Thursday, 31 August 2023

Pascoe Vale electorate road safety

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (17:28): (340) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. The action I seek is that the minister provide an overview of what the Andrews Labor government and the Department of Transport and Planning are doing to improve road safety for transport workers, motorists, pedestrians, cyclists and vulnerable road users through Coburg. As I said in my first speech, with so many young families as well as elderly residents now living in Coburg and increasingly within Pentridge Village, East Coburg, Kodak and Newlands, improving local road safety will continue to be a priority of mine. In this respect, working to make the Murray Road corridor safer and more sustainable between Sydney Road and all the way up to Elizabeth Street will be essential.

The Murray Road corridor is an important east–west arterial road which connects the Merri-bek and Darebin communities, running along some of the most beautiful and pristine parts of my electorate, including the ever more magnificent Coburg Lake and over the Merri Creek. Murray Road also connects locals to the Batman train station and the Upfield line; the Sydney Road route 19 tram; the route 526 bus; Central Coburg and the Sydney Road shops; the Pentridge entertainment precinct; Coburg High School; the Oxygen youth hub; the Coburg outdoor swimming pool; the Coburg drive-ins – the old drive-ins; the Coburg Table Tennis Club; the Coburg Giants basketball stadium; the Harold Stevens Athletics Track and Coburg athletics; Newlands Senior Citizens Centre; Barry Beckett Children’s Centre; Newlands and East Coburg neighbourhood houses; the Coburg Hill shops; and Newlands Primary School. Along with these local destinations, Murray Road also plays a major role in facilitating freight and logistics connectivity to the Newlands Road employment and industrial precinct. However, over recent years local residents have continued to raise concerns about increasingly congested and hazardous road behaviours that are impacting and compromising the safety of local residents and vulnerable road users.

I was delighted to have recently joined the convener of the Safe Walking and Riding for Murray Road campaign Cate Hall on 23 August to walk and talk along the length of Murray Road to see firsthand the issues the locals are suggesting be considered to improve safety along Murray Road, which include safer speed limits, enhanced pedestrian crossings, increased measures and treatments, particularly for Coburg High students, better infrastructure and paths for people who ride bikes and use walkers, improved bus services and greater enforcement measures. Some of the locations along Murray Road that I inspected that would genuinely benefit from safety upgrades include along the intersections and locations of Sydney Road, Champ Street, the shared paths along Coburg Lake, Stockade Avenue, Newlands Road, outside the Coburg pool, Outlook Drive, Jackson Parade, Mehegan Avenue, Connolly Avenue and Elizabeth Street, which the member for Preston and I share.

A well-attended community meeting was held to discuss these issues on 18 June and was followed up with a community survey which has received commendable feedback, including 355 responses: 127 responses highlighted local road safety incidents, 77 per cent of respondents would walk more often if there were improvements, 72 per cent more would ride a bike, 63 per cent would be more comfortable walking or riding to school with their children and 55 per cent would take less car trips. Along with this feedback I also commend Coburg High School and Safe Walking and Riding for Murray Road for appearing at and making a submission to the road safety inquiry of the Parliament, which the member for Glen Waverley and I are on.