IT would be an interesting exercise to get Local Government Minister Paul Toole and Roads Minister Duncan Gay down at the intersection of the Mitchell Highway and the Northern Distributor Road and ask them what they think of the new 100km/h speed limit.
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A few Orange councillors might ask the ministers, both Nationals MPs who know this road well, what is likely to happen when you have traffic, including heavy freight vehicles, coming off the bypass at 80km/h into traffic doing 100 km/h.
In addition to that merging nightmare, there is the length of the eastbound merging lane, which local trucking companies have already identified as too short.
The clincher would have to be the spectre of slow-moving or stationary traffic on the highway waiting to turn right onto the Northern Distributor with Orange-bound traffic bearing down behind it at 100km/h.
“Black spot” are two words which come to mind.
Apart from the road safety issues this decision creates, there is the underlying question of when the bureaucrats who work for Minister Gay are going to start paying some attention to the local government staff and elected councillors who should have Mr Toole in their corner.
It’s not the first time Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) has caught Orange City Council by surprise with a decision about speed limits.
The RMS might say the highway and the bypass are arterial routes under its control, but it is Orange City Council which is copping the brunt of criticism about nonsensical speed limits.
If it had not been for the council, who knows when the bypass would have been built and if it was not for the council, who knows when the floodlighting of the intersection would have been completed?
Voters assume that Mr Toole and Mr Gay see each other at cabinet meetings to talk through decisions.
Wouldn’t it be nice if their departments could do the same?