Safe Local Roads and Street
Project 7: Venus Bay Area
Why this project?
Venus Bay is a low population coastal town, which is subject to big increases in visitors and traffic during holiday periods. Despite its low population, Venus Bay is quite geographically large – Lees Road from Jupiter Boulevard to its end is over 9 kilometres long. With many properties in Venus Bay carefully nestled into the environment, the road environment often doesn’t give the impression of driving in a built-up area, which can lead drivers to naturally take higher speeds. In July 2025, Council received a petition from Venus Bay residents containing 339 signatures, requesting that speed treatments be developed in Venus Bay to address observations of high vehicle speeds. Council is taking the opportunity through this Program to respond to the community, and provide a safer road environment for its residents and visitors.
How does it work?
The project will be distributing road cushions through Lees Road and Canterbury Road, through all three estates in Venus Bay, as well as providing gateway treatments at either end of the “Mad Mile”, to reinforce to drivers that they are entering residential areas. The cushions are spread out through these roads at a distance targeting a comfortable typical speed of 50km/h between treatments, in line with the posted speed limits. The cushions are designed to prevent unintended speeding above the limit, not to cause normal traffic to slow excessively.
Will these treatments affect emergency vehicles/caravans/boats?
The road cushions are designed at a width that vehicles with wider wheel spacing on their axles, typical of emergency vehicles or trailers, will be able to line them up and be minimally affected.
Venus Bay enjoys dark skies at night, will there be new streetlights?
Physical road treatments typically require lighting so that they don’t take drivers by surprise at night. The project intends to minimise the impact of lighting by using existing lighting where available, and otherwise using the existing overhead power pole network to provide new lights with the lowest possible wattage, warm and soft colour temperature lights. Council is currently seeking to use luminaires that are certified by DarkSky.org, and is investigating the potential to use high-technology features which could include passive dimming when users are not nearby.
What are the benefits?
Encouraging drivers to travel at the speed limit in Venus Bay will have safety benefits for all users. Pedestrians and other active transport users often use the roads and roadsides to travel within Venus Bay when getting around. Encouraging safer speeds in Venus Bay will also provide benefits to the wildlife that call it home.