Page 622 - Week 02 - Thursday, 16 February 2017
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
I seek leave to make a statement in relation to the paper.
Leave granted.
MR RATTENBURY: The ACT road safety action plan 2016-2020 includes a requirement for me to table an annual road safety report card in the ACT Legislative Assembly. Today I am tabling that annual report card. This year’s report card provides an update on the government’s road safety commitments, including the ACT road safety action plan 2016–2020 and the agreed recommendations arising from the 2014 Legislative Assembly inquiry into vulnerable road users.
It also includes a summary of the government’s key road safety achievements over the past 12 months. In relation to the implementation status of the government’s road safety commitments, the report card includes four appendices at the back of the document showing the current status of each commitment. I am pleased to inform the Assembly that more than half of these commitments, or 47 of 93, have been completed or implemented as ongoing programs and 31 commitments are either well advanced in their delivery or have commenced and are progressing well.
Thirteen items are yet to commence but we have a plan to ensure that these commitments are progressed over the next four years. Some commitments are very close to completion. Next month I will be opening the much anticipated Learn to Ride Centre at Lake Tuggeranong and shortly after that I will release an ACT road safety education strategy.
Also in 2017, work will start on a trial of chevron road markings to educate drivers about safe following distances. Chevrons are a series of inverted Vs. They indicate that a safe following distance is achieved if the driver can see a minimum number of chevrons between their vehicle and the vehicle in front. Community consultation will also be undertaken on options for reforming the ACT’s graduated driver licensing model for learner and provisional drivers. We are ahead of schedule with another four years to go under the current ACT road safety strategy.
The government’s key achievements over the past 12 months include the active streets pilot network, National Road Safety Week, the new driver competency relating to vulnerable road users, and legislative reforms giving police enhanced investigative powers and stiff penalties as an alternative to undertaking a high risk pursuit where a driver fails to stop for police.
The active streets pilot included a range of infrastructure improvements to make the environment around schools safer and easier for students to walk and cycle. The infrastructure improvements include the installation of dragon’s teeth road markings, 30-kilometre an hour speed limits, improvements to path connectivity, and improvements to part way drop off areas such as playing fields which are within a short walking distance of the school. The active streets pilot locations were Macquarie, Macgregor, Latham and Mount Rogers primary schools.
The active streets concept is all about making our school environments feel safer by
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video