Page 768 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 12 March 1991
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A number of people who are concerned about this issue have contacted me and, I might add, the Labor Party. I have heard of the problem before. With our recent surveys, we are getting a number of people who believe that it is crazy, totally confusing and creates major safety problems. That was not my point. I was trying to make a more gentle statement, but those are the concerns that are coming across to me. I am just trying to bring the point up so that we can do something about it.
Ms Maher: What surveys, Dennis?
MR STEVENSON: Mr Speaker, I would just like to mention that we have been surveying recently at the Royal Canberra Show, ACT Alive and other places. While we did not ask a question directly on this matter, we did ask, "Is there anything else we have missed that you are concerned about?", and this came up fairly frequently as a concern. There are not dozens of them, but there are certainly enough around Canberra.
There are also situations where cars have actually parked on the island, let us call it. Also you can have the situation where someone driving along the street, while going around parked cars, goes onto the island, back onto the single lane, and around another parked car onto the island. That does not necessarily make for the effective flow of traffic. While I agree that this is possibly slowing them down to some degree, and that the major purpose of doing it is to create supposed safety for the children, when we look at what the children are doing with these safety islands we find a matter of some concern. I have actually had some people watch out on some of the islands to see what the kids are doing, and we find that they are walking along them like footpaths. They cross onto the island and then use it as a footpath up the centre of the road.
Ms Follett: Not safe.
MR STEVENSON: That is right. As an ex-policeman who has been involved in traffic for some time - - -
Mr Duby: Traffic of what?
MR STEVENSON: The traffic of Ministers that unfortunately have to walk around. We need to be concerned about pedestrian traffic. There are certain regulations when crossing the road. Firstly, one should cross the road not diagonally but straight across, at a 90-degree angle, and there are certain provisions concerning the distance from a crossing at which one could cross. I think experience tells us that the best way to cross the road is at marked pedestrian foot crossings. To suggest to children or anybody else that it is perfectly okay to cross anywhere they like on a road that may have some dangers associated with it is not the ideal thing. A driver approaching a
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