That’s the claim of Wodonga councillor Anna Speedie who yesterday celebrated the news that High Street will finally be reduced to a single lane each way.

She says the changes that also include angle parking will encourage shopping and trade and act as a litmus test for new roads and thoroughfares to be created as part of the makeover of old railway land in the city’s centre.

“This is a fundamental change that people will see almost immediately,” Cr Speedie said.

“I have been on this journey for a long time and there will always be doubters but everyone I have worked with recognises that this is about changing the CBD — not just High Street — changing the way it feels, people’s habits.

“At the moment it feels like traffic, it’s busy and it’s fast — it needs to be a shopping street and that what it is about to become.

“Previously High Street has been treated as an arterial road, where drivers use it to get to a destination rather than it being the destination.”

Cr Speedie said traffic would slow.

“The speed limit will remain 50km/h but research says that one-lane traffic tends to restrict speeding,” she said.

“It means it will be safer for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.

“It will also allow us to test a whole lot of stuff so that when we get to creating roads in the rest of the central business area we know what works and doesn’t work.”