Page 3738 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2013
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behaviour of all road users. Certainly, I know some schools have been very proactive in communicating with parents through school resources and the like about safety issues around their school zones, sometimes with great effect.
A 40-kilometre-an-hour school zone is provided on McBryde Crescent covering the frontage of the school, including the access to the car park and bus zone area. An underpass is also provided west of the school near Laurens Street. To further support the safe crossing of McBryde Crescent, a pedestrian refuge island was provided on McBryde Crescent near Bromley Street in 2008 in consultation with the school. Roads ACT is aware that McBryde Crescent experiences concentrated increases in traffic in the morning and afternoon school times. This is the situation across the ACT for all schools. Roads ACT is also aware of the recent concerns raised by the school community. As a result, and as I said earlier, Roads ACT is currently investigating the traffic conditions on McBryde Crescent in relation to traffic and pedestrian safety. It has engaged a consultant to assist with this.
The investigation has, to date, considered the schools located on McBryde Crescent, being Erindale College, St Mary MacKillop College and Trinity Christian School. I am advised by Roads ACT that a number of options have been identified specifically in relation to Trinity Christian School. One of these is a children’s crossing on McBryde Street close to the western end of Bromley Street. Another is changes to parking arrangements in the streets off McBryde Crescent to improve safety and efficiency and prevent illegal parking.
I am aware of the issues around the parking restrictions and the floodway, and these were raised in the Chronicle article as well. The issue as I understand it is informal parking being accessed off Taverner Street. There are potential alterations that could be made, such as creating an access from Taverner Street and constructing an exclusive left turning lane on McBryde Crescent to access the car park. These are all options. However, the high capital cost of these has to be considered, and some of them would actually appear to fall more into the major capital upgrade category. Roads ACT is progressing the details of all of these options.
Consultation with the school community and directly affected residents will be undertaken and traffic improvements will be implemented once the consultation is complete. In fact, the consultant that Roads ACT is using to undertake the investigation has already been in contact with Trinity school to understand their concerns and explore the various options.
I note for members that these kinds of issues, as I have touched on earlier, come up frequently for me and for Roads ACT, and they happen right across the territory from north to south. I am always happy to discuss these issues with members. As members appreciate, I am sure there is often both a level of complexity attached to some of these and also a level of prioritisation. There is a constant program of work going on in this regard.
Members might be interested to know more generally about the road safety record of the ACT in comparison to other parts of Australia, particularly in relation to traffic and pedestrian safety at schools. It is certainly a priority of mine to ensure that this
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