Page 755 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 29 March 2006
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In a city that I had anything to do with designing, I would definitely attend to making streets safer for pedestrians because I understand that we ask people to walk. We are increasingly talking about designing cities where people can walk to their schools, to their shopping centres and their workplaces. Let us make sure they feel safe when walking.
The other predominant feature in our casualties last year was motorcyclists. That continues to be so. I always listen to those reports. So often I hear that one of the casualties was a person on a motorbike. Again, riding a motorbike is something that young people often tend to do. I do not want to generalise there, because we know that lots of people ride motorcycles throughout their whole lives. But again, what is it? What is going on there? One would assume that motorcyclists were very wary and rode their bikes carefully because they are very aware of their vulnerability. There is a huge role for the education of car drivers who do not look, who do not see, who think they have a greater right to a lane.
Another issue that I do not know has really been tackled is the use of mobile phones while driving. It would be a very rare trip that I would take when I would not see somebody using a mobile phone. Often, can you believe it, I have seen people, because they are a right-handed mobile phone user or a left-handed mobile phone user, crossing their arm across their chest to hold the phone to their right ear, to free up their hand to do whatever. I have seen some great contortions by drivers so that they can talk on the phone while turning corners, with one hand on the steering wheel and changing gears. That is really quite scary.
Even those of us in this Assembly who are lucky enough to have a stationary post for our mobile phone in the car know that we can get absorbed in the conversation, and that can take our attention from the road. There are some people who say that you should stop driving even when you are using the phone like that. How easy is it to pull over on ACT roads? On some roads it is not easy. We have parkways and so on that do not seem to allow that.
Mr Hargreaves: It is very easy.
DR FOSKEY: The minister argues that it is not the case. There are some known spots where you cannot move over when the phone rings. That person has to have the self-control to not answer the phone. People clearly feel quite safe using their mobile phone dangerously in the ACT and elsewhere. Perhaps this is something on which there needs to be a bit of a crackdown in the education campaign as well.
The minister challenged drivers to reduce their speed. I challenge them to as well. I do not think they are going to. People did not slow down in front of schools until we had the 40 kilometres an hour speed restrictions there. We perhaps need to be much more conscious and look at childcare centres and other facilities where children and the elderly cross the road. I have watched with agony as elderly people try to cross the road in the walk time that the green man gives them. They are still struggling across the road after the light has turned red. Again, this is about driver education and not saying, “The car must come first. I am in a car, so off I go, even though you are only halfway across the road.”
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