By Mikayla van Loon
Residents of Edinburgh Road Lilydale are calling on Yarra Ranges Council in the lead up to the State election to priortise advocacy for the widening of their road as traffic increases and near misses continue.
The local connector road, as classified by the council, links from Hull Road to the Swansea Road/York Road roundabout and houses Edinburgh College.
Calls to widen the road were initiated by Peter McGowan, with Malcolm Tulloch now leading the charge.
“My concern is that there’s repeated accidents or near misses on this road because the road is too narrow and the buses that travel up and down there are wider than the lanes,” Peter said.
The lanes, heading in both directions, currently stand at 2.3 metres wide, at least 0.7 metres off the Australian standard of 3-3.5 metres.
“The upshot of that is that when two buses are passing or two heavy vehicles like trucks or anything bigger than a standard car, you have to partially drive off the road and it’s unsafe,” Peter said.
Not only are the lanes tight, the road is lined on either side by drainage in rather large ditches, meaning there is often no room for cars to go without the potential of damaging their vehicle.
Malcolm said given the school traffic, houses and function centre on Edinburgh Road, he can’t understand why the council refuses to widen the road.
“With the restrictions and the road speeds they’ve put on this road it’s consistent with a connector road category one because it has got to be maximum 50 kilometres per hour and 40 going past the school…but they’re not treating it that way in terms of the road width,” he said.
Yarra Ranges Council’s Environment and Infrastructure director Bill Millard said Edinburgh Road has been classified to meet the minimum requirements for two-way traffic, with a minimum pavement width of five metres.
“The existing width of Edinburgh Road is above five metres and within the minimum acceptable limits for two- way traffic flow,” he said.
“The road is also bordered by dense vegetation in parts and private property on both sides, which means widening the road would require significant works, major vegetation removal and re-routing of drains, which is currently not feasible.
“The development of design standards for Yarra Ranges roads balance human safety, amenity and asset life, whilst at the same time protecting and enhancing the natural environment.”
Peter said from his perspective the “road space itself actually wouldn’t need to be wider” with the pavement able to take up the space that is already there.
This was seconded by fellow resident Dan McPherson who said he and his family moved from Old Hereford Road in Mount Evelyn were curbing only added to the local area.
“[Edinburgh Road] may not necessarily need to be widened but have a shoulder with a curb so all the box gutters, all the ditches are gone, it’s got drains under there and then you can just run an edge out from the curb, it could even be gravel,” he said.
“So I guess that effectively makes it wider. It’s an old area and it just needs to be kept up with the times.”
With he and his wife both driving vehicles to suit their family’s needs, Dan said his wife, should she have to pass a bus or truck, “she really struggles” and will “pretty much come to a stop.”
Mr Millard said, however, the council’s experience with widening roads has more of an effect on traffic flow, with more cars electing to use such a road.
“It’s believed that widening of the road would likely have an induced demand effect, where more traffic would be encouraged to travel along Edinburgh Road, causing further traffic problems for locals and possible safety concerns,” he said.
“In the Council’s experience wider roads encourage higher speeds.”
A traffic assessment of Edinburgh Road in November last year found that 1526 vehicles travel along Edinburgh Road each day which is under the minimum requirement of 2000 per day.
With lots of young families moving to the area, like Brad, his wife and two children, walking to the kindergarten at Edinburgh College is also a concern.
“Probably as well that school crossing thing is more of an issue. We’ve got a little fella that goes to the kindergarten. So again, from our side of the road, we can’t get across without dodging traffic,” he said.
The council has identified school crossings as a priority for the State election, with 101 schools requiring better crossings.
“Yarra Ranges Council’s Traffic Team is aware of these pressures on the current School Crossing Supervisor Program and in response to community requests will be undertaking an investigation in relation to crossing facilities on Edinburgh Road,” Mr Millard said.
From what Malcolm can understand most of the students who attend Edinburgh College are driven to school whether that be for ease or because the road does not have a crossing he could not say.
For Nathan, who only moved into the neighbourhood only three months ago, he has already experienced the dangers of driving along Edinburgh Road, not only because of the road width but because of the overhanging trees and flooding issues.
“They don’t seem to be doing anything about it or improving the drainage or the trees along it and maintaining it because if there’s a good storm we’ll have a tree down in minutes and then someone’s stuck,” he said.
While a contributing issue, Malcolm and Peter both said the drainage continues to be raised as of the highest importance but it “really shouldn’t be the issue they’re trying to make it.”
The council has committed to undertaking “road shoulder and drainage upgrade works in the near future” to “address the deep roadside table drains.”
