Thursday, 6 March 2025

 Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (14:44): (1033) My constituency question is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. How can the Department of Transport and Planning work to help make the Sydney Road and Bakers Road intersection in North Coburg safer? The Sydney Road and Bakers Road intersection facilitates thousands of freight motor vehicle commuter movements every day, including high volumes of vulnerable road user movements, especially by pedestrians and Mercy College students. However, the intersection is also one of the most dangerous and hazardous across Merri-bek, especially for pedestrians, as conveyed by Walk on Merri-bek. Its road crash database shows 10 pedestrian casualties between 2012 and 2024, two fatalities, five serious injuries requiring admission to hospital and three other injuries. Seniors are overwhelmingly over-represented in the stats, and there are far too many accidents and close calls too often. I have been approached by many residents calling for measures to fix the intersection, including Donna Cully of O’Gorman’s window furnishings, a business that has been on the intersection there since the 1950s. I have written to the minister to convey a number of local upgrade options, including the urgent repair or replacement of the damaged Armco road safety barrier, extending the Mercy College speed zone, a 50-kilometre reduced speed standard and other measures too.