Truck Protest Blockade
Less Trucks for Moore
Protest Blockade of Moore St Footscray 26 October
A new community action group has formed out of frustration about increasing truck traffic on Moore St and Buckley St Footscray.Less Trucks for Moore plans to blockade one of Melbourne’s busiest intersections for half an hour on 26th October, 8am corner of Moore and Hopkins St in cooperation with Victoria Police and VicRoads.
More info at www.lesstrucksformoore.com.au
MTAG encourages all its members to support this action.
Prior to that the group will hold a community meeting on 13th October, 7:30pm Angliss Neighbourhood House 2/11 Vipont St, Footscray
In the past year Moore St Footscray has seen a staggering 46% increase in nighttime truck traffic and an overall increase of 24.6% taking its total count to nearly 2500 trucks per day.
Truck traffic on Buckley St has also increased, and alarmingly for residents has jumped during nighttime hours by more than 30%. Buckley St now carries nearly 3000 trucks each day.
The government has announced the Westlink tunnel project but that won’t offer a solution for five to ten years and this problem is unbearable now. Residents need short term measures to give residents some relief.
Less Trucks for Moore is calling for the following measures to be implemented immediately:
- A night curfew from 7pm to 7am on Moore St and Buckley St Monday to Friday and 24 hours over the weekend
- A 50kmh speed limit for both streets
- Bans on the use of air horns and engine brakes
- The EPA to test air quality in Moore St and Buckley St
Research released by the World Health Organisation that nominates the particles in diesel pollution as among the most carcinogenic substances ever discovered, as well as research that reveals that children who live near diesel pollution hotspots are 12 times more likely to contract childhood cancers.
This protest will be a family friendly event held with the cooperation of the authorities. MTAG really encourage residents of Footscray and surrounding suburbs to come out to both the community meeting and the protest. This is a chance for families to come out and send the government a strong peaceful message that we in the western suburbs have a right to expect what other Melbournians take for granted: clean air and safe streets.
Community Meeting 13 October, 7:30pm Angliss Neighbourhood House.
2/11 Vipont St, Footscray
Moore Street Protest 26 October, 8am. Corner of Moore and Hopkins St
16 responses to "Truck Protest Blockade"
Fantastic work. Great name for the group... go get 'em!
It's great to see another group of residents getting active on the truck issue. Their list of demands is really reasonable, most suburban streets these days have 50 kmh limits, a curfew will give the residents a break from the trucks on weekends and nights and bans on use of air horns and brakes is fair enough. Martin
Very reasonable I reckon...
I have been saying for a long time now that more action and publicity is required. Also thye focus needs to shift to relocating heavy industry and freight away from the docklands. Focus on fixing the causes instead of wasting money on the effects of the problem. All of the money that is earmarked for tunnels and bridges should be made available for the relocation of industry. If the docklands are redeveloped for residential and commercial use, it would also bring in more money in terms of rates.
I think you guys are far too reasonable and considerate to make any real impact on these issues. The only way to make the government sit up and pay attension is through civil disobedience, affirmative action and public shaming. Politicians and business leaders are hard nosed and thick skinned, They have to be in order to be succesful. So we need to show them up as uncaring bad guys, to shame them in public. We need more publicity, we should enlist the help ot the greens and green peace, etc. More protests and blockades. Am I the only one who thinks like this? Does anyone have a better solution?
Please come to the Less Trucks for Moore public meeting tomorrow night (13/10) publicised on this site... I'm sure people will be interested in hearing your views. Then the come to blockade on the 26/10 also publicised here
I wonder how committed the government is to No trucks, I have just been told that this week vicroads directed cuts to enforcement officers shifts, reduce cars and staff due to budget cuts. If this is true then this entire thing is a crock and we will always have a half committed Government. We need action NOW
This supports my view, they are using smoke and mirrors. We can look forward to being rolled for years to come if we don't challenge the cause of the problem. The port mist be relocated!
The government is wasting money on tunnels etc to placate residents and trying to avoid addressing the real problem, the location of the port in a prime real-estate location. If we allow this to go ahead traffic volumes will continue to increase over time and the scale of the problem will increase and cost tax payees much more to fix in future. We have a major problem in this area with too many Luddites who complain but do nothing because they are rusted onto the labor party. It's a form of short sighted tribalism that just ensures that the government will ignore us. If we are a safe seat nobody will have any interest in our well-being. Where are the unions? They are quick to shut down businesses on health and safety grounds, but because the labor party is a career path for them, they won't challenge the government on this issue. Politics is a dirty game, but apathy is an even more dirty tactic.
Did you come to the meeting Preceptor? Are you coming to protest on the 26th? Since you are a person of action!!
With regard to the issue of the port... the port's not going anywhere. Nor should it. Most freight that comes into the port stays in metro Melbourne. Would make no sense to have it come into Hastings then be transported up to Melbourne by rail and road. Much more environmentally friendly to bring it right into centre of city then use efficient variety of means to get it to where it needs to go. Hastings will be developed too in time but not as a replacement to POM.
Every night, from my home in Francis Street, I see containers heading away from the port. It would be more environmentally friendly and cost effective if containers were loaded and unloaded away for Melbourne. I dont see any containers in the city itself, so they must all be heading away from the city. It would therefore make sense not to load and unload them near the city in the first place. Unfortunatelly, we dont seem to have any visionery or innovative politicians anymore. The current crop, both state and federal, are pretty ordinary. So I think it is unreasonable to expect much from then
I think the figure is 80% of imports stay within Melb metro (could be wrong on exact number but it's of that order). Melb metro is not 'the city' but it's within ten or twenty kilometers so how would bringing those containers into Hastings then transporting them 100 or so km to their destination then transporting them another 100 back to Hastings again be environmentally sound? But you didn't say whether you are coming to the protest to actually do something to send a message to the government that people in the west deserve clean air and safe streets. Come along and bring five friends and come and introduce yourself to the group, we need people like you who are prepared to stand up and be counted. We need people like yourself who are intolerant of apathy and committed to action. Look forward to meeting you.
To be honest guys, I wouldn't even waste your time.....this kind of thing wil never be effective enough to make changes.....
What a load of rubbish... why do you think the ramps are being built? Because of 'this kind of thing' Cynicism is so easy and lazy and such a cop out Watch and learn if you can't be bothered coming along...
it is not posible to move the port to hastings due to the amount of container traffic imported to melbourne 2000000 contaiers plus a year that is on average 5480 per day there is not enouge rail capacity to move that amount arount let alone the cost of building a new port ,rail and roads then you have to find a work force willing and able to load that amount cant be done at the moment it takes 2 days to load a 1km long train let alone one that holds 5480 containers