Macedon Ranges Shire Council will support a petition to reduce the speed limit of Batters Lane, Kyneton, to 80km/h.
The road’s ‘medium’ risk rating combined with high demonstrated crash rate over the 2.27km stretch, meets the criteria for change.
Batters Lane comprises two main sections with both sealed and unsealed areas of road. Both sections are currently unsigned and therefore subject to the default non-built-up area speed limit of 100km/h.
A petition with 14 signatures for lower road speeds was lodged in August and prompted new traffic counts and a technical assessment.
Council’s director of assets and operations Dominic Testoni highlighted the road’s recent crash data, in addressing councillors on the subject last month.
“While the road received a ‘medium’ risk rating, when the recent crash history is taken into account, the demonstrated casualty crash rate exceeds the threshold set out in state policy,” he said.
The Department of Transport and Planning Speed Zoning Policy requires assessments of a non-built-up local road to use the Austroads Infrastructure Risk Rating tool alongside engineering judgement and other factors, including road users, crash history, high-risk intersections and community feedback.
Available crash history includes casualty crashes in 2012, 2019, March 2021, March 2024 and May 2026.
The intersection of Batters Lane and Pipers Creek Road received funding through the Australian Government’s 2024/25 Black Spot Program, with safety improvement works completed in 2025.
Works included an electronic flashing ‘Give Way Ahead’ sign, a splitter island, improved line marking and delineation, vegetation trimming and street lighting upgrades.
However, since completion of the works, a further crash was reported at the intersection in May. It involved two vehicles and resulted in four people being taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Traffic count data was collected at two locations on Batters Lane in September and both were below 1000 vehicles per day, consistent with the traffic volume category applied in the IRR assessment. It also recorded that many drivers had lowered their speed for the environment.
The community petition, demonstrating concern for driver speed, also formed part of the council’s assessment.
The council will now seek DTP authorisation to reduce the speed limit on Batters Lane to 80km/h.