Draft Open Space Strategy inequitable for some shire residents

Summary

Macedon Ranges Shire Council is re-writing its Open Space Strategy but has ignored one cohort of open space users – those residents who share outside town boundary council managed roads with vehicles for exercise and lifestyle activities. The council has two options, either ignore this cohort exists and take no responsibility for their safety or recognise the cohort and take appropriate action to ensure the shared roads are managed according to Safe System principles by adopting vehicle speed limits that significantly reduce the likelihood of death or serious injury. To achieve this council must seek the co-operation of Transport & Planning Victoria to introduce lower speed limits than the current historic posted 80km/h and default 100km/h – Patrick Francis

According to Draft Open Space Strategy on page 10 “the Strategy applies to the whole of Macedon Ranges; however, its focus is on the areas of change such as townships like Gisborne, Kyneton, Romsey and Riddells Creek.” It acknowledges community needs are changing because “…new housing typically has smaller lot sizes and higher site coverage, with less space for outdoor activities”.

What is not explained is that new housing estates are usually located on the edges of the towns where there are short distances to shire managed access and collector roads.  So for the new residents with less space for outdoor activities access and collector roads especially those with attractive nature features on verges and within adjacent farm land have become open spaces for exercise, dog walking, bike riding and simply communing with nature, figure 1.

Figure 1: Access and collector roads outside town boundaries are existing use open spaces. Photos show local Romsey residents using the roads as open space for exercise and connection to nature. Inset left: the roads these residents are using for open space are not included on the Draft Strategy’s Romsey map which only considers open space within the town boundary.

The Draft Open Space Strategy 2025 – 2035 authors have chosen to ignore this significant and important open space used by a large and increasing number of Macedon Ranges Shire residents. This omission if not rectified in the final Strategy points towards a lack of equity within the Draft Open Space Strategy displayed by the shire towards some of its residents.

The irony of ignoring these roads as open space is that many residents purchasing houses in new estates do so to take advantage of the attractive natural and rural environment available to experience within walking and riding distance of their homes, figure 2A and 2B.

Figure 2A: In stark contrast to within town boundary open space some Macedon Ranges Shire managed roads outside towns have natural bushland and biodiversity close to homes which attract residents as venues for undertaking exercise or simply appreciating its beauty. Photos Patrick Francis

Figure 2B: Exercise is becoming an integral part of modern living and attractive local roads outside town boundaries become circuits for some residents despite inappropriate speed limits imposed by Transport & Planning Victoria. An 8.5km exercise circuit on local roads has become popular on the south western edge of Romsey. Photos: Google Earth, Patrick Francis.

Because resident are demonstrating their intentions and using local roads outside town boundaries for exercise the council’s Draft Strategy by ignoring this use as open space carries the risk of deaths and serious injuries for these residents as a result of collisions with vehicles travelling at inappropriate speeds not the speeds recommended by the Safe System philosophy and principles adopted by Council in its 2023 – 33 Mobility and Road Safety Strategy.

Figure 3: Austroads cannot be clearer about the implications of speed on driver’s field of vision, time taken to stop and likelihood of pedestrian fatality or serious injury. When a vehicle is travelling at 30km/h and hits a pedestrian, the likelihood of death or serious injury is 13%, at 65km/h that percentage increases to 73%. Source Austroads October 2025.

The authors of the Draft Open Space Strategy may argue that the open space associated with access and collector roads is not within its scope as access and collector roads are not within the shire towns boundaries “… but it recognises land that is managed by other public land managers as this has important functions in the open space network”, yet there is no mention of these roads as open spaces despite that is an existing use for them.

The same out of scope reasoning was given by the authors of the MRSC 2023 – 2032 Mobility and Road Safety Strategy. The message from the Mayor states “Macedon Ranges Council believes that keeping our community safe while interacting with the road network is paramount. With the support of its road safety partners, Council will strive to eliminate death and serious injury from its roads by adopting the philosophy and principles of the globally recognised Safe System road safety vision”.

But the Mayor goes on to state “Providing safe access to all destinations within our towns ensures we look after all community members. Moreover, our many places of natural beauty and cultural significance are extremely important to us, and we want residents and visitors to be able to see them, appreciate them, and be protected from road crashes while they do so”.

Note the reference to “within our towns” which suggests the Mobility and Road Safety Strategy is not designed to accommodate the residents like those in figure 1 who share access and collector roads outside town boundaries with vehicles.

The other important references within the Mobility and Road Safety Strategy 2023 – 2033 that should be relevant to the Open Space Strategy and why access and collector roads should be included are:

* “the adoption of the Safe System across the municipality prioritised to problems and places to reduce severe trauma significantly, and

* the adoption of the Movement and Place Framework for selecting appropriate road treatments and speed limits that match and support the surrounding land use and function”.

The Safe System is clear about traffic speed in open space where pedestrians and cyclist share roads (Austroads 2019 p4 and Austroads 2024 p2):

* “An important cornerstone of the Safe System philosophy is that the care of human life and health is considered more important than anything else”.

* “Speed management has the potential to deliver the highest injury reductions at the lowest cost when compared to other safety interventions; however, this can only be regarded as a primary treatment if reductions are achieved down to survivable levels”.

* “Pedestrians and cyclists should not be exposed to vehicle travel speeds of over 30 km/h”.

* “The Safe System philosophy … does not require crashes to occur before acting to improve high risk locations on the road network”.

* The objective of a Safe System is to create a safe transport system that recognises that road users as humans make mistakes and are physically vulnerable, and so a system is required where mistakes do not result in death or serious injury. (Austroads October 2025)

* Even if one part of the system fails (such as a driver making a mistake), then road users will still be protected thereby avoiding death or serious injury. (Austroads October 2025)

* The Safe System “….acknowledges the physiological and psychological limitations of humans and places ultimate responsibility on managers of the system to accommodate human limitations” (Austroads 2019).

* “Elected officials and senior government executives must understand the Safe System approach and Vision Zero, including required milestones, resources, and the importance of avoiding the blame on road users”. (Austroads October 2025)

The last point is particularly relevant to Macedon Ranges Shire Draft Open Space Strategy and its relationship with the Macedon Ranges Shire ‘Road Safety and Mobility Strategy 2023 – 2033’ and its adoption of the Safe System Vision Zero implementation. It seems the council doesn’t fully understand the Safe System as its Road Safety Strategy apportions blame for crashes by stating:

* Roads and Roadsides are “…forgiving of mistakes – their design should encourage appropriate road user behaviour and speeds. “

* Drivers “…adopt speed limits that suit the road’s function and level of safety; the road user understands and complies with those speed limits and drives to the conditions”.

These statements mean when residents use 80km/h and 100km/h speed limit roads outside town boundaries as open space they cannot be secure in the knowledge that vehicle drivers will adopt appropriate behaviour and speeds or drive to the conditions because human make mistakes. These residents should be confident to share the roads because the road system managers understand what the Safe System requires, accommodate human limitations, and take responsibility to ensure appropriate speed limits are in place when pedestrian and cyclist safety infrastructure is non-existent.

The reasoning behind adopting a 30km/h speed limit along open space roads shared with pedestrians and cyclists is demonstrated in Austroads 2024 ‘Guide to Road Safety Part 3: Safe Speed’: “If braking, the distance required to bring a vehicle to rest to avoid a collision is reliant on the reaction time, travelling speed of the vehicle and the condition of the pavement surface. … higher speeds result in proportionately longer stopping distances”, figure 2.

Figure 4: Drivers travelling at the 100km/h maximum legal speed on Shire managed access and collector roads used for open space activities by many residents need a 133m braking distance on a dry road and 154m braking distance on a wet road to bring a vehicle to rest and avoid a collision. The braking distance is longer on gravel roads. Photo: Moffats lane Romsey, Patrick Francis

Transport Victoria’s Speed Zoning Technical Guidelines 2021 suggest that if council included access and collector roads as part of its Open Space Strategy, Transport Victoria is more likely to consider them for a 40km/h speed limit. The Technical Guideline’s Figure 7 states “Is this a local street or network of local streets where pedestrian / cyclist safety or residential amenity needs to be enhanced? – YES – May reduce the speed limit to 40 km/h , and sub point 5 states “A 40 km/h speed limit may also be applied to local streets where residential amenity is to be prioritised by a plan that is formally adopted by a council e.g. a, Walking and Cycling Plan”.The Council’sOpen Space Strategy when formally adopted might be favourably considered as a plan.

The existing legal speed limits on access and collector roads used by residents as open space immediately outside Macedon Ranges town boundaries and shared with vehicles, are either posted 80km/h or default 100km/h. The Open Space Strategy is an opportunity for council to demonstrate to Ministers for Transport & Planning Victoria that these roads are regularly used by pedestrians and cyclists as open space and their safety is at risk because of the existing applied speed limits which are at odds with Safe System speeds for shared roads.

Changing drivers perceptions around speed limits is difficult and when implemented is actively resisted by some. Austroads (2024 p13) explains clearly why this situation has developed for access and collector roads immediately outside town boundaries before new housing developments were built and towns populations increased: “Speed limits were initially adopted with little understanding of safety in relation to crash incidence, vehicle occupant protection and vulnerable road users. A range of limits were historically fixed according to an adopted hierarchy and roads were generally designed to maintain these operating speeds with less consideration given to the benefits of adopting lower speed limits as a means of achieving lower operating speeds on the basis of safety or infrastructure cost. These practices have resulted in a legacy that is taking considerable effort to change, mainly because the population has been living with ‘high’ speed limits not aligned with injury reduction for many decades”.

But Austroads (2019) points out that despite road speed history “Community engagement and public education has a key role to play in making road users aware of speed and the speeding problem, and to understand why speed management interventions are needed”. Including the reasons for adopting Safe System Speeds for open space shared access and collector roads outside town boundaries in the Open Space Strategy provides council with an avenue for making all drivers aware of the speeding problem and why speed management interventions are needed. This should help in avoiding anti-social behaviour such as speed sign vandalism once Safe System Speed are legalised.

Given the Draft Open Space Strategy ignores access and collector roads as open spaces which many residents use and the same users are ignored by the Mobility and Road Safety Strategy 2023 to 2032, it is not unreasonable to suggest that as currently written the draft strategy is inequitable when it comes to meeting all community members open space requirements and protecting them from road crashes when they use these open spaces.

Figure 5: Macedon Ranges Shire Council has adopted the Safe System but does not recognise the Safe System speeds in its Draft Open Space Strategy or its Mobility and Road Safety Strategy, leaving pedestrians who share outside town boundary local roads with posted 80km/h and default 100km/h speed limits at high risk of serious injury and death in the event of a collision. Sources: Macedon Ranges Shire Council, Austroads 2014 and photo Patrick Francis.

The authors of the Draft Open Space Strategy have excluded an important open space across the shire, and in doing so excluded the Safe System principles adopted by the Shire to minimise the potential for pedestrian and cyclist casualties along shire managed access and collector roads used by residents as open space.

Recommendations:

1: The scope of Open Spaces within the context of the Strategy is widened to include Shire managed access and collector roads outside all Macedon Ranges Shire town boundaries currently being shared with vehicles by residents as open space.

2: The safety of residents using access and collector roads outside town boundaries as open spaces be catered for by making an application to the Minister for Transport Victoria to allow Council to implement the recommended Safe System Speed of 30km/h or the 2021 Speed Zoning Technical Guidelines of 40km/h on Shire managed access and collector roads used as Open Space. Refer the minister to Speed Zoning Technical Guidelines edition 2 December 2021 figure 5 ‘Process for commencing speed limit setting for outside built-up areas’ which states “Diagram continues in Figure 7. Refer to Figure 7 if there is regular pedestrian / cyclist activity on the road and the associated lower speed limit options” and Figure 7 which states “Adopt the speed limit from Figure 5 unless situations below apply:

* Is there a high level of pedestrian activity on the road? – YES – May reduce the speed limit where the activity occurs to 40 km/h during high risk periods for pedestrians.

* Is this a location where pedestrians share the road space? – YES – May implement a 10 or 20 km/h shared zone.

* Is this a local street or network of local streets where pedestrian / cyclist safety or residential amenity needs to be enhanced? – YES – May reduce the speed limit to 40 km/h 5

(5: A 40 km/h speed limit may also be applied to local streets where residential amenity is to be prioritised by a plan that is formally adopted by a council e.g. a, Walking and Cycling Plan).

References:

Transport Victoria:  ‘Speed Zoning Technical Guidelines 2021’

MRSC ‘2023 – 2032 Mobility and Road Safety Strategy’

MRSC 2025 ‘Draft Open Space Strategy’

Austroads October 2025 ‘Best Practice Guidance in Road Safety Management and Leadership: Proven Initiatives and Case Study Examples’

Austroads 2025 Research Report ‘Facilitating Speed Management Change: Example Case Studies from Australia and New Zealand’

Austroads 2024 ‘Guide to Road Safety Part 3: Safe Speed’

Austroads 2019 ‘Road Risk Assessment, Case Studies and Engagement Guidance for Speed Management’

Infographic 1: Open Space Strategy fails to include within its scope access and collector roads managed by council which have posted and default speed limits which contradict the Safe System principles council has adopted in its 2023 -2033 Mobility and Road Safety Strategy. Source Patrick Francis

Infographic 2: If the Open Space Strategy adopted by council widened its scope and included access and collector roads currently used by residents for exercise and nature viewing Transport Victoria would be more likely to permit these roads speed limit being reduced to 40km/h if not 30km/h as recommended by the Safe System. Source: Patrick Francis.

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