The government should consider alternatives to speed cameras if it is serious about improving road safety, some residents on two busy Hunter roads say.
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The addition of Raymond Terrace Road, Millers Forest, and Lindesay Street, East Maitland, to the state government’s list of mobile speed camera locations has raised questions over whether the move is an attempt at revenue raising.
Millers Forest Progress Association president Selby Green, who lives on Raymond Terrace Road, said the government should instead conduct a comprehensive review of speed limits if it is serious about safety.
He said recent changes to speed limits on Raymond Terrace Road had missed the mark.
Mr Green said the 80km/h limit was too high near homes in Millers Forest and the 90km/h restriction was too low on the stretch of road outside the residential cluster.
“The bottom line is this is just about revenue raising,” he said.
“Everywhere I go that I see one of those cameras they are always sitting at the bottom of a hill.
“Speed cameras won’t really address the problem.”
Lindesay Street resident Steve Bourke, whose daughter Anna died in a road crash in 2006, suggested other options could more effectively encourage drivers to slow down.
“I do think we have a problem with the hoons of a night sometimes, but if it's not about revenue raising how about speed humps?” Mr Bourke said. “The other issue is around school start and finishing times. The whole area is bedlam.”
The new Maitland speed camera locations came into effect on August 1.
State Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison criticised the government for not widely announcing the crack-down.
“It’s appalling that the government thinks that an upload to an obscure page on a government website can count as a public announcement,” she said.
“If the government wanted to slow motorists in Maitland down then it wouldn’t announce the two new mobile speed camera locations in secret.”