Page 1871 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 2 May 2012
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clear indication to the government that we want traffic calming measures there so that we can avoid accidents in the future. If that is indeed the case, it will be a great win for people in the local area.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (5.34): I thank Mr Seselja for raising the issue. The Greens are happy to support this motion with some amendments which I will speak to and move later. Traffic calming measures are something that the Greens strongly support, as traffic calming means designing roads to reduce the speeds and the volumes of traffic in the area. We support traffic calming as a way to improve the safety of residents, to protect and encourage pedestrians and cyclists and to make streets more amenable to neighbourhood activities.
This is critical to having healthy Canberra neighbourhoods. Our neighbourhoods are not just freeways for cars to speed through. They are the places where people live, children play or walk to school, people ride bikes and people enjoy the amenity.
There are a range of options available for traffic calming. These include reduced speed limits, limiting traffic access, warning signs, raised pedestrian crossings, pavement treatments, chicanes or narrower lanes. There are examples that are less known in Australia but are well used in other parts of the world, such as very low speed residential streets with mixed vehicle and pedestrian traffic. These are sometimes called living streets, because they prioritise the needs of pedestrians, playing children, cyclists and low-speed motor vehicles.
I support Mr Seselja in raising the issue of Coyne Street in Fadden and Macarthur. I am aware of the problems on this street. I know, as Mr Seselja has already referred to, that residents are reporting a large number of crashes on the street, and other incidents. And I know, obviously, that this was the subject of an article in the Chronicle recently.
I also know that road safety is something the government takes very seriously. We have recently heard about the good safety record of the ACT in having a year without a road fatality, although tragically that ended over the weekend with the death of a young motorcyclist.
We would like to point out that although the ACT did have a low fatality rate last year it also had its highest number of vehicle crashes for the last 10 years. This puts the fatality figure into some perspective. It is clear that with so many vehicle crashes we are very fortunate that there were not more deaths on our roads.
We support the construction of appropriate traffic calming measures at the dangerous part of Coyne Street, to improve safety and to avoid potential future tragedy.
I believe that the need for priority traffic calming measures in the Tuggeranong region is not just limited to Coyne Street. There is a nearby location, Clift Crescent in Richardson, where there have been previous fatalities and where there still appears to be a large amount of speeding and dangerous driving.
In March 2009 there was the tragic death of two people on Clift Crescent. In April 2009 I wrote to the then transport minister and was informed that Roads ACT were
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