Page 3261 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 22 August 2012
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$600,000 in that which would be reserved for pedestrians. It would do things like triple the number of new pedestrian crossings and increase the number of 40-kilometre zones.
Forty-kilometre zones, of course, are mainly outside schools but they are also very important in terms of pedestrian safety in other locations. As a result of the Greens-Labor agreement we now have them in Gungahlin and Woden, and I would very much like to see—and I think there is some work being done on this—them extended to other areas because they have been successful there. They have been successful outside the schools—and Mr Coe’s motion implicitly acknowledges that they are successful outside shopping centres—and there are lots more places where lower speeds significantly increase the safety of a considerable number of pedestrians and, to a lesser extent, cyclists. Your chance of surviving a crash if you are run into by a car that is travelling at 50 kilometres, I think, is only half that if you are run into at 40 kilometres. As they say, speed kills. That is why we have these lower speed zones. The Greens are big supporters of them and we look forward to a further rollout of them. But we are very pleased that we are, this afternoon, debating pedestrian safety.
Looking specifically at the use of flashing lights in school zones, we think that they need to be part of a wider package of school pedestrian safety measures. We have had a lot of discussions with people over the years about school pedestrian safety and other pedestrian safety issues, and I must admit no-one has ever suggested to us that this is what we should be doing. There have been many things that have been suggested to us. As Ms Gallagher said, the suggestions usually are very site-specific, whether it is trimming a tree for better visibility, putting a new pedestrian crossing in, changing how the car park works. All of those things have been suggested to us, but not flashing lights for school zones.
Another point to be made is that $7 million is a significant amount to spend on one measure. While I have no doubt flashing lights would be a positive contribution, I have severe doubts as to their cost effectiveness in terms of the other things that can be done to increase pedestrian safety, in particular pedestrian safety at schools. It would be useful if there was a bit more information, I guess, about this policy in terms of asking the Assembly to endorse it. I am not sure how many lights will be installed at each school and what happens if there are multiple pedestrian crossings and different speed zones at the school. Some schools will have multiple road entrances. What sorts of signs will be installed?
In 2007, the Australian Road Research Board looked at a number of different flashing light systems and ranked them in terms of most to least effective. The report concluded that analysis shows the ranking can and does vary depending on criteria being used and the ranking will vary across speed zones and road environments. This backs up our concern that we should not be putting all our pedestrian safety emphasis, or money to be precise, on one issue. So we are concerned about this.
I was going to talk a bit more about costings but Ms Gallagher has talked about them at even greater length than I was planning to talk about them; so I will not repeat this.
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