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Truck ban should be a trial only, says TWU
The Transport Workers Union intends to keep a close eye on the State Government's move to ban trucks from the right hand lane of Victoria's three lane highways.
The Union’s Victorian/Tasmanian Branch Secretary, Wayne Mader, said today that the first stage of the ban to operate on Geelong Road from July should be treated as a trial.
“We don’t think that the Government should commit to a full roll-out of this ban until we see how it works in practice rather than theory,” Mr. Mader said today.
“The TWU believes that truck drivers and other motorists should learn to share the roads in a responsible manner.”
“That will require an education program to teach motorists that trucks are not as easily manoeuvrable as cars and cannot stop or speed up as quickly. Too often, cars cut in front of trucks forcing them to brake, then gradually rebuild their speed,” he said.
“This holds up all the traffic travelling behind and the drivers blame the truck because they haven’t seen the bad car driving that caused the original problem.”
Mr. Mader said that the Union and the transport industry would work with the Government to monitor the operations of the ban on Geelong Road.
“If the Geelong Road ban doesn’t achieve the desired goal of improving road safety without reducing traffic flows, we will oppose any extension to other roads.”
Fairfax Community News - The Mail, March 10 2010
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