Page 805 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 6 April 2022
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Further, there is a great question regarding the insufficient consultation and action by ACT Roads in addressing concerns as expressed through community outcry. This too deserves investigation and improvement.
The Clerk having announced that the terms of the petition would be recorded in Hansard and referred to the appropriate ministers for response pursuant to standing order 100, the petition was received.
Motion to take note of petition
MR ACTING SPEAKER: Pursuant to standing order 98A, I propose the question:
That the petition so lodged be noted.
Roads—Watson—petition 8-22
MS CLAY (Ginninderra) (11.15): I would like to speak about the petition tabled today and sponsored by Minister Vassarotti. Road safety, especially around our schools, is incredibly important to me. It is one of my core focuses as ACT Greens spokesperson for transport, active travel and road safety. I would like to thank Rob and the other parents who have raised this issue and their concerns about this specific section of the road.
Rob’s petition points out that, for more than four years, the management of Nipperville Early Learning Centre in Watson, along with parents of children that attend the centre, have requested a zebra crossing to be installed on Gwynne Street, and Roads ACT have not installed that crossing. The area is also a 50-kilometre-per-hour zone. In a lot of other high-pedestrian areas, like our schools and town centres, we have made the speed limit 40 kilometres per hour.
There are many parents and community members like Rob who have concerns about road safety in their area, including whether it is safe for children and adults to walk and cross the road where they live, shop, study or work. Everyone, especially children, should be able to walk and cross the street in their suburb.
Either I or my partner ride to school every day with our daughter, and that started when she was three years old. She used to ride to day care. She was a demon down the hills, and that grin is something that I live for. It is a really great way to start our day and it helps with congestion and the climate if we keep our cars away from that busy drop-off zone. We need to make sure that we are doing that around schools and day care, in particular. We need to create a culture where walking and riding around your suburb and in surrounding areas is the normal way to get to your local services. We need to make sure that we are not forcing people to drive.
We need transport infrastructure investment that is in line with government commitments to encourage sustainable transport modes such as those which are at the top of the transport hierarchy. At the top we have walking, wheeling, rolling, riding and using public transport. Currently, so much of our road network gives priority to private cars, which sit at the bottom. But that is what we value; that is what we are
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