Thursday, 18 August 2022

Crowley–Lalors–Ayres roads, Healesville

Ms McLEISH (Eildon) (17:26): (6504) My matter is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety—and he gets a lot from me. The action I seek is for the minister to ensure safety improvement works take place at the intersection of Crowley, Lalors and Ayres roads in Healesville, both for pedestrians and local traffic. The pedestrian crossing precinct on the Maroondah Highway is causing particular grief for community safety. It is quite dangerous. It is a three-way intersection. You have got Lalors and Crowley roads on one side and Ayres Road on the other, and there has been quite a lot of subdivision and development in that area, so it is actually quite busy. There is a service station with two exits, and there are two bus stops on either side of the highway. This is on a blind corner with a 60-kilometre speed limit—it is very much a blind corner—and there is no safe pedestrian crossing within 1 kilometre.

There are a steady stream of school buses picking up and dropping off students. These are local buses. We have got McKenzie’s going to Mount Lilydale, and there are Yarra Valley Grammar, Little Yarra Steiner School, Billanook and Mount Evelyn Christian School; there are quite a number of buses and children moving from one side of the road to the other. There are also a lot of elderly people, because the service station is also a convenience store and has some actually quite good hot food. A lot of the elderly people move over there in the mornings; they get their newspaper, they get their coffee. There are people walking dogs and people on pushbikes. Primary schools are fairly close by. You have kids going to Healesville Primary or St Brigid’s, either on foot or on bikes as well, and the aged care facilities close by, Aurrum and Holmwood. It is a very busy mix of pedestrians and local traffic but also a lot of tourist traffic. The community are pretty fed up with this. They have contacted VicRoads previously, and they have had a petition. They have appealed to VicRoads, and in fact they have even got a reference number, which I will quote here, which is 502364358. So VicRoads certainly have this matter tracked.

I raised this as a question on notice with the minister earlier this year, and the minister responded that they will continue to monitor this intersection and consider what further improvements could be made, including the installation of pedestrian-operated signals, as part of future works. It is really time for some action rather than just monitoring. The community members would like to see perhaps the bus stops moved to a safer spot, a speed limit reduction from 60 to 50 or maybe even 40, the installation of flashing pedestrian lights or the building of a designated pedestrian zebra crossing. They know that some of these are a little bit harder than others, but they really need a chance to get across. The traffic that actually tries to turn onto the Maroondah Highway at that point, because it is a blind turn, also have a lot of trouble. I have met with parents, I have met with students and I have met with locals who cross that road regularly, and they all want to see some action. I implore the minister to take this very seriously.