Wednesday, 29 May 2024

Economy and Infrastructure Committee

Inquiry into the Impact of Road Safety Behaviours on Vulnerable Road Users

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (10:32): I am very pleased to rise and speak on the Assembly’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee report on the inquiry into the impact of road safety behaviours on vulnerable road users. As I have said in my first speech to Parliament and through subsequent contributions, with many more young families and elderly residents now calling Pascoe Vale, Coburg and Brunswick West home I will remain committed to improving road safety for all local commuters, including transport and gig economy workers, people who ride bikes, pedestrians, young people, parents with prams, people with disability and mobility needs and motorcyclists, amongst the many other vulnerable road user cohorts which this inquiry very much considered. That is why I and my local community across Merri-bek were genuinely enthusiastic when the parliamentary committee sought to undertake this inquiry from March 2023 into road safety behaviours and their impacts on vulnerable users following on from the COVID-19 pandemic.

To say that we had strong feedback from across the entire state and community is an understatement. We received in the order of 300+ submissions, with some of the highest rates from any LGA coming from my Merri-bek community. We held six public hearings, including one on 9 August where I was very pleased to welcome the committee members to the Coburg town hall for a dedicated local hearing. We heard from numerous experts, local community stakeholders, advocates and residents about how we can work together to make our roads, streets and suburbs safer for all.

Across the course of the inquiry we considered a significant amount of evidence that helped us reach the 61 findings and 56 recommendations contained in the report, including finding 1, which identified that while there is a lack of published supportive data, overwhelming anecdotal evidence suggests that Victorian driver behaviour has worsened during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of increased aggression, impatience, risk-taking, inattention and rule breaking. This is sadly backed up by statewide overall road toll data, which shows that since the pandemic we have tragically experienced some of the highest numbers of road fatalities in many years. In 2023 vulnerable road users sadly accounted for 36 per cent of all lives lost on Victorian roads, and in 2022 they made up almost half, or 47 per cent, of all lives lost. The inquiry did find that restrictions placed during the COVID pandemic created new travel patterns that affected how Victorians used roads during and beyond that period, specifically through lower public transport patronage, an increased preference for people to travel by car, greater walking and bike riding participation and more delivery workers on our roads. In my community these issues were very much amplified given we are sadly home to some of the highest rates of vulnerable road user deaths, injuries, accidents, close calls and near misses, much of which was reflected in the submissions from Merri-bek council and many other stakeholders.

I would like to acknowledge those who participated throughout the hearings, including Walk On Merri-bek; the Merri-bek Bicycle User Group; Coburg High School walking and riding subcommittee; Safer Walking and Riding for Murray Road, SWARM; the Safe Access over Bell Street Bridge group; the Central Coburg traders association; the Brunswick Residents Network; the Pascoe Vale Residents Action Group; and many other stakeholders, including the Transport Workers’ Union, the TWU; the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, the RTBU; and Road Safety Education’s RYDA program, each of whom and all the others who contributed I acknowledge and I genuinely thank for their contribution and advocacy efforts.

It was this evidence that informed 56 recommendations, many of which go directly to responding to local priorities and needs, including recommendation 1, for the development of a road user hierarchy that prioritises the safety of vulnerable road users; recommendation 6, which is about reviewing the flexibility of speed zoning guidelines with the aim of decreasing suburban rat-running and reducing speeds around schools and arterial roads within activity centres; recommendation 27, which is about reviewing the locations of pedestrian crossings on arterial roads to ensure that there are regular crossings linked to public transport stops, activity centres and schools; and recommendations 22 and 21, which are about investigating opportunities for vulnerable road users to self-report minor crashes and near misses, improving the integration of Victoria’s road safety datasets and the timely publication of road safety data. Recommendations 4 and 6 went to the establishment of a vulnerable road user advisory group to contribute and help inform road safety interventions and place greater emphasis on the safety of vulnerable road users in future road and urban infrastructure design strategies – and there were numerous other recommendations which covered quite a lot of other vulnerable road user cohorts.

Of course as a government we have been investing significantly in my community to address many of these issues, including through the Coburg level crossing removal project; the Upfield active transport corridor; the $2.2 million for Gaffney Street; the investment of $1.27 million for Nicholson Street; upgrades to Sydney Road, Landells Road and Essex Street and Albion Street in Brunswick West; and many other local projects. This report will continue to help us build on that work to link to further improvements over time. In that respect I thank all the committee members for their work: the member for Bellarine, the chair; the deputy chair, the member for Shepparton; and the member for Narracan, the member for Glen Waverley, the member for Tarneit and the member for Kew. I thank the dedicated committee secretariat, including Kerryn Risely and Marianna Stylianou, and all the others on the committee who participated. It was a fantastic inquiry. I look forward to the government’s response.