Page 113 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 13 February 2019
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council continued their campaign for more action around the safety of students getting to school, and in 2016 Labor went to the election promising to deliver crossing supervisors. Also in 2016 the Canberra Liberals proposed flashing lights in addition to any other safety measures in place to improve school safety. Whilst our policy for flashing lights was dismissed by Labor for reasons unclear other than it was a Canberra Liberals’ idea, there was a commitment for crossing supervisors.
Of course, as we have learnt with this government, the devil is always in the detail and in the timing. We know they do not get their timing right on massive projects like light rail and hospitals, but one would have hoped that a relatively simple and straightforward policy of crossing supervisors might have been able to be delivered a little more expeditiously.
It took more than 16 months to start to deliver their election promise and then only announced it as a pilot program and only at 20 crossings. Remember, there are 134 schools in the ACT and many schools have more than one pedestrian crossing point. So to fund crossing supervisors at 20 crossings, whilst technically starting to deliver on the election commitment, hardly even covers the 73 schools that parents had identified as unsafe in the council’s survey. Adding a mere five additional supervisors this year is also a drop in the ocean. At increments of five a year it will be over two decades before all schools are covered.
The ACT Greens included improvements in road safety around schools as part of their parliamentary agreement. The little work that has been done in the more than two years since that document was signed surely must be disappointing to them. I was hoping I would get their support, but I note that there will be an amendment completely rewriting my motion. No doubt they worked on that together.
The Education Directorate’s brief to the minister on the issue lists a number of activities intended to meet the parliamentary agreement’s conditions, but the brief talks only of the top 20 schools. Another 30 or so schools have been given dedicated set-down spaces while another 10 schools have some plans in train for new car parks and additional parking regulation enforcement. In reality it is not much more than window-dressing.
In the past two weeks my team and I have been looking at numerous school crossings, pick-up and drop-off zones and the general issues surrounding traffic management around schools. In talking with parents it is obvious that the school crossing supervisors, or the lollypop people, as they are fondly referred to, are popular. Parents told us that they feel more confident about their children walking to school knowing that someone is there to ensure that they can safely cross the street.
On roads that are effectively a rat-run route, such as at Lyneham primary where we have been told there have been accidents, the supervisors force motorists to recognise that it is not only a school crossing but also that it is not an optional choice to stop or keep going. When you are confronted with a whistle-blowing person, highly visible and with a big sign walking in front of your car, it tends to focus your mind.
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