Traffic signs, line marking and parking

Surf Coast Shire is responsible for traffic signs on local roads within our municipality.

Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) is responsible for traffic signs on Freeways, Primary State Arterials and Secondary State Arterials.

Find out if a road is managed by Council, Parks Victoria or DTP at Roads and Responsible Authorities.

Direct enquiries about traffic signs to the road authority managing the road in the first instance. Should the sign be managed by another authority, your enquiry will be passed onto that authority.

Surf Coast Shire is responsible for regulatory and warning signs (for example, Stop, Give Way, rectangular signs with black and/or red text, and diamond warning signs). All signs must be installed in accordance with relevant Australian Standards with Department of Transport and Planning guidelines.

Sharing the Road with Wildlife

The Surf Coast Shire is fortunate to be home to many kangaroos and other wildlife, with these animals often found near many of our local roads. For this reason, Council only installs wildlife warning signs where hazardous wild animal activity is most likely to occur.

Regulatory signage is installed on roads only when strict criteria are met, this is as prescribed by the Department of Transport and Planning in order to avoid the issue of signage proliferation, something research shows can reduce the efficacy of road signage.

We consider multiple factors when deciding whether to install regulatory wildlife warning signs, these include.

• Reported requests for removal of dead animals from the road/roadside
• Consistent fresh water sources available
• Environmental elements such as dense vegetation next to the road and opposite open fields (research shows high animal traffic at these areas)
• Volumes and speed of traffic and commercial vehicles
• Advice from Council’s Environment Officers
• Continuous kangaroo activity – mobs tend to be migratory and may move around over the course of many months
• Impact to road users of installed signage

To find out how to report injured wildlife, visit the Injured Wildlife and Vehicle Collisions page

Surf Coast Shire is responsible for parking signs such as time-limited parking, eg. Disabled bays, No Stopping and No Parking signs, Taxi Zones, Bus Zones, Loading Zones, etc.

Under Victorian road rules, illegal parking can be enforced without additional line marking or signage. For more information, see: VicRoads Road Rules a-to-z-of-road-rules/parking

Key rules to note include:

Motorists are not permitted to park, stop, or leave vehicles:

• Double-parked
• Within 10 meters of an intersection (except on the continuous road of a T-intersection)
• Fully or partially across a driveway, except for a maximum of 2 minutes to pick up or drop off passengers
• Where fewer than 3 meters of clear road remains for other traffic
• Next to a continuous yellow line on the edge of the road (curb).

If any of these occur, enforcement can proceed without additional signs or line markings. However, if parking complies with these requirements, officers are limited in actions they can take.

Motorists are allowed to park or leave their vehicle:

• Opposite a driveway, provided there is at least 3 meters of clear road beside their vehicle
• In any permitted street parking space, including in front of other homes or businesses

The yellow edge line restriction is legislated and enforceable under Victorian Road Rules. Council have installed signs at the entry point to all coastal towns advising that this restriction applies throughout the Surf Coast Shire.

Line of sight is a term to describe clear visibility of oncoming traffic at a road.

Surf Coast Shire is responsible for ensuring that all drivers have a clear line of sight at intersections and along a road/roadway, exits from substantial carparks and facilities, around bends in the road, at pedestrian crossings, railway crossings, etc. We investigate the (road) safety at these locations to implement possible parking restrictions.

Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) is responsible for all local road intersections that are intersections with main roads, highways and freeways.

DTP has precedence over the local roads in these circumstances. Decisions around the location of parking and no standing restrictions generally remain with Surf Coast Shire Council.

Surf Coast Shire approve and install tourist signs (white text on brown background) to give visitors direction to tourist attractions. Applicants must satisfy and complete a Department of Transport and Planning tourist sign application.

To find out more about tourist signs or how to make an application go to Need a business permit.

Surf Coast Shire approves and installs services signs (white text on blue background) to give visitors direction to community services, organisations and facilities. Applicants must satisfy and complete a Department of Transport and Planning services sign application.

To find out more about services signs or how to make an application go to Need a business permit.

Street name signs are provided to enable easy recognition of the street by all road users. To reduce sign proliferation, it is not necessary to display the name of a major street at all minor intersections. Street names with connotations such as Court, Close and Place, indicate that these roads are not through roads.

Surf Coast Shire have an ongoing line marking maintenance program for the Business Districts, Children Crossings, intersections, etc, which includes regular inspections.

Strategic focus Area 2: Intersections and Midblock safety in built up areas

Intersections and mid blocks were found in the crash analysis to exhibit a high frequency of crashes and having a high proportion of serious injuries

Linked Goals

Goal 4: improve intersection designs to improve survivability.

Surf Coast Shire is actively working towards decreasing the number of crashes occurring at intersections with a target of achieving a 20 % reduction by 2027. We aim to inspect and audit at least five sites a year.