BIGGER trucks to rumble down residential streets in Yarraville? No way!

SIGN THE PETITION NOW!

Do you think Francis Street in Yarraville can safely accommodate trucks that are 36.5 metre long (8 Toyota Corollas or 20 bicycles) and weigh 68.5 tonnes?

We understand that the freight industry has made an application to State Government to allow 36 ½ metre long B-triple High Productivity Freight Vehicles (HPFVs) and 30 metre long B-double HPFVs on Williamstown Road, Francis Street and Whitehall Street in Yarraville.

Francis Street between Williamstown Road and Hyde Street is an undivided suburban road, fronted almost exclusively by around 200 houses and apartments, as well as a park, golf course, and a community centre with a child care facility. In this short section of road, vehicles must travel through four sets of traffic lights.

The road is currently used by a mix of cars, cyclists, and pedestrians, as well as by trucks. This includes a large number of children on their way to and from school and childcare. 
 Residents are already worried about trucks not stopping at lights and fear for the safety of children. Allowing even larger trucks on this narrow street would further threaten the safety of the residents, road users and pedestrians. 
The infrastructure of Francis St is currently severely impacted by the number of heavy vehicles. Allowing even heavier trucks would further weaken the already crumbling infrastructure.

Francis St is NOT a suitable road for trucks, much less HPFVs.

These trucks belong on FREEWAYS!

This is what a B Tiple looks like: watch the video

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Sign the Petition Now!   Become an MTAG Member Today!

Yesterday the Napthine government officially scrapped the Truck Action Plan, a truck bypass that would have removed over 1 million trucks every year from residential streets in the inner west. The VicRoads project was fully planned and shovel ready. This short sighted decision is bad for truckies, bad for the freight industry and disastrous for residents.

Premier Napthine has totally abandoned us to the trucks.

Funding was announced yesterday in the State Budget for stage 1 of the East-West freeway, linking the Eastern Freeway at Hoddle Street to City Link. The state government claims this project makes the Truck Action Plan obsolete. However stage 1 will not remove one single truck from our streets!

With this decision Premier Napthine has prioritised congestion on Hoddle Street over the health of tens of thousands of residents in Melbourne’s inner west.  He has totally disregarded the huge body of evidence linking diesel exhaust with cancer.

We will be left waiting for over a decade for this project to remove its first truck from our community.

Here are the facts.

• We know that diesel exhaust causes cancer (World Health Organisation)
• We know the west has the highest levels of pollution recorded on a residential street, along with some of the highest noise recording (VicEPA) (The Age)
• We have the highest hospital admission rates in Victoria for children with respiratory ailments (Hospital admissions respiratory map)
• We know container traffic at Melbourne Port is estimated to double in the next 10 years sending even more trucks down our streets. (Melbourne Port)

Truckies and the freight industry need a 24/7 route to the port. Melbourne’s so called ‘World Class Port’ currently uses roads designed in the 1800’s to access the freeway systems. Industry needs a dedicated route to the Port that is free of curfews and away from residential areas. This will improve productivity across the industry and deliver time and fuel savings for truckies.

The completion date for the entire East West freeway, linking City Link to the Western Ring Road, is AT LEAST 15 years away. Stage 1 is due for completion in 2019, and this is dependant on Federal funding being forthcoming. The remaining stages have NO funding and NO indicative project completion dates.

We are likely to be left waiting for close to two decades OR MORE for this project to remove its first truck from our community.

The completed East West freeway will not make the need for the Westgate truck bypass. In his 2008 East-West Transport Report, Sir Rod Eddington said the Truck Action Plan was vital to removing trucks from residential streets and that the East West freeway would compliment the Westgate truck bypass – not replace it!

It is obvious our health is not of concern to Napthine. Just from an economic view this decision is also short sited. The NSW EPA estimated in 2003 that air pollution in the greater Sydney metropolitan area costs the State up to $8.4 billion annually. This includes costs for hospital admissions, doctor visits, medicine and lost productivity due to respiratory issues.

So where to now for MTAG?

The government scrapping of the truck bypass has strengthened our resolve to fight. MTAG will continue to campaign for social justice on this issue. We will carry out more public actions including road blockades, continue lobbying government and freight industry for solutions and keep alerting the public to the mounting evidence of the dangers diesel exhaust pose to our families and community.

Listen to MTAG’s Martin Wurt discussing the scrapping of the Truck Action plan with ABC’s Jon Faine. (Listen here at the 9:53 mark)

Join us in the fight, support us by becoming an MTAG member

MCC submission on air quality PDF

This is an excellent summary of the issues we face and contains strong, sensible recommendations. Hats off to MCC!

Recommendations
That the Federal Government:
1. Supports the construction of alternative truck routes (on/off ramps) to and from the Westgate Freeway, in order to remove trucks from residential streets.
2. Provide funding for reducing diesel emissions through an alternative fuels program, such as CNG and diesel/electric hybrid vehicles.
3. Fund a Clean Truck Program, in partnership with the State Government, around the Port of Melbourne terminals.
4. Introduce compliance standards for PM2.5 as a priority.
5. Introduce 8hr standards for diesel particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10).
6. Ensure State government regulatory authorities do not use the National Environment Protection Measures objectives and advisory reporting standards as levels that provide protection for human health and wellbeing.
7. Encourage changes to State planning legislation that require ‘sensitive use’ facilities to be located well away from high traffic volume transport corridors.

Compilation of TV news coverage of the MTAG Shepherds Bridge Blockade on 19 March 2013

Here’s a quick video from our action yesterday on Shepherds Bridge Footscray. Over 200 people were on the bridge adding to the pressure on the State Government to commit to building a truck bypass.  VicRoads estimates that the bypass would remove approximately 1,000,000 trucks per year off our streets.

More videos are here on MTAG’s YouTube channel including the evening News bulletins on channels 2,7,9 and 10

http://www.youtube.com/user/mtagvideos?feature=mhee

Have you been wondering why MTAG has chosen to blockade Shepherd’s Bridge this Tuesday morning?

Here’s why:

MTAG-why blockade a bridge

Enough is Enough -  Build the Truck Bypass Now

Good for Truckies     |     Good for Industry     |     Good for Residents

Credit-ABC Radio National – Image: Diesel exhaust (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Radio National’s Background Briefing has just done a radio documentary on diesel exhaust and its health implications.

The program starts in Yarraville covering the truck issue here in the inner west and then travels to Western Australia to look at diesel in our mining industry. Experts from around the world are interviewed, speaking about the latest research into cancer causing diesel exhaust.

Its alarming, very alarming , we urge you to listen.

You can find Background Briefing here:

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/2013-03-03/4540548bbg_20070204.mov

You can watch the intro video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0w5ktjN49oE

The rescheduled Deliver Us From Diesel Truck Protest is on 19 March 8:00am

We will be blocking Shepherd’s Bridge (where Footscray Rd crosses the Maribyrnong River) from 8:00 – 8:30am SHARP!

We’re holding this protest to send a clear message to the Ballieu government that we need a Truck Bypass now because:
• Diesel exhaust causes cancer (World Health Organisation)
• More than 20,000 trucks use our roads every day (VicRoads)
• We have the highest levels of diesel exhaust ever recorded on a residential street (EPA)
• Diesel exhaust impacts our children’s health (EPA)
• Maribyrnong has the highest hospital admissions for respiratory illness (VicHealth)

This protest will be a safe family friendly event held in consultation with the Vic Police.

Entertainment at the protest courtesy of the Snuff Puppets and a a funky street band featuring some of the Wests’ best musicians

Park and meet at Maribyrnong Street under the bridge

West abandoned to truck torment, an opinion piece in The Age October 10 2012

NOTHING better illustrates the western suburbs’ second-class status than the feeble efforts to control truck traffic through their neighbourhoods. Over two decades of rising congestion, noise and pollution, the Kennett, Bracks, Brumby and now Baillieu governments have all offered plans but never taken effective steps to stop trucks using residential roads as short cuts. Eastern suburbs residents would never tolerate heavy truck traffic only metres from their homes, but then, they enjoy the many benefits of living in marginal seats.
The problems created by more than 20,000 trucks using Maribyrnong City neighbourhoods each day are often dismissed with the response that anyone who settles in the area knows it is next to a busy port. That ignores the history of the problem and the severity of its impact on residents. The opening of the Western Ring Road and CityLink toll roads – to ease congestion elsewhere – and the relocation of container depots from the Docklands to allow for residential development transformed the inner west’s local roads for the worse.
In 2001, then premier Steve Bracks launched a VicRoads campaign to get trucks to use Bolte Bridge and the West Gate Freeway instead. The Environment Protection Authority had found alarming levels of diesel pollution, which causes respiratory illnesses and cancer. Curfews from 8pm to 6am took effect on Francis Street and Somerville Road, but policing has been lax. To avoid tolls, more trucks take residential short cuts, driven by a 30 per cent jump in shipping container traffic since 2006. That traffic is set to double by 2025.
In Francis Street, truck numbers have jumped from 6000 to 9000 in a decade. There is still more than one a minute during curfew, which has also pushed trucks onto other local roads. EPA monitoring found noise levels ”high enough to be of significant concern”. While elevated pollution levels are said to pose ”little risk to residents”, more children are admitted to hospital with respiratory illnesses than anywhere else in Melbourne. Some locals and their houses are cracking under the strain.
There is no relief in sight. After a decade of inaction, Labor had approved dedicated truck off-ramps providing a direct, 24-hour link between the freeway and port to cut truck numbers in residential streets by 70 per cent. The Baillieu government halted the project. Its preference, the east-west link between EastLink and CityLink, condemns inner-west residents to another decade of truck-induced despair. No neighbourhood should have to endure such disruptions, or such official indifference.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/editorial/a-new-paradigm-subverts-all-the-old-rules-20121009-27bre.html#ixzz29cZRZHOX

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/editorial/a-new-paradigm-subverts-all-the-old-rules-20121009-27bre.html#ixzz29cYyrV00

Last night I was walking home from work along Moore Street when I arrived only minutes after a container trucked rolled at the pedestrian crossing at Ballarat Road.

The container truck carrying a 40 foot container rolled on its side landing on the footpath of Moore Street and across the pedestrian crossing at the intersection when turning from Ballarat Rd. The incident occurred because the drive was trying to avoid a car that was making the same turn at the same time on his inside. The intersection has two turning lanes, but is not designed for trucks of this size, they require both lanes to complete the turn safely.

When the truck rolled, it collided with a power pole bringing down live lines over the truck and the road. The driver was trapped in the cabin for some time as live wires sparked around the truck. Once the area was made safe by emergency services the driver was freed from the truck uninjured but shaken.

When I spoke with him he said that he did not like having to drive these size trucks on residential streets, but this route ( Moore Street) is what VicRoads advise they use. Another driver at the incident said they would prefer to use the toll roads but can’t afford to pay the $25 a day pass, ( approx $750 per month). Other drivers at the scene said it was only a matter of time before someone is serious injured or killed. Especially considering that there is no industry on Moore Street, it is all residential. With over 4000 trucks movements a day its only a matter of time before there is a fatality. Trucks of this size should not be on residential streets.

Scott Adams: Less Trucks for Moore