant trip, but at the moment Lismore Council has some roadworks about 5km out of town.

I don’t normally have a problem with roadworks; roads need upgrading, we need to reduce speed for worker safety, it’s all good; but these roadworks annoy me.

The problem with these roadworks isn’t the lead into them (it’s a reasonable distance) and it isn’t that I still have to slow down when nobody is working there (they turn all the speed signs when they finish work for the day).  The problem is the speed limit and the distance of this speed limit area.

My issue with the speed limit is that they have signed the area as a 40kph zone (it is normally a 100kph zone) yet the roadworkers are not working near traffic, they are working on an area off the road.  To me the speed reduction seems excessive.  For worker safety I belive a 60kph or 80kph zone would be acceptable and would allow for better traffic flow.

My issue with the length of the speed zone is that the lead-out from the roadworks is way too long.  a one or two hundred metre lead-out would be more than satisfactory for worker safety; the 500(ish) metre lead-out that is currently in place is excessively long and again impacts traffic flow with no benefit in safety for the workers.

It is my opinion that Queensland has much better policies for roadwork speed limits.  The lead-in to roadworks has a sign advising that there are rroadworks ahead before reducing the speed limit in 20kph increments (I’m not sure about the distances between these increments); upon exiting the roadworks area the speed limit is increased back to the normal speed limit at the same point traffic in the other direction enters the 40kph zone.  To me this is much more sensible as after passing the roadworks a driver is of a negligable risk to roadworkers and it allows for free traffic flow.

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