Thursday, 3 August 2023

Pascoe Vale electorate road safety

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (17:29): (280) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. The action I seek is for the minister to visit my electorate and consider the various local road and road safety issues that my constituents from across Pascoe Vale, Coburg and Brunswick West have raised with me. Since 2014 the Andrews Labor government has been taking real action to improve road, public transport, cycling and walking infrastructure across my community so that locals can get home sooner and safer, whether it be through the construction of the Metro rail tunnel, which will provide for increased capacity along the Upfield and Craigieburn lines; the removal of four dangerous level crossings via Coburg along the Upfield line at Moreland Road, Reynard Street, Munro Street and Bell Street; the world-class new Upfield active transport, cycling and walking corridor through Coburg; improving tram services along routes 1, 19 and 58, including through the introduction of low-floor accessible trams; developing a major bus review for Melbourne’s north to plan for a modern and sustainable bus network; $11.9 million to finally remove the dangerous roundabout at the corner of Gaffney Street and Sussex Street in North Coburg through the installation of traffic lights; or the introduction of safer speed limits and other road safety upgrades along Sydney Road, Nicholson Street, the Bell Street bridge, Moreland Road, Walhalla Street and Derby Street to assist vulnerable road users.

However, notwithstanding these initiatives, and as I said in my first speech, more opportunities remain to address local road safety issues that many locals have contacted me about. Some of these hotspots include the Bell Street bridge in East Coburg, which the Department of Transport and Planning recently undertook community consultation on and which local residents and Coburg High students look forward to receiving the findings and outcome of from the minister; the $350,000 we have provided to plan for and deliver a new pedestrian crossing on Gaffney Street in Pascoe Vale between Cumberland Road and Pascoe Vale station; Murray Road in Coburg, where local residents recently held a well-attended community meeting on 18 June to discuss and share growing concerns about improving safety for all commuters along this corridor; the T-intersection at Boundary Road and Derby Street, Pascoe Vale, which is becoming increasingly congested and hazardous for motorists and vulnerable road users alike; the Moreland Road and Queen Street intersection in West Coburg, which has become more hazardous also for pedestrians since the opening of the IGA Xpress; as well as the Kent Road separated bike lanes trial that had been imposed and is currently under review by Merri-bek council, which over 2000 local residents, local sporting clubs, the health clinic and many other local stakeholders have called on council to redesign and go back to the drawing board on to ensure that the road safety needs of all communities are considered.

I welcome the minister visiting these and other local road safety hotspots that have been raised with me by local constituents, which I look forward to also working on as a member of the Parliament’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee, which next week will be conducting its first community hearing in Merri-bek on Wednesday 9 August on road safety and vulnerable road users, which I encourage all local residents to attend, as the member for Kew will too.

Additionally, this Saturday 5 August I would also like to draw the minister’s attention to the Transport Workers’ Union national convoy that will be taking place and will call for national road safety reforms to protect the lives of freight drivers, couriers drivers, rideshare and gig economy workers and by extension all commuters. With almost 4000 local Merri-bek residents working in the transport and logistics industry, 4.2 per cent of the local workforce, the minister’s consideration of these matters coming locally is important.