Concerns about high speeds on our roads are regularly raised by the community, who seek safer streets and better neighbourhoods. While collisions can happen anywhere, lower speed limits reduce the likelihood and severity of crashes by giving drivers more time to react, improving safety for all street users.

Initial investigations by Council staff found that implementing a City-wide 40 km/h speed limit would be complex and resource intensive. To address this, the Council endorsed a staged approach, allowing for careful consideration and implementation of 40 km/h limits in different precincts across the City.

The key findings and outcomes of these initial investigations identified that:

• Lowering urban speed limits is a direct outcome of 'The Safe System Approach' which was adopted in Australia in 2011. The Safe System Approach has four main pillars that are Safe Roads, Safe Speeds, Safe Vehicles and Safe People and is mandated in the National Road Safety Strategy and the South Australian Road Safety Strategy – Toward Zero Together.

• Traffic speed across the City’s road network is higher than 40 km/h and therefore is not aligned with the Safe System Approach for minimising conflict with pedestrians and cyclists.

• The implementation of 40km/h signs in appropriate streets results in widespread minor speed reduction, indicating that it is a successful and low-cost intervention that changes motorist behaviour and improves safety.

• There has been 160 crashes involving vulnerable users (cyclists and pedestrians) within the Council’s road network over the past five years (as at 2021) and a reduced speed limit to 40km/h represents an opportunity to significantly reduce the number of crashes over time.

• The Department of Infrastructure & Transport (the Department) supports 40km/h speed-limited areas to help create a speed environment appropriate to residential streets and in precincts where existing speeds are not overly high.

Following community support and approval from the State Government, a 40 km/h speed limit has been introduced in Stepney, Maylands, Evandale, Norwood and Kent Town.

In 2022 and 2023, the Council consulted with the community to implement a 40 km/h speed limit in Hackney, College Park, St Peters, Joslin, Royston Park, Marden, St Morris, Glynde, Firle, Payneham, Payneham South and Trinity Gardens. The majority of survey respondents supported this change. On 19 November 2024, the State Government approved the 40 km/h limit, and signage will be installed from April 2025.

Future investigations into a 40 km/h speed limit for Kensington, Heathpool, Marryatville and Felixstow will begin, with Kensington and Felixstow expected in late 2025.

Lowering the speed limits can benefit the community by calming traffic and encouraging drivers travelling longer distances to use main roads instead of local streets.

A 40km/h speed limit also has the potential to:

• Improve road safety for all street users, especially people walking, riding, and using public transport.

• Prevent or reduce the likelihood and severity of crashes, fatalities and injury.

• Reduce noise on local streets.

• Slow vehicle traffic, providing more time and safer options for people to cross the street.

• Maintain the existing street environment (reduced requirement for traffic calming devices that remove on-street car parks and restrict accessibility).

• Provide more opportunities for children to ride to school, as well as create a safer environment to play outdoors.

Research has revealed that a street with a lower speed limit will experience fewer crashes, as it provides motorists with more time to react and prevent an accident. At lower speeds, the severity of accidents also decreases. A 40 km/h area gives pedestrians more time to cross the street, increasing their safety.

Yes.

Delays experienced by drivers due to a speed limit change would be minimal, and would depend on the distance covered, but in local streets, travel time is more likely to be increased by stopping or slowing at intersections, short street lengths, and on-street parking.

No. Emergency services (ambulance, fire, and police) can exceed the speed limit in the case of an emergency. As part of this consultation, the Council will engage with South Australia’s Emergency Services and inform them of the outcome.

A strategic approach to speed management is required to develop network-wide or City-wide safe streets solutions. There are a number of infrastructure and non-infrastructure methods to manage speed reduction.

The introduction of a 40 km/h area is a more equitable and cost-effective solution that can be implemented across a large area at one time and can avoid the need for restrictive traffic management devices. The streets will be monitored after the ‘settling-in’ period and traffic management devices will be considered if required.

The enforcement of a lower speed limit is performed by the South Australia Police (SAPOL), who work independently of the Council.

Changes in speed limits will only be enforced after a reasonable transition period. The Council does not enforce speed limits, nor does it earn any revenue from any SAPOL enforcement activities.